Rule of the Aurora King by. Nisha J. Tuli | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Rule of the Aurora King (#2)

Author: Nisha J. Tuli

Format: ebook (borrowed)

Pages: 400

Publication Date: 4/6/23

Categories: Romance, Fantasy, Fae, Adult

“I am not his conquest. I am not his to claim. I am my own castle.”

Freed from the golden clutches of the Sun King, Lor now finds herself in the hands of Nadir, the Aurora Prince. Convinced she’s hiding something, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make her talk. But Lor knows the value of secrets—she’s been keeping them her entire life—and she’s not letting hers go without a fight.

When Lor and Nadir team up to search for a lost item that holds the key to her past and her future, she isn’t sure if she can trust him. All she knows is she won’t fall for his promises and make the same mistakes again.

Lor also hasn’t forgotten her vow to destroy the Aurora King. As Atlas hunts her across Ouranos, Lor plots to bring down the Imperial Fae who took everything. But she soon realizes the future of the continent is about so much more than just her shattered legacy.

Content Warning: mentions of sexual assault, violence

In book one, Trial of the Sun Queen – Lor was sent from prison to a competition to be Queen, and it had lots of action and court intrigue. It had all the tropes I enjoyed. But the ending of that book was a cliffhanger and turned the story in another direction – straight towards Nadir, the fae Aurora Prince.

The thing I loved about this book was the tension between Lor and Nadir who hate each other mutually but want each other overwhelmingly and don’t know why. Plus this is a dual POV book so we get both of their thoughts. I loved their bickering because Lor is never one to back down and Nadir can’t help but edging her on. He’s that type of guy who thinks she’s hot when she’s spitting mad at him! So I wanted the steam to burn but every time they got hot, something would dampen the fire (Lor pulling away). The back and forth between them kind of drove me crazy but she had some stuff to work through mentally. Because obviously she wants him badly physically! There were some steamy scenes but these two still don’t have sex in this book, so I’m expecting book three to be filled with some good spicy scenes.

I think because book one was a competition, stakes were higher. In this one, Lor has time to process some of her trauma from the prison. She’s also trying to figure out who to trust. We learn more about the kingdom of Heart and we even get snippets of the past, which I thought would lessen my enjoyment of the story because sometimes time jumps don’t work for me, but this one was interesting since it’s about Lor’s grandmother and what happened to mess everything up in their world. Lor is in search of the Heart Crown in this book and Nadir partners up with her to try and find it because he needs her power to help defeat his evil dad.

I like the themes about family in this story. Lor and her siblings which makes you realize what she’s trying to fight for (I keep forgetting she’s the youngest of the three!). Also I love Nadir and Amya’s sibling relationship also. Put them all together and they are starting to become kind of a family.

Of course the ending is a cliffhanger and now I have to wait patiently for book three!

Tropes: one horse, pretend lover, enemies to lovers, mutual hate/longing, fated mates, possessive male fae, slow burn

Why you should read it:

frustrating, steamy slow burn – so much tension!
it’s got a lot of enjoyable fantasy tropes and the Fae
family bonds

Why you might not want to read it:

maybe wait for the last book so you can binge the whole thing

My Thoughts:

I was not disappointed in this sequel. I was all in for the crazy tension between Lor and Nadir! Those two are off the charts and the slow burn is making me a little bit impatient but at least there were a few spicy scenes to keep me hanging on. Lor is a Queen in the making who won’t back down and Nadir is a Prince who usually gets his way so we shall see what happens to them in the next book!