Orc’s Craving by Ava Ross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Selected for the Monster Mate Hunt, I’m about to be claimed by an orc.

I spend my days collecting herbs, using them to cure whatever ails my fellow villagers living behind the high walls of the fortress. They say I’m foolish to venture outside the keep at night.

They whisper the orcs will capture me. What they’ll do after that is mere speculation. Those caught are never seen again.

When my sister is chosen for the Monster Mate Hunt—an annual event where two women must sacrifice themselves to the orcs for the good of us all—I volunteer in her place. That night, the orcs hunt me, their howls echoing around me as I bolt through the forest. I’m captured and claimed by one of the enormous, powerful orcs who protect the fortress in exchange for the chance to hunt for a bride.

My new husband, Commander Jaus, makes one demand after another, but he treats me with a gentleness I never expected from a monster. He expects me to cook and clean, plus sleep in his quarters with him at night, despite insisting he doesn’t want a mate.

Until something changes, and his dark, brooding gaze turns my way . . .

Orc’s Craving is Book 1 in the Monster Mate Hunt Series. Expect fated mates, found families, a distinctive size difference, and a “touch her and die” hero. Each book is standalone, but the series is best if read in order.

Orc’s Craving

I volunteer as tribute!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🩵🖤❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: ☹️☺️😍😄
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Rhoslyn – she is twenty-five years old and basically considers herself an old maid. At one time she had been pursued by many of the men in her village, but she turned them all down. Her parents were killed by a shade (red eyed lizard creature). Rhoslyn had been afraid that any man she married would not be willing to take care of her little sister Lyneth, so she turned them away until they stopped asking her. Though Eamon, the slimy mayor of the village, has been pursuing her relentlessly recently and even cornered her in an ally until she kicked him where it hurts most.

The Hero: Jaus – he is an Orc and the son of the town leader. Though his brother is the heir. So Jaus has made a name for himself as the commander of the forces. He takes his job very seriously and is too busy to worry about getting a mate. More than 20 years ago, his town was overrun by their enemies and most of the females were killed. Since then, they have created a pact with the nearby village of humans. The humans offer two females per year for them to chase in a mate hunt in exchange for their protection of the human village against the shades and other creatures.

The Story: The mayor chooses Rhoslyn’s sister as one of the females sacrificed to the Orc’s mate hunt this year, in an effort to get back at her and force her to marry him. Rhoslyn does something that has never been done before and offers to be sacrificed in her sisters’ place. Her sister is in love with a man in the village and plans to marry in a few months, and there is no way Rhosyln would let her be sent to the Orc’s. So that very night, she is sent outside the gates for the Orc mate hunt.

Jaus, who was not planning to participate in the hunt, sees Rhoslyn and knows immediately when his pendant glowed, that she is his true mate. He still doesn’t want to participate, but when a shade starts stalking her and another Orc says he will capture her, Jaus feels jealousy and decides that he has to be the one to catch her and save her from the shade. This book is nothing original, and obviously takes some things from the hunger games, and other books with mate hunts. Also, the conversation between the two main characters often sounded too simplistic and not realistic. This surprised me since the book was published this year and I have really liked Ava Ross books before.

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Stephan Borne and Scarlett Dorian. Both of these narrators were new to me. Scarlett has a clear and expressive voice and did a terrific job. Stephen had a deep, soft, growly voice that worked well for Jaus and I quite liked his voice and how natural he sounded. The one thing I didn’t like was both of their voices for the opposite sex. I wish more books were done in duet narration.

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