This was such a great listen,
I was able to listen to this during work at two times speed and I was in loss. The world that was created was phenomenal and the narrator did a fantastic job grasping it’s listeners.

I love dark romance so this was right up my alley. Definitely check out the trigger warnings, this is beyond morally grey. Enosh is a villain through and through.

I loved the world building and the dead rising. After that ending, I can't wait to start the next one.

If you go into this book knowing the trigger warnings and keep an open mind- this book is SO GOOD!
The MMC is not morally grey, he's full on dark and corrupt but still a little squishy when he's alone.
This is book 1 of a 2 book series that will EVENTUALLY have a HEA but book 1 ends on a cliff hanger 😩
Lots of dark, horror elements throughout (rot, death, torture, dubious consent, humiliation, manipulation) that all made for a very unique read.

The writing style was super easy to read, the fantasy elements were so detailed and vivid, and the characters were well thought out with multiple POVs between the FMC and the MMC with the FMC being the main character and POV.
The world building was minimal but well done where it was done. I hope to read more about the lands in book 2 and will definitely be following this series!

TWs: Non-consent/Dubious consent, Mind control, Death, Infertility, Child loss, Torture, Corpse reanimation/Zombies?

King of Flesh and Bone is a deliciously dark romance that hits every single note. Zander expertly crafts a completing romance that leaves you enthralled. Also be warned the ending in this one is brutal!

(3.5)
King of Flesh & Bone was a bit darker than my typical fantasy romance taste. But I love morally grey, enemy to lovers with high fantasy. I strongly recommend checking out trigger warnings before reading this.

Okay, now that we got that part out of the way. I listened to the audiobook of this and from the first time Ada (FMC) started talking about the world she lived in - I got a pull that I was in a world just like Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow. My imagination had the world both dark and grey, with crimson red seeping through the pages. Bone binding the book together. The story had you pulled right into a setting effortlessly.

We learn a lot about our MC right off the back and I really liked her unique character from a lot of the ones I’ve read. I have to admit that I was leery of her. The author (Liv) did an excellent job of keeping our MC mysterious right off the bat. Not ever giving her the perfect image either.

Our love interest, Enosh/King of Flesh and Bone was an extremely fascinating character. I thought his history, powers and beliefs, his “king” status and family were all something I wish I got more of in the story. His views on mortals and how they acknowledged him. Romantic Enosh is my favourite part of the story.

I felt their relationship moved too fast considering their first encounters. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure if I was going to want to continue. While I was aware of the kidnap and trigger warnings… one of the issues I had was that I had a hard time buying that so shortly after “that scene” it switched so quickly. It was pretty dark, and then within a month - it was completely switched. And I love romance and being a big fan of beauty and the beast retellings - I’m not shy of Stockholm syndrome type tropes, but out of everything in this mythical world - that I struggled with the most. It felt more like they had a huge fight about him keeping her prisoner and nothing else had happened.

I also wish I had a bit more time from Enosh’s POV and learned more about his side.

The book's ending leaves on a cliffhanger I was only relieved to know that the second book was already out.

This book is tragic, dark, twisted and haunting, with very little light shining through the bones. But enough to give hope.

First, the narrators did a great job! Second, holy dark romance!! I loved this book! I’m not sure what I was expecting after so many conflicting reviews, but I loved it. Ada is so tough, and I love me a dark alphahole male main character, Enosh did not disappoint. Dark fantasy romances are quickly becoming a go to read for me. Definitely recommend this one!

Firstly, thank you NetGalley for sending me this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Now. I want to start by saying this seemed up my alley. I really thought I would love this. I don’t know what happened.

I mean I do know what happened but I couldn’t wrap my head around why.

He was so abusive to her, not like rough sex which was present but abusive. He broke her legs several times through out, carried out acts she wasn’t comfortable with, and overall treated her like s**t. Except for the rare moments he didn’t. It was like Stockholm syndrome unraveling before my eyes.

Now, yes, I understand some people really enjoyed it. I found the fantasy portion of this novel to be interesting enough and I might even pick up the second novel if I can get over this one but their relationship never blossomed enough for the conflict to entice a reaction out of the reader. I surely feel awful for Ada but I could care less about the King.

Overall, this might have been a tad bit too much for me.

King of flesh and bone

3.5 stars for me. The smut was steamy and I wasn’t expecting what happened with Ada and Enash. I did enjoy how their dynamic was, he was so demanding of her and she was sassy but I was really hoping for something more than just pretty much sex all the time… for me that just doesn’t do it for me, there has to be more action or adventure for me or something with high stakes… it didn’t feel like that at all.. it was fun though

I wanted so much more for this story... this is very much a Beauty and the Beast erotica. This is a very dark story about a young woman and the King of Flesh and Bone - basically controls dead bodies i.e. their flesh and bones.

