Book Review: The Serpent and the Wolf (Dark Inheritance Trilogy #1) by Rebecca Robinson

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Rebecca Robinson
Publisher: Saga Press
Release Date: November 19th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Perfect for fans of Raven Kennedy and Thea Guanzon, Rebecca Robinson’s thrilling romantasy debut combines high-stakes political intrigue and a steamy, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance.

All her life, Vaasa Kozár has been sharpened into a blade.

After losing her mother—her only remaining parent—to a mysterious dark magic that has since awakened within her, Vaasa is certain death looms. So is her merciless brother, who aims to eliminate Vaasa as a threat to his crown. In one last political scheme, he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in hopes that he can use her death as a rallying cry to finally invade Reid’s nation. All Vaasa has to do is die.

But she is desperate to live. Vaasa enters her new marriage with every intent to escape it, wielding the hard-won political prowess and combat abilities her late father instilled in her. But to her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, he will share his knowledge about the dark magic running through her veins—and help keep it at bay.

This proposal may be too good to refuse, yet Vaasa and Reid’s undeniable attraction threatens to break the rules of their arrangement. As her brother’s lethal machinations take form, everything is at stake: Vaasa must learn to trust her new husband, but how can she, especially when their perfect political marriage begins to feel like the real thing?

SO FUN.

This is another one of those romantasy books that I don’t look too hard into and enjoy all the more. It’s chaos but it’s also marriage of convenience and that’s my favorite so of course I read it. I loved the anger and passion between Vaasa and Reid. It feels perfectly gritty for the setting and the slow burn burns well.

There’s probably a few plot intricacies that were a bit lost. I feel a fantasy romance needs a stable plot and while spice didn’t overwhelm the plot, it was too far in the background that I would get lost occasionally between all of the politicking.

But, I’m in love with the whole romance dynamic and will absolutely be needing to get my hands on book two. The audiobook was fantastic and I’m glad I took a chance on this one.

Overall audience notes: