Court of the Vampire Queen

Edit 9-9-22:
I didn't know originally this was a bind up of three novellas when I picked it on Netgalley. It explains why I felt like I was missing something while reading. I still don't see myself picking this one up again. I do have Neon Gods on my shelf to be read and I know that one has more plot from what other reviewers have said so I'm looking forward to reading that one in the future.

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Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for offering the book as a Read Now option. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF'd at 40%

I was wholeheartedly shocked to see Court of the Vampire Queen as a Read Now option and clicked on it so fast I was afraid to miss it. I love the cover! It's absolutely gorgeous and the synopsis gave off vibes of being my kind of book: vampires, a seductive romance, and maybe a fierce female protagonist.

Wrong.

I was duped and I am disappointed. This is my first Katee Robert book and I'm fully aware her books can have heavy steam. I was not expecting how heavy this one would be. Literally every chapter has a sex scene. I love sex scenes, I don't mind reading about it, quite frankly my dear I enjoy them, but there is no plot in this book. The characters are less than one dimension and the story starts as if we were supposed to know things before reading the book.

The inner monolog of Mina, the MC, is up there with Poppy from From Blood and Ash. The difference is FBAA at least has a plot and a reason to exist. Mina can't stop thinking about how wrong it is to be with three other vampires but does it anyway as if it's so shocking. She does this in every chapter. I'm not kidding. Her inner monologs are repetitive, eye rolling, and ridiculous. There's no connection between the reader and the characters.

I tried pushing through because Court of the Vampire Queen was one of my highly anticipated reads of the year but 40% was where I just couldn't continue... there are too many other books I'd rather journey through than this mess.

1 star (for the cover)

Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert is an exceptionally steamy reverse harem paranormal romance. Mina has desired freedom from her father’s control and mistreatment for years. She’s half human and half vampire and doesn’t fit into either world. At twenty-five, he gives her to Malachi Zion in a political move. Malachi has been starved for blood for years and their first meeting doesn’t go well. Fear, lust, and distrust start their relationship. However, Malachi’s two closest friends, Wolf and Rylan join them soon and she becomes the center of their world. Can they take down her father and get Mina the life and crown she deserves?

All four main characters are dynamic with flaws and strengths that are tested as the story unfolds. As a result, their outlooks and attitudes change and grow, which also affects the relationships between the four.

This is an extremely steamy novel with many detailed hot scenes. However, there is a plot that is woven into the story; especially in the last half of the book. While I would have liked it to be a greater part of the first half, there needed to be time for the three male vampires to get acquainted with and develop relationships with Mina and renew their friendships of old. This appears to have been originally written as three novellas that are combined into this novel. That results in some repetitive information at the beginning of Acts 2 and 3.

Katee Robert isn’t afraid to tackle controversial topics that include, but aren’t limited to, having multiple partners and considering whether or not having or keeping a child was suitable for the situation in which the four main characters found themselves involved. In addition to this, she weaves in themes of desire, attraction, facing one’s enemies, trust, love, choices, control, family relationships and complexities, power, freedom, fear, and much more.

Overall, this story is one of finding love that works for the individuals and fighting for freedom. There are moral questions, friendships, challenges, issues around relationships, and much more. The author delivers a steamy, explicit, and spicy narrative that tackles some deeper themes if one reads it in its entirety.

SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca provided a complimentary physical copy of this novel. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. The publication date is currently set for September 6, 2022.

I got this book after seeing it on booktok. I love reverse harms and adding vampires is the cherry on top. This book is amazing. I would definitely read it again.
This book is beautifully written and carefully thought out. The different vampire families, the patriarchy, ect. Plus, who doesn't love vampires?
However, I can't give this book a complete 4 stars. The reverse harem is lovely, but Malachi gets most of the attention. The other two seem to be more of background characters for the most part. Not only that, the ending was rushed it seemed and there wasn't much of a battle scene. The female lead was also mostly deemed as weak. Plus, I just don't like the entire pregnancy trope either.

Very Honest Review Time:
I only downloaded this book because of Tiktok. That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was ignoring the “trigger warning” at the beginning of the book. Was it necessary? Meh. It’s all played off as ‘love’ in the end, so I don’t find the violence that particularly violent…
But this book was…. a dumpster fire….
The only reason I finished it is because I have this horribly toxic trait that makes me think I can’t dnf a book.
Don’t read this. It’s truly a guy, on guy, on guy, on girl book. Which—if you’re into polyamory, that’s your choice and I’m not judging, but having never read anything like this…idk what I was expecting but this wasn’t it…

10/5 🌶️ (every single other page)
.5/5 🌟

Let me preface this review by saying I am a sucker for any, and every, vampire story. But when you add some good spice and a fun plot to it? **chef’s kiss** I absolutely loves this book, more than I thought I would. We follow Mina, a dhampir, who has been given to another bloodline vampire lord to procreate or die. Her father’s cruel punishment for her not having signs of powers. What happens next is something she never anticipated. This book was fast paced, had the perfect amount of spice, and impossible to put down. I cannot wait for the rest of the series, because I need more of Mina, Malachai, Wolf and Rylan!!

