#ummmm and i know the general structure of the other books too but since i have the first book like. completely done

[dangermousie]

Like Space Opera Romance? Do I have a book series for you!

Seeing that Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Born of Blood is going to be published next week, I thought it’s a good time to give push to one of my all time favorite romance series - Kenyon’s The League series aka space opera romance extraordinaire!

Space opera and fantasy are probably my favorite genres and so is romance. And a good space opera romance is very very hard to find. So imagine my love for The League, which features space pirates, intergalactic organizations, aliens, space ships, assassins, genetic modifications, bounty hunters, galactic emperors and the rest. There are only a couple of books in that series that get less than “utter and complete love” from me, and even there, I do like them. Featuring Kenyon’s trademark super-tortured heroes and tough ladies who love them, here are the books in order with my very biased fangirl thoughts:

*  Born of Night - first and arguably still my favorite. Our hero is a half-alien League assassin. OK, make that former League assassin - nobody ever leaves the League (think a military/political organization that controls lots of stuff) but he’s managed, even if he’s been on the run ever since. He does take random jobs to help him survive and the latest one is a doozy - to protect a daughter of some planetary president who various enemies want killed. CAN YOU SAY, BODYGUARD ROMANCE? I knew you could! Oh God, I love this book! He’s hulking, terrifying, barely verbal and with a horrid background of scrabbling for everything. She is a tiny petite dancer who looks on the bright side but can hold her own in a fight (sort of. She is no assassin.) IS HE WORTHY? (Ummm yes.) Are there birth secrets and space emperors? (Ummmm yes.)

* Born of Fire - It’s not one of my faves in the series, but I do like it. Hero is alcoholic space doctor (and BFF of BoN hero), heroine is female bounty hunter set to bring him in, things don’t go as planned blah blah. I have never loved romances with medical protagonists and apparently space setting is not an exception. it’s a solid book, even if not one of my faves. 

* Born of Ice - this one is weird because she wrote it before she knew she could continue the series so it involves the next generation and is out of chronological order. It’s a lighter romance so if bags of angst aren’t your thing (though why are you reading Kenyon then?), this is a good bet. 

* Born of Shadows - space pirates! Amazons! Seriously, do you need to know anything else? It’s yet another lighter entry that’s pretty darn fun. Not a fave (angst junkie here) but solid. 

* Born of Silence - ummm, ummmm, ummm. THