Ashlyn Macnamara - Destined for a King

Though she is intended for the king, Calista Thorne picks up a crossbow to defend her ancestral home, Blackbriar Keep, from a gang of landless knights. She even manages to sink a poison-tipped arrow into their commander, who survives long enough to conquer the Keep and claim Calista for his own. Now, with her father’s life at stake, Calista must nurse the brigand back to health, and the strangest thing happens: She finds herself fascinated by his tautly muscled body, and enthralled by his hotly whispered demands.
Ever since his father’s death, the fearsome warrior they call Torch has been consumed by his quest for revenge. Taking Blackbriar Keep is the first step in that plan, and—by the three gods—it won’t be the last. But after taking one look into Calista’s smoldering gray eyes, Torch discovers a passion nobler than retribution. He will fulfill his destiny and take her from the usurper king, even in his weakened state. For with Calista’s love, no man has ever felt more powerful.

Comment: I got interested in this novel because of the possibilities in romance since the protagonists would meet while being at different sides of a political move. However, the story didn't truly captivate me.

In this fantasy novel, which brings medieval vibes when it comes to the world's details and structure, Torch and his army are arriving at Blackbriar Keep, a strategist location to gain the kingdom afterwards. It also helps that in it lives Calista, the intended bride of the king but Torch wants to marry Calista himself, for he believes he will have more advantages later on. What he didn't count was on Calista wanting to defend her home and she hits him with an arrow. 

Unknowingly to them, the arrow had poison and now, to avoid an even bigger problem after Torch's army conquers her home, Calista has to nurse him back to health and because they must be close to one another, their feelings start to bring them even closer emotionally. But is there any hope for them or is Torch's quest a doomed one from the start?

At a simple glance, this does sound quite appealing. Since it is fantasy, I had hopes that the magical or paranormal aspects would make for an entertaining world building and I imagined the romance would also be balanced and special, considering they are kind of enemies at first. Sadly for me, the story was a bit boring and not as romantic as I imagined.

The world here resembles a medieval type of reality, with knights and strongholds and battles to fight and kings and similar elements we might find in an historical set in the 1400s or something. Medieval historicals aren't my preference because the roles of men and women are unbalanced and despite having to accept this as a fact, it still annoys me, a detail that doesn't seem so when it comes to historicals set in later periods, like the 19th century, where society while still unfair to women, still allowed for different things too. Nevertheless, I was ready to enjoy this anyway, but adding this style of setting to the rest wasn't enough to convince me.

In fact, the way society sees women and how they are treated in this novel was, for the most part, irritating. Then, their personalities weren't very appealing either; Calista, the protagonist, was a mix of a "know it all" and a "blind pawn", in the sense others made decisions for her but when she could do them, she didn't have all the information to make better ones but still acted as if she knew better. Since the plot with all the political conflicts was boring, I confess I wasn't always paying much attention to these details related to her. Her mother was very obnoxious and sometimes would be on one side, sometimes on another. I also disliked how they talked about sexual intimacy between them (like when Calista's mother advised and admonished her on sex with Torch). Then, there's also the castle's maids, who all seemed to be glad to be around strong men...

All the stereotypes apart, I don't think any character was really fleshed out or complex enough to add depth to their personality. There were times I felt they were all unlikable and I often thought of not continuing reading but I still hoped to see what would happen when others would recognize Torch's ruling of the castle and how would that play out with the king in power when he would found out. I suppose I hoped we would have a better plot but then, between the weird magical details and the secrets, the story started to feel confusing and less structured. When the book ended, I wasn't yet certain of where everything was standing and I don't feel there was much resolution.

The romance wasn't a good one, in my opinion. Since I've felt they had no distinctive personality nor interest, I wasn't as invested in how their relationship would be like either. First of all, the dynamics of their initial animosity weren't very appealing, because of how they deal with each other, and when they started to become closer, I've felt it was even worse because they got intimate too quickly and I don't feel emotions happened in par. Besides, someone attacks you and so quickly do you give in to that person or let yourself be seduced? And Torch had a plan which might explain why he pursued Calista so soon, but he didn't seem to be one of those heroes who is charming and natural as himself, I've felt the author had to force the relationship to look better than what it was.

At the end, the weak fantastical elements, the lack of romantic and convincing love story, the confusion of certain things, the lack of depth, all made me think of this book as one I won't have many fond memories of and I will likely won't read more in the series. I mean, this is labeled the first in a series and I saw a reference to a second book but nothing more than that. Perhaps some of the doubts I still have will be answered then, but I will not wait for them.

Grade: 3/10