2.5 stars

Well...this was quite the read. I have not read the author before, but I knew enough about her. Or I thought I did. This was definitely an eye-opening read for me. I really don't even know how to rate it. Did I even like it? Not sure. I am going with two and a half stars rounded up to three stars. (Why doesn't Goodreads have half stars yet?) I think it is more of a me thing than the author. If vampire erotica is something you like to read, then this is probably a good fit for you.

Like many other reviewers on here have stated, this is more sex than plot. The opening scene is a sex scene. I thought there would be somewhat more substance, but no. There are three acts to this book as it was originally three novellas now bound together, which explains the repetition. (I didn't know this until I started reading and looked it up.)

Mina is half vampire and half human sent as a sacrifice by her father to vampire Malachi Zion to be used as his blood source and breeder. It was a case of insta-lust, too, for both of them. Then, Wolf appears, another vampire...and then Rylan. It's all MFMM erotica with little else. All insta-lust. I am not even sure what they found so appealing in Mina. But, somewhere in there, they all come up with a plan to take down her father. The third act had some more of a plot, at first, and there is a happy ending.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the gifted copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When Mina is sent to Malachi to be his food and to hopefully get pregnant by him so her father has something to hold over his head to get his compliance, she is not happy about it at all. Her father who is a vampire and powerful politically, has never shown Mina any affection. Mina is a dhamphir, meaning the offspring of her powerful vampire father and a human mother who wasn't treated any better than any other human when she was alive. She tried to get out of being sent to Malachi but she was beaten severely as punishment for defying her father. She knows that if Malachi is able to get her pregnant, her father or his people will come snatch her up, keep her prisoner until her child is born and then probably kill her since her usefulness will be done. Her child will be a pawn to keep Malachi in line which does not sit well with her or Malachi.

Malachi knows full well why her father sent Mina to him. Her father is the reason he hasn't been able to leave him home in a long while and now her father is using Mina to try and get a better hold on him but Malachi has friends that may be the key to helping he and Mina beat her father. Malachi is nothing like Mina thought he would be. While he does bite her and use her blood to nourish himself, he hasn't made a move to bed her right away and she isn't sure why. Malachi talks to her and let's her know that he understands that her father is using the both of them but he thinks if they work together they might be able to beat him.

When Wolf shows up, he just adds to the already weird relationship that Malachi and Mina are forging. Wolf makes it known to both of them that he's attracted to Mina and wouldn't mind her sharing his bed. So when yet another of Malachi's friends, Rylan shows up but isn't instantly infatuated with Mina the way Wolf and Malachi obviously are, there's a bit of a problem between the friends at first. But Rylan is older than both Malachi and Wolf and can sense something different about Mina that the others haven't realized yet. When they set out to figure out a way to break the block in Mina's mind and set her true self free, they get more than they bargained for to say the least.

Now the four of them together may have enough power to overthrow her father and take hold of the crown that she should have had to begin with as her father's heir. They face a lot of danger from her father and come face to face with a demon who seems sneaky but who also might have ulterior motives for helping them. I really liked the ending and plan on reading more from this author since I loved this book a lot. If f/m/m/m romance bothers you or very explicit sexual situations are not your thing then this might not be for you, but if you like those things then I would tell you to delve head first into this book because it was a seriously sexy read.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are so well developed. The storyline is great. It had me from page 1. I read it in a day. I can't wait to read more of her books.

Katee Robert has created another sinfully, sensual work of art! As always, her storyline is smutty perfection. Although, with this novel the plot takes a backseat to the smut. If you are sensitive to certain content, make sure you review the trigger warnings for this work.

*Minor Spoilers*
This is by far the smuttiest book I have ever read and I absolutely loved it! The smut started immediately lol! Page 3 to be exact! They just jumped right in and it did not slow down from there. Just kept adding new character to the smut, had MF, MFM, MM, then all 4 of them! My jaw was on the floor through the entire book. The story underneath all the smut was a good story too. I like how it ended, it was a nice ending still. If you like smutty dirty steamy jaw dropping books, this is for you :)