The Wrath (Rise of the Warlords, #4)
Gena Showalter
New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter returns with a new book in the tantalizing Rise of the Warlords series, featuring a brutal Hell king and the irresistible beauty who upends his world. For centuries, Rathbone the Only, King of Agonies, has existed for one recovering the enchanted bones of his slain wife to bring her back to life. He’s never been closer to success. But a new enemy has risen. A band of deadly war gods who have thirty days to destroy her or suffer the consequences. With time running out, Rathbone hires a maddening harpy-oracle, unaware she has an agenda of her own. Neeka the Unwanted is a fierce warrior on a stop Rathbone and the gods. She’s seen the future if either is victorious, and it’s horrifying. She’ll do whatever proves necessary to forge a new path, even seduce the ruthless royal from his purpose. What she can’t predict? How the intense male will shatter her hard-won defenses along the way. As Rathbone battles unexpected betrayals, cunning foes and the wild temptress he craves with every fiber of his being, he knows he must hold on to a cold dream or embrace a new flame. Rise of the Warlords Book 1: The Warlord Book 2: The Immortal Book 3: The Phantom Book 4: The Wrath
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0This story is a bit different than the others in this series as it doesn’t center on the Astra and his challenge, but on the people who are attempting to stop the Astra from completing his goal. There are times we get the POV of Azra, the Astra who is attempting to bring the goddess Lore back to life. We even get Lore’s POV a time or two. But for the most part, this story is told from the POV of Rathbone (Lore’s husband when she was killed) and Neeka, a harpy who is also an oracle.
Rathbone is under the illusion that Lore is his fated mate and he must bring her back to life and protect her. Neeka knows that bringing Lore back will spell doom for the Harpy Nation as well as the Astra, and is she really Rathbone’s fated mate? Neeka has a feeling there is more to Lore than meets the eye. With everyone seeming to be working against each other as they are outwardly helping each other, it’s a tangled web. As the story progresses, Rathbone finds more and more to admire about his harpy oracle. Neeka goes from trying to hinder Rathbone’s progress to doing all she can to protect him.
The banter between Neeka and Rathbone is fun and witty. Although they start working together somewhat under duress, they are a lot alike and start to admire each other’s skills and cunning. Plus, they have great chemistry that soon cannot be denied.
Both Neeka and Rathbone have incredibly terrible parents. This has left both with deep scars that feed their insecurities. Neither trusts easily and both expect to be rejected at every turn. This, of course, means they understand each other in ways nobody else does. There are times when the way Rathbone reacts to things Neeka does breaks my heart. She gives him chance after chance and he messes up a lot. Once he gets his head on straight, these two are unstoppable.
As much as I ended up enjoying this story, it was a slow starter. Because I am familiar with this author and this series, I trusted her and kept reading. I was glued to the last half of this book, the same cannot be said for the beginning. It was interesting and important to the overall story but wasn’t quite as engaging.
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
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