ARC Review: The Warrior King (Inferno Rising, #3). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5 of 5 stars.

Meira Amon is the most reserved of the phoenixes, finding computers easier to deal with than people and their messy emotions. But she wants revenge against the Rotting King Pytheios for the murder of her parents just as much as her sisters. Offering herself as a queen for their ally, dragon shifter King Gorgon of the Black Clan, only makes sense.
Just one problem…
Samael Veles worked his lowborn ass off to become the fiercest warrior of the Black Clan. He has pledged his life to protect his king at all costs. Yet somehow, in the middle of war, he took one look at a woman in a reflection and gave up his heart. When that woman turns out to be the phoenix promised to mate his king and help bring peace to their kind, he has no choice but to accept it.
Until her fire unexpectedly destroys the king after they’ve wed. Now Samael must choose between his loyalty to his clan and protecting the queen who might be his mate from his people’s wrath, one of which will unlock a destiny no one could have ever imagined…
The Warrior King

Killer Quidditch!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💜💛💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 👤👤👤👤👤

The setting: Mount Ararat, Turkey-Black Dragons; Mount Everest, Nepal-Red Dragons; Ben Nevis, Scotland-Blue Dragons; Store Skagastølstind, Norway-Gold Dragons; The Andes, South America-Rogue Dragons; Gargoyle Castle-Hidden

The Hero(s): Samael Veles – worked hard to make it from his meager beginnings to the Captain of the royal guard of the Black Dragon Clan though he doesn’t have royal blood. The Black King Gorgon trusts him above all others.

The heroine: Meira Amon – one of the quadruplets of the last Phoenix. Both her mother and father were killed by the Red King. She has promised to mate with the Black King Gorgon who seems to be a very good person. However, at the time of mating, if the mating is not approved by the fates or one of their hearts is not in it, the flames of the Phoenix can burn the Dragon King to ashes (not totally unfair because most dragons mate with human women and the human women can similarly be burned to ashes by Dragon fire).

The Love Story: Samael first sees Meira when she is using one of her special Phoenix powers. She is able to use any mirror as a sort of two way mirror that she can see through and she is also able to turn it into a portal. She was looking in a mirror at an event that one of her sisters and her husband the Gold King were having when Samael saw her in the mirror. He shouldn’t have been able to see her but he did and immediately knew she was his fated mate. Though Phoenix’s are for mating with Royalty so he knew he could never have her.

I have been waiting for this one. I love this series. It is about Six Kings and only one can be the High King. That is the Dragon Shifter King that mates with the Phoenix. In order to become the High King, the Red King killed the Phoenix and her Mate. However, the Phoenix (and there has only ever been one at a time), had quadruplets whom she hid from the Red King. Two of her phoenix daughters have already mated to the Gold King and the Blue King in the first two books.

I have to say, I am in love with the covers of these books, but I don’t understand why the first one was red if it was about the King of the gold dragon clan and this one was green when it was about the Black clan. The second was blue, which was correct as it was about the King of the blue clan, so I guess I just wish the colors were more reminiscent of the books themselves.

The character development and story were great as well. It continued the saga of the Evil Red King trying to remain High King and rule over all the dragon shifters. He is undated and has lived far beyond his years for an undated dragon and he is rotting away. However, he has a witch that has helped him stay alive by feeding off other supernatural creatures. I like that these books are standalone within a series and even though there is an overlying story going through the books. Abigail Owens does a great job at making these so you can easily pick up the new one without having to reread the last books. You can even pick up any one and start from there, though I would read the series from the start. I loved every book.

Lastly, I loved the fight scenes with the dragons. It was like a game of killer Quidditch with all those souls flying around in the sky trying to best each other. Great stuff and it looks like the next book is shaping up to be the best of the bunch!