Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: King’s Conquest
SERIES: Mending the Rift #1
AUTHOR: Valentina Heart
PUBLISHER: Totally Bound Publishing
LENGTH: 68 pages
BLURB:
The only way for Prince Rin to save his kingdom is to marry a king and bear a child, but will he survive his fate?
In a world where two kingdoms are constantly at war, Prince Rin, heir to the throne of Kari kingdom, has been demanded as a war conquest by King Merinej of Jeda. The prince must travel to his enemy’s kingdom and share the king’s bed, bearing him a child or the war will continue. But the prince will not lower himself to what he sees as nothing but the title of a whore, so he demands a contract requiring the king to be faithful. After all to give Merin a child, Rin will risk his own life.
Even going into the marriage headfirst Rin expected nothing more than a business arrangement. Instead he receives affection, yet the more surprising realisation is his willingness of his own heart to return the same. But even his king cannot save Rin from those who wish him harm, and their joining might be over before it can fully bloom.
Reader Advisory: This book is best read in sequence as part of a series.
REVIEW:
To save his kingdom from the stupidity of his father, and the armies of another, Prince Rin has agreed to join with the King of Jeda, Merinej. But he will settle for nothing less than marriage, even if that all but guarantees his death in childbirth. He does not know what to expect from these new people, or this new country, but he comes to hope that there will be some measure freedom from the strict rules and regulations his (not so) dearly departed father bound him with. He never thought to hope for love, though.
For such a short story it wasn’t all that bad. I liked the attempt at world building here, though it did feel like it was trying to pack in way more information than the story needed, or could support, in such few pages. I do love mpreg though, and I found the method of impregnation here a new and unique twist on the usual nonsensical method that is usually touted in these types of stories. I would have loved to have seen the story thru to the birth of the child, though, since a large part of this story is about how the birth of their child is a real danger for Rin. I felt that if you are going to make so much of a fuss about it, it might be good to show us how all of it concludes. But this book is part of a series, so maybe that is just a story for another time.
I had a hard time with the whole ‘jealous lover’ side plot. You meet the bad guy for like three seconds in this story, and not only is he never identified–except thru a quick and vague ‘he was annoyed at the king’ explanation to Rin—he was apparently killed off-page, as well. It is not like I am demanding to see the assholes head tumble across the floor, but not doing the whole reveal on page just made the whole plot to kill Rin seem very one-dimensional, and not at all believable. Not to mention the fact that the guards of this castle need to go back and retake Keeping Your Client Alive for More Than a Day 101.
The love story was also a little flat. I think the story spent so much time trying to build the world that it kinda forgot to build up the characters as well. There is a whole lot of insta-love flying around this book. Not only with Rin and Merinej, but everyone at the castle seems to fall instantly in love with Rin as well. He is apparently a foreign, and enemy, prince…and yet he smiles once and all of a sudden all that is forgotten? There’s a bit of time-condensing going on in the story, because of the page length, but I just found the speed at which it all happens is rather too quick for me to believe all the love floating around in the air here.
All that being said, I probably will end up reading the next book in the series because I kinda want to know what happens.
RATING: 
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