Not long ago, I read Trial of the Sun Queen, the first book in the “Artefacts of Ouranos” series by Nisha J. Tuli. I never expected to enjoy it as much as I eventually did. The cliffhanger at the end made me this curious for the next book in the series, Rule of the Aurora King, that I simply had to read it now because I wanted to know how Lor’s story would evolve. This review contains spoilers for the first book. Was this reading experience as enjoyable?

About the book

Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli
Series: Artefacts of Ouranos #2
Published by Forever on September 12, 2023
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9781538767658
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy

“I am not his conquest. I am not his to claim. I am my own castle.” Freed from the golden clutches of the Sun King, Lor now finds herself in the hands of Nadir, the Aurora Prince. Convinced she’s hiding something, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make her talk. But Lor knows the value of secrets—she’s been keeping them her entire life—and she’s not letting hers go without a fight.

When Lor and Nadir team up to search for a lost item that holds the key to her past and her future, she isn’t sure she can trust him. All she knows is she won’t fall for another royal fae’s promises again.

With the Sun King determined to reclaim her, Lor must keep on the move, but nowhere is safe. Not until she destroys him and the Aurora King. But she soon learns that the future of Ouranos depends on much more than avenging her shattered legacy.

My review

The previous book ends on a cliffhanger, so I expected this book to pick up where it left off. It did, so therefore it was easy to get back into the story. I also expected to get more answers to remaining questions and finally that this would be such an easy read again. I wasn’t sure whether we would get more romance in this book, even though it was announced that the level of spice would increase in the upcoming books somewhere in the first book of this series. I kind of expected to get some spice here, but I wasn’t sure how much. My expectations are mostly met.

Besides our familiar faces, we get to know a small bunch of new characters. They all play an important role in the story. We get to know Nadir and Amya better, as well as their small inner circle and several other important characters. Lor’s identity is slowly revealed, but this didn’t come as a surprise for me to be honest. This makes me sad somehow, because it makes the book quite predictable. However, it’s nothing but logical that this happened and that it is something I kind of expected. I already had the feeling in the first book though. Besides, the romance wasn’t quite surprising either. The characters grow nevertheless as they all seem determined to work together towards one goal and seem to be able to put their differences aside for the greater good.

This book has an accessible writing style. It’s not too complicated and therefore reads easy. I didn’t expect something else. The chapters are relatively short and therefore it’s easy to keep your attention on the book whilst reading. However, Tuli added an extra POV besides Lor’s and Nadir’s, which really adds up to the story. I can’t say more because of spoilers, but it makes me even more curious where this will lead to.

Unfortunately, the plot of this book isn’t unique. This doesn’t differ from the first book in this series. It’s quite predictable, but is intriguing nevertheless. This predictability makes the plot easy to follow, without losing its momentum. The events made me eager to continue reading, because I really wanted to know what would happen next. The book again ends on a cliffhanger, which makes me curious for the next one in the series. This novel contains much more smut than the previous book, but I didn’t mind. It’s part of the character development and therefore adds up to the story.

Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli. It’s quite predictable, but intriguing nevertheless. The events are pretty logic, even though I saw them coming from afar. However, the book reads easy and managed to scuk me in from start to finish. The smut was written well, so is the cliffhanger at the end. I hope to be able to read the next book in this series rather sooner than later because I want to know how this story progresses.