Rule of the Aurora King

Book: Rule of the Aurora King

Author: Nisha J. Tuli

Series: Artefacts of Ouranos

Rating: 4/5

This sequel! So good, and leaves me just desperate for more. So, to catch you up to speed in case you forgot what happened last book, Lor was broken out of prison to compete in the Sun Queen Trials, low key would have won but the Mirror was very much this is not the way bitch, which made Atlas mad and he showed his true colors and locked Lor in his dungeons before Nadir’s sister and best friend broke her out so that they could hold her captive next. Lor cannot catch a fucking break, this is like the third time she’s been captive.

I really enjoyed this sequel even though there was a lot that frustrated me- I don’t know if I am built for enemies to lovers. But this story is so good, I just could not put it down. So much happens in this book, I’m not sure what I can share without spoiling too much. This will be like a light spoiler review before I get into some more major spoilers at the end. 

So two big changes in this book are that Nadir’s POV is now first person! Yay! And we also have a new character that we’re following named Serce, who is supposed to be Lor’s grandmother aka the reason Lor was imprisoned and her homeland ruined. But she’s not actually an evil person… or is she? 

Sooooo… Lor and Nadir arguing all the time? Very Poppy and Casteel vibes and I loved it. I don’t know if I appreciated just how much they argued about real important topics when it seemed like one of them was most definitely in the wrong, but alas. I also feel like they spent too much time arguing, and not enough time bonding and getting to know one another. I get that it’s enemies to lovers but this is the halfway point of the series, give me a little more lovers vibes please. I still loved them though, they’re very cute together when they don’t hate each other (more like Lor hate him by the end, but whatever). 

The plot felt kind of stagnant for a good majority of the book, but I wasn’t upset by it. The big thing of the book is that they need to do what the Mirror said and search for the Crown, and they’re trying to do that in evil Rion’s castle basically, and they’re only there for two weeks but it feels like most of the book. I read this on a Kindle so I had no visual for how far in I was when we got there or left, so I’m basing that off of vibes alone. Like I said though, I wasn’t really upset by this because I think it provided some good info dumping time and character bonding time, as well as smut time. 

The ending really got me, and boy oh boy am I hoping to get my hands on the next book as soon as I possibly can. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who even partially enjoyed the first one, it is a slightly different vibe and the romance is much better because it is Nadir. 

Alright, spoilers ahead!

***** SPOILERS *****

Yay Lor’s siblings aren’t in prison anymore! Lor is the rightful queen of Heart! I’m pretty sure Lor and Nadir are mates! The got the crown! These are all good things, but one of the things I am most happy about is Lor is getting closer to being able to unlock her fae body soon and has shown some of her cool Primary powers!!! 

The smut scene after finding the crown between Lor and Nadir was seriously annoying though. This man is literally so dense, and needs to learn how to communicate with others. If he had said hey girl you know how our magics like reach for each other and shit? Pretty sure that’s because we’re mates, let’s sort of try to handle that, then she probably wouldn’t have freaked as much. Men. I am kind of tired of Lor being weird about this relationship though, like if she’s getting cryptic messages from the Artefacts she should maybe fucking tell Nadir. Like the whole it can’t happen again shit? Girl put two and two together. She admits she knows that the King of the Woodlands was her grandfather, the Primary of Heart was her grandmother, and some bad shit happened. It might behoove you to take a moment and think about… you’re the Primary of Heart… Nadir is the Primary of Aurora… what will happen if you get together? Use your brains! If she would talk to Nadir about it he might be able to help because he has not had stunted education as a result of being imprisoned from ages 12-24, but no she has to keep it to herself. 

I am very interested to see where that goes though, because it does seem like the Mirror is saying they can’t bond because of what happened last time, but also in one of the grandma flashbacks she mentions if mates don’t bond they fucking die so how will this one pan out, we will see. Oh shit wait what if Nadir kills his dad so that the power of the royal family switches out, because it was mentioned somewhere that it’s just a theory that it goes to a different family, so maybe it will just go to his sister instead. 

Also how the fuck is Atlas king??? What happened in Aphelion??? Because that little tid bit from the priestess being like oh no he’s not the next Primary just made me go like what? Huh? What are you talking about? How many people had to die for him to become king, and under what circumstances? I want to know all about this little plot thread, and I hope we find out in the next book. 

Lor’s siblings are great, I think the bond they all have is very endearing. There’s not always a strong familial bond for the FMCs in fantasy books, so I really enjoyed having this in the book. I also liked getting to actually see interactions with her siblings rather than recountings of information. Oh my god by the way I would have been totally screwed with that little ruby for the crown situation, I’m not sure if I could make myself swallow it- you know what, why didn’t Tristan ever swallow it, just Willow and Lor? Also I feel like Lor has another name we just don’t know yet because her siblings have like full and longer names, so it’s odd that she wouldn’t. 

Anyways, go read this book, it was so good!