This story had so much potential; it even covered dark topics. However, the dark erotica masked the good. It felt too much a case of Stockholm syndrome, but it could also be argued as brainwashed by society. Either way it was a little disturbing. But did have a strong female character.

Please if you read this book, make sure you've seen the trigger warnings! There are quite a few...

Thank you to @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for my audiobook!

This is definitely a dark romance (ie lots of non-con and straight up grape, which wasn't to my taste)
If you are okay with reading that, then it's a great story.

The concept is very cool, a world where the dead don't rot and rise every full moon thanks to the King of flesh and bone not doing his duty. Great worldbuilding overall.

The characters are good. Ada is caring and selfless and brave. The king is an arrogant asshole who sometimes decides to be nice, but rarely and usually just to manipulate Ada. Not a fan of him, but I can't argue that his character isn't consistent.

Overall a good plot, especially when things picked up at the end. The cliffhanger left a really good setup for book 2.

I love a good morally grey MC and this did not disappoint. I am a dark romance addict and this does not dissapoint. To put it simply, I am obsessed.

Ada is a home wife, and masters this task quite well. Her life has had some challenges and because of that she is kind of seen as an outsider. On the midst of delivering a dead, she gets dragged down to the pits of hell (basically) and she meets Enosh.

Enosh is the king of flesh and bone and a man of his word at that, but he also takes what he wants - this includes Ada. The NC in this is so unique because Enosh is able to manipulate Ada's body.

If you are looking for an adult dark fantasy, this is it.

I had the pleasure of listening to this and Arui Alden and Gregory Salinas do such an amazing job at brining this book to life.

This is a duet; therefore, it does end on a cliffhanger.

Thank you Netgalley for the audiobook arc. This is my honest review.

I have been hearing about this book for a while. I jumped on the opportunity to listen to the audiobook and review it! Spoilers ahead:

Let's just start by saying that this book is morbid. Not because of obvious reasons but because the Male MC thrives on abuse, punishment, and destroying anything that seems good. Then there is being burned alive on a spit for many days and regenerating. the detailed body parts that are burned away. like eyelids, tongues, skin, male body parts, and other soft body parts. There are also many triggers that could cause readers to turn away such as forced sexual relations and physical abuse. I am not sure that they were necessary and did not do anything to make me want to read the book further. Instead, it was the perseverance and loyalty of the female MC that made me want to read further. She firmly believes in the vows to her former husband and lives to be honorable. I really wanted this story to turn it in her favor but i could clearly see that something was going to happen- cue cliffhanger.

I would recommend this book in certain book groups that I follow but it is clearly for a special and specific group of readers that have clad iron tummies and constitutions. Thank you for allowing the oppertunity to review this title.

Holy bones that was good !

Ok so going into this book I knew nothing other than it would be a dark romance & at some point in the book the MMC would break the FMC’s legs to keep her from leaving & I immediately thought of misery by Stephen king just much darker. I’m a huge fan of dark romance so of course I want to read it ! About 20/30% into the book I wasn’t entirely sure if it was for me I was getting a bit confused & just felt some of the violence was uncalled for but I’d stick with it. However once I hit the half way mark I was all in ! Definitely will be recommending this book especially for fall vibes.

The story follows an angry ruthless god who gave up on humanity essentially falling for a widowed midwife. He’s very dark & depraved & makes no excuse to hide that. She’s caring & far too kind. This is a story about a villain there’s no two ways about it the MMC is not a good guy & wont ever be the good guy but he’s the bad guy you want. Who wants a hero that’ll give you up for the sake of the world when you can have a villain who will raze it just to save you.

I absolutely can’t wait to read/listen to book 2! So many questions left unanswered & so much I still have to know.

I dnf’d. I am typically one who enjoys CNC however this book was missing the first word. Consent. There was nothing consensual about this from the start and to me that seems to undermine what the k*nk community has been working on for years. This was a no for me. I requested the second book thinking I was going to love this one and wanted to jump on board. But I have no interest in continuing.

4.5/5*

World building 5/5 | plot 4.5/5 | characters 4.5/5 | romance 4/5 (though not traditional) | smut 4.5/5

I can honestly say that I am shocked that this book didn't have higher ratings than what it currently has. Maybe that is because there wasn't really a trigger warning ( for the forced-consent, zombies babies, mind control and overall "horrific" dark and gory elements in this book) or maybe because it simply isn't everyones up of tea. But I LOVED it!

