Book Review: The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley

I love the Fantasyland world Kristen Ashley created with all the amazing characters, the depth and details. The Golden Dynasty was a truly fantastic story filled with drama, passion, and love that's not to be missed!

The Golden Dynasty (Fantasyland #2) by Kristen Ashley

Circe Quinn, the office manager of a moving company, goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire—and she’s one of them.

She figures this is not good and soon finds she’s not having a wild dream; she’s living a frightening nightmare. She’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people, where she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their queen.

Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, the Horde of the nation of Korwahk. With one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start the Golden Dynasty of legend.

Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture, and the small fact she’s from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there. Or, more importantly, how to get home.

Facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King.

Then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

5 out of 5 stars

This book. My heart. It was brilliant! The Golden Dynasty was filled with so much drama and emotion, passion and pain, healing and love and I absolutely loved it. I swear there were times I couldn't breathe as I read because I felt so immersed in Lahn and Circe’s lives. The characters, details, and phenomenal build were everything. This was one of those stories where I would read for hours and it only felt like minutes. It was a complex and beautiful story all rolled into one.

I loved learning all about Circe and the parallel world that she was thrust into. It was brutal, savage, and at times, shocking. I loved Circe’s bravery and courage and how she was constantly fighting for what she believed in. Lahn was this harsh, hard warrior who had lived a particular way of life and had a challenge on his hands with Circe. Their introduction was far from nice and I didn’t want to like him but I grew to love him over the course of the story. I loved watching him learn and grow. I loved watching Lahn care for Circe and how they crossed the language barrier. When he said words in her language it made me melt. He could be incredibly sweet, charming, and loving. They had a hard road filled with drama and emotion but I loved the passion and the fire between them. There were some entertaining moments mixed in too and I adored Circe’s witty internal dialogue.

The details and descriptions were amazing and filled with so many layers. There were aspects of this story I accepted because it was a part of the Korwahk way of life and tradition, not all of it was good by any means. There was a fantastic cast of characters and bonds happening. I loved the friends that Circe made, there were so many great scenes with them and touching moments. The entire time I was reading, I kept asking myself how did Circe get to this world and what about the other Circe? I couldn’t wait to find out. I loved the little hints along the way as Circe pieces everything together. When everything comes out, it was perfect! Painful and heartbreaking, but amazing. I loved it all.

I felt completely blown away by this story. I am loving the Fantasyland series – as in a new favorite - and can't wait to dive into the next one!