Reviewed by Jenna
TITLE: The King’s Harem
SERIES: Tavamara #1
AUTHOR: Megan Derr
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 201 Pages
BLURB:
The country of Tavamara is renowned for its famous Market, its decadent wines, the harsh climate in which it manages to flourish. It is also well known for the harems kept by the royal family. King Shahjahan’s harem is especially infamous, for his concubines are comprised of an unusual, many say dangerous, assortment…
This volume also contains three additional stories.
The Jewel of Tavamara
Fahima has always been the lesser sister: younger, plainer, too smart and independent. Then her sister commits the ultimate taboo, putting their lives in danger. In order to save her family, Fahima must take her place, though she is painfully aware Shahjahan will never see her as more than a paltry substitute…
Knight to Rook
Displaced by war, Rook makes a home in the Desert where his cousin Cordelia has become Princess. A famous, highly-regarded strategist back home, in the Desert he is regarded as useless and held in contempt for his inability to fight. Adrift and alone, he can only watch and wait for a chance to prove he belongs amongst the Sons of the Sands.
Everything You Need
Though he left the Desert years ago and is set to become the next Advisor to the King of Tavamara, Ikram spends most of his days feeling out of place, living a life of civility and calm that is nothing like the Desert he left behind. Eager to get away from the palace for a time, he braves the famous Market…
REVIEW:
I was inspired to read The King’s Harem after reading and absolutely loving The Harem Master, which is book three in this series. However, I can’t say that my experience with this book was all together positive. First of all, there was a main story which covered half the book and then there were three additional short stories that took place in the same world. The main story was about how the different members of the harem came to be part of the king’s harem.
I liked this story mostly for the beautiful harem men and the sweetness of their polyamorous relationship. However, the story switched back and forth between past and present and shared the viewpoints of so many different characters that I found it difficult the follow. There also appeared to be no intrigue and no story arch. It was mostly a recounting of each man’s route to the king’s heart. Though I loved the world building, I had difficulty connecting with the characters individually. There also didn’t appear to be any strong romance between the men and sex was completely absent.
In addition to this main story, the other tale that stood out in my mind was The Jewel of Tavamara. In this story Fahima finds herself in the position of marrying the king, which was something she never expected. Though she is in love with the king, it feels like he is marrying her out of convenience. She suffers because he doesn’t appear to love her back. In addition to this story was Everything You Need which was the second M/F story in the book. The last story was Knight to Rook, which was M/M romance and was actually quite sexy.
Overall, I loved the world building and detailed description which made the characters seem very real. However, I was disappointed with the lukewarm romance between the harem men and wished there was more to the plot. As a side note, after finishing this book, I read more on the Tavamara Series and found out that other readers recommend reading Sandstorm first, which is listed as book two.
RATING: 
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