This book is tragic and darkly beautiful. It felt similar to Laura Thalassa's Four Horseman series at first, but the different time period made it feel original enough. I also read another review that said this book was overdone with purple prose, but I think the Zander's prose and detailed descriptions are what makes the book. The prose really suited the overall macabre and dark feel of this book. There was thorough world building and the characters Ada and Enosh were both flawed yet strong. Enosh is a morally grey, tortured and vengeful god who is jaded yet also heartbreakingly romantic (in the most horrific and delicious way). Ada is strong and yet torn between her morals and her feelings. These two MCs, while not having chemistry at the beginning, really do compliment each other and the smut element is off the charts. And what a cliffhanger ending! I cannot wait for the second book. I don't want to write more because I really think this is worth the read with no spoilers.

If you are into really dark and morally grey fantasy romances with elements of horror and lots of lots of steamy smut, this is the book for you. Just read the trigger warnings on here to make sure that you are okay with all this books darkest corners.

Audiobook narrators 5/5

*I enjoyed the audiobook ARC version of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review*

Let me start by saying this is my first ever Dark Romance novel and I should have checked trigger warnings. With that being said, this was not the book for me. The world building and creepy corpse stuff is what drew me in but the writing started going downhill the first time they mentioned her being an <I>un-woman.</I>Like okay, she can't have kids but that was the best term you could think of? So lazy.

The sex started quickly and the "king" just seemed like a lame. If this is DubCon, count me out. This was no consent at all (is NonCon a thing?) Seed was the word of choice (they said it way too many times) and I could not. Then the fact that he broke her legs to make her stay (lol) seemed lazy as well since he had control over flesh and bone. He could hold her still with his powers while they had "sex" but she could still run away? Like, okay. It sucked because this could have been really good. The fact that the undead were so unique and he was making her dresses out of hair/skin was dark and fun but the smut was not for me! DNF'd at 50% and I really had to put forth effort to even make it that far.

This book is a bit The Cruel Prince meets The Walling Dead meets 50 Shades of Grey minus actual consent.
I wanted to like this book but lost interest in it halfway through.
The writing was a bit repetitive, the characters were not very likable and the sex scenes were a bit cringe. Non consent sex is a bold decision to make, and I am not here for it at all.
The story is quite gory as well. That didn't bother me too much but it's kind of hard to enjoy something sexual when right before, some walking rotting corpse just lost some limb.
Was not for me.

This is my first audiobook review. Also there are triggers and content that could make people uncomfortable- so check that out before reading.

The narrators did a great job telling the story. I enjoyed having two narrators for Ada and Enosh. And I applaud the m for reading this spicy book.

This is a two part book- told in dual POV, though it is mostly through Ada’s perspective. Ada and Enosh’s story got off to an interesting start- prisoner/captive, enemies to lovers. Ada has so much joy, love and goodness that she is trying to save all the people in her realm by rotting the dead.

Enosh, the ruler of flesh and bone, has disregarded his obligation to allow the dead to decompose. Ada is his prisoner now after being brought into his court half-dead. He has full authority to act as he pleases. Ada's sadness and need were palpable to me, and despite everything, she yearned to contribute to the kingdoms' survival and return of harmony.

Loved the narrative; it was very original. This is the first of a duet and is a dark fantasy about rivals becoming lovers. It has plenty of spice, a beautiful, intricate setting, and characters with highly questionable morals. Although Liz has a very distinctive writing style, her story had me engrossed the entire time. Undoubtedly, I'm anxious to see how this tale is ended.

Ada lives a difficult life in a land where the dead don’t truly stay dead. The land fears the King of the Pale Court, who has been unseen for years. But when Ada finds herself in a dangerous situation, it results in her awaking at the Pale Court as the only human there. She then becomes the sexual plaything of the King while she tries to find a way to escape.

Well. This work was labeled a romance, but it most certainly was not. Erotica, yes. Romance, no. And the book jumped into the sex almost right away, and it wasn’t sexy at all.

There was no real plot – nothing ever really happened after the initial incident that led to Ada’s capture and there was no driving storyline or plot. The rest of the work was just a lot of in-depth, non-consensual erotica. The characters weren’t developed, well written, engaging, or relatable. There was nothing redeemable about Enosh, and Ada was given no agency. The “romance” picked up near the end (e.g., she decided she was fine being abused and might love him now – obviously, this had to happen because he had one tragic thing happen in his backstory), but Ada’s reasoning behind things wasn’t logical and made me dislike her as a character even more. There was also zero chemistry between the two main characters.

There were a few other things I disliked (e.g., world of typical fantasy but used phrases like “gunmetal eyes”, male narrator was off-putting, overuse of certain phrases), but I’ve already spent enough time thinking about this work so I’m not going to write anything more.

I don’t recommend this work unless you like abusive erotica. My thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.