Carole´s Monday: King of Flesh and Bone

Monday, 3 March 2025

Carole´s Monday: King of Flesh and Bone

Author: Liv Zander

Narrator: Auri Alden, Gregory Salinas

Title: King of Flesh and Bone

Series: The Pale Court Duet #1

Genre: Fantasy, Dark Romance, Paranormal

Format: Audiobook

Published: April 21, 2022

Where I got It: Borrowed from library

Summary:

Worse than a ruthless king... is a king obsessed.

Isolation, darkness, and rotting flesh,

Surrounds me, suffocates me,

But I am the vile ruler who controls it all.

I long for warmth,

Yet, all that I touch,

Is cold.

Then, she stumbles in to my domain,

Lost and frightened,

Alone and confused.

And I terrify her even more.

She calls me the devil,

So I show her pleasure,

Like only the devil can.

I am the heat that stirs her flesh,

The longing that trembles her bone.

She begs her body to refuse,

To escape my embrace,

But I am her master,

The puppeteer of passion.

I am the King of Flesh and Bone.

Welcome to my court, little one.

King of Flesh and Bone is a full-length dark fantasy novel, and book one in The Pale Court duet. The two-part story features a ruthless man, the woman who can't escape his love, and a HEA. This world contains dark themes, violence, loss, and elements of horror some may find disturbing. What this book doesn't contain is a hero - because villains do it better.

Review:

A friend of mine recommended this to me. She said it was messed up but something I should read. So why not?

The story follows the Enosh and Ada. Ada is a mortal. She is nothing special by all accounts. She is a midwife who is now a widow and childless in a terrible world. People think she is cursed since she could never have a baby. Enosh is not just a King, but a god. His life was destroyed by the mortals he swore to protect. His job, as god, is to help the bodies of those who passed rot and become one with the Earth again. After what the mortals did to him, he won't do it anymore. Those dead are now still roaming the Earth as soulless beasts.

This was certainly dark. Lots of triggers for people so for sure be aware before reading this book.

I.....actually didn't mind this book. I'm not one for overly dark romances or Eroticas but.......I ended up liking it and put book 2 on my TBR list. Yes, some scenes bugged me a bit but...I kept on reading.

Enosh is an asshat for sure. Yes, what the mortals did to him and his family was terrible (grrr dumb humans), but man what a terrible punishment. The world is littered with (essentially) zombies. Super, duper dark for sure.

Poor, sweet Ada. I felt so bad for her especially at the end. Now I HAVE to read book two SIGHS. I need to know how things are going to get fixed. I won't spoil anything but I will say again....................................dumb humans.

The plot was limited but I feel the world was crazy detailed. I want to understand more about the other gods. We got to meet two others, I hope we learn more about the "balance" and the role of more gods in the next book.

One big issue I had was the use of modern phrases. A slip up or two doesn't bug me normally, but there were a LOT of modern phrases especially during the smex scenes. Mmm. It annoyed me. This is supposed to be a fantasy medieval world so it just didn't fit with the vibe.

The narrators did fine. I liked the girls voice. I felt like the male voice had little to do. Why even bother having him? I think he read only a few pages overall. I would've liked to hear the male voice do the male voices or something. Maybe a back and forth narration. Or more Enosh internal monologues would've been nice.

All-in-all, I'm shocked I liked this as much as I did. I couldn't stop reading! LOTS of triggers so be aware of that. Very dark, lots of smex, lots of zombies, lots of dumb humans, lots of trauma. I'll give this 3 stars.

- Favorite Character(s): Ada?

- Least Favorite Character(s): Too many to list. Humans are dumb.