Kristen Ashley - The Golden Dynasty

Circe Quinn goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire - and she is one of them. She soon finds out that she’s not having a wild dream, she’s living a frightening nightmare where she’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people and in short order, she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their Queen.
Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, The Horde of the nation of Korwahk and with one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start The Golden Dynasty of legend.
Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture and the small fact she’s from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there or how to get home. But facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King, then she makes friends then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

Comment: Three years later, I've finally read the second book in the Fantasyland series by author Kristen Ashley. I only remembered the premise of that other book, but going back to my post brought several things to mind, especially the fact the element I found more disappointing is one that the author uses in this one too, making me assume it's just another of her writing traits I can go without, thus why reading her books is never a priority for me.

As the series title indicates, in this fantasy series weird things happen, at first in what seems to be a random way but which is actually explained by magic. Circe goes to sleep as usual one night and when she wakes up the next day she is inside a sort of pen, along with several other women, and they are all dressed the same style. She can't understand the language the others speak, except for one other woman and she learns they are going to participate in a weird ritual, in which they will be chosen to become wives to the men who will chase them. Circe is still thinking about her situation when this happens and she isn't lucky enough to escape. Things are even worse when she is caught by the chief of the weird tribe who, apparently, has a thing for blondes. What will happen to her and will she be able to get back home?

I've only chosen to read this book because I've liked the previous one enough to want to try a second story. I've also tried books by this author of other series and one was even a DNF. Of course, I had an idea of the style and about what this story could possibly be about, but since the author's style in fantasy is, at least, palatable to me in ways her contemporaries seem to not be, I've figured this would be readable and entertaining. Well, it certainly was so, but I don't think mrs Ashley focuses enough on details that should matter and chooses others which are not that necessary, in my opinion.

Circe is a modern day woman who somehow wakes up in a world resembling an old type of tribe/society where men hunt and battle and woman stay behind. Realistically, this story should be about Circe learning to deal with this situation, trying to find a way to go back home and try her best to adapt without being manipulated... at least it's what I'd have liked to read, with the extra fantasy of her falling in love somehow. However, this is played by the author in a way where some violence and rape happen but are almost easily put aside for the sake of the adventure and the development of a romance.

This is fantasy, and I suppose I could stomach certain things in that view and because backward societies and groups, as we would say now, had different mentalities and "rules", which contemporary people cannot accept. Bearing this in mind, and the fantasy genre, and the experience I had with the previous book in the series, I've gone along with this story in a way I would not have if this had been in a different genre. The only thing is that in the first book, the female protagonist who is transported into a different world is aware of what she is doing, and Circe isn't.

It is with this thought that I kind of struggled to see her relationship with her captor/husband as a romantic one. As expected, things end up fine for them, romantically speaking - of course after some tribulations and emotional worries - but in the back of my mind remained the way they met and how their relationship begun, for which the "hero" never really apologizes, with the excuse his world is just that way. I suppose I could debate this further, but I keep saying to myself this is fantasy and there are worse unfair and illegal things happening in the world right now, in front of everyone's eyes, on TV...

The plot is quite simple for such a long book, Circe needs to adapt and learn and considering the challenges this symbolizes, of course she slowly starts to appreciate some secondary characters, some become her friends, she learns the new language and she feels she is adjusting. In my opinion, there aren't enough inner musings about her actual life and how can she go back. This is a subject that has some development as things get closer to final part of the book, and having read the other book, it wasn't surprising to discover who Circe woke up in a new world.

Of course, this meant that, the way I see it, Circe adapted a bit too easily, and her initial struggles felt like they took no time whatsoever before she started seeing things differently. Along with the "romance", I got the feeling this fantasy simply ignored too many things which would have been realistic for such a plot, even if the path were to always be the fantasy one, in the sense things were to progress into a life Circe would share with this new dimension. This is certainly a valid enough choice by the author, but I think there were ways to better expose this world. In the end, I just feel the author's style is too.... superficial for the type of situations she often uses in her books. 

I'm still thinking about reading the third installment... maybe in another few years...

Grade: 6/10