Review ~ The Warlord by Gena Showalter

The Warlord by Gena Showalter
Narrator: Max Bellmore
Length: 11 hours 53 minutes
Series: Rise of the Warlords #1
Published by HQN on April 20, 2021
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 413

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He plans to wed his virgin bride—and sacrifice her to his god. A duty he has never hesitated to to. Until now.

For centuries, Taliyah Skyhawk has prepared to become Harpy General, leader of the deadliest female army in existence. One of the requirements? Remain a virgin. But, for a chance to save her people, she must wed the fearless leader of the Astra Planeta, Alaroc Phaethon.

The time has come for Roc to sacrifice another virgin bride to his god. There has never been a woman alluring enough to tempt him from his path. No warrioress powerful enough to overcome his incredible strength. No enchantress desirable enough to make him burn beyond reason. Until now.

With the clock ticking, war between husband and wife ignites. Except Taliyah never expected the merciless king to challenge the future she once envisioned. She certainly never anticipated the thrill of their battles turning into games… The problem is, only one spouse can survive.

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Gena Showalter has taken one of my favorite species from her Lords of the Underworld series and created a spinoff featuring them. I love smart ass, strong, warrior heroines. The Harpies are chock full of that type of heroine.

Taliyah Skyhawk is a sister to the Harpies in the Lords series. She is determined to become General of the Harpies. One of the ten requirements is that you must be a virgin. Taliyah almost has all the requirements to challenge the General when the Harpy world is taken over by the Astra Planeta. The Astra Planeta are new to the world, but are incredibly strong. They are in the process of completing tasks created by the god Chaos so that the Astra may ascend. If they do not complete their tasks, then Chaos’ son Erebus wins and the Astra will have to hibernate for 500 years. Alaroc Phaethon is commander of this group of Astra and his task is to take a virgin wife for 30 days then she is to be sacrificed to complete the challenge and the Astra continue to ascend.

Harpies are a lot of fun to begin with, but to see Taliyah try to resist her attraction to Roc and at the same time devise ways to kill him was great. Roc has a terrible time resisting Taliyah, especially after he discovers what she is to him. The enemies to lovers trope was excellent between these two. The back and forth between the couple was hilarious as Harpies are definitely full of spunk and can trash talk with the best of them.

The Warlord was so much fun and I can’t wait to see how many of these Astra and Harpies come together. Harpies are not going to be easy to catch so you know the next installments will involve a lot of resistance. This is a great spinoff from the Lords, but you can start here with no problems whatsoever. The connection to the Lords is minimal so you are not going to feel lost.

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