Book Review: The Serpent Lord

Author: Wren Murphy
Publisher: Red Feather Press LLC

Princess Sarrah is a smart, headstrong girl who definitely does things her own way, much to the chagrin of her father the King. She is desperate to escape the shackles of finding a suitor and wants to be her own person, however fate has something else in mind for her.

Princess Sarrah is kidnapped by “The Serpent Lord” and taken to the unknown kingdom of Ro’al, and there she must face a perilous journey and learn to see things in a different point of view than she is used to.

Man, where do I begin? I really liked this book, although at first it did take me a little time to get into it. Once I got farther in the book though, I started thinking about it and reading it every opportunity I could – this is a great choice in the fantasy/romance genre!

WORLDBUILDING:

Wow. I am blown away at how well out the world is written. Every description of the places Sarrah see’s is so well thought out that it comes alive in the readers mind.

“Life danced along the banks of the rivers and through the trickle of the clear, blue streams. It even swayed in the breeze that brushed through the tall grasses of the plains to the east.”

I really appreciate how Wren Murphy writes locations, because (as someone with an overactive imagination) it makes it easy for me to put myself in the character’s place.”

CHARACTERS:

I liked the main character, although she seemed to be a bit princess-y… so yes, she was a little spoiled and her emotions seemed to be all over the place at times, but I did like her as a character. The only thing I wish is that we could have seen more of her flaws. This is a 1st person story, but I don’t think the book ever mentioned her doing something wrong, or making any real mistakes. For the book being a fantasy romance though, she is a good, strong, tough-willed woman who will make a great queen.

I enjoyed the Serpent King a lot. I expected a lot more from this character (think scary, evil, can’t believe they fell in love type dude) but was pleasantly surprised. His backstory was interesting as was his personality, and I think he was written perfectly. I would say more but I don’t want to go into spoiler territory!

STORYLINE:

The Serpent Lord had a decent storyline, although I could have had more conflict in the middle. It began to feel like the characters were just playing house, and we got to see some conflict, but I would like a lot more. I feel like when a couple get to go through trials and tribulations together, and even have to face bad stuff together, it makes their love feel more like it was built than just instantaneous.

I did really like the ending, although I was super confused (as I believe is intended) and it definitely left on a bit of a cliffhanger that had me looking through Goodreads trying to determine when the next book would be out!

All in all I’ll give this book a 4/5 stars, and recommend picking it up for a comfortable fantasy romance.

I received a copy of this book for free, and am leaving this honest review voluntarily. Thank you so much for the chance to read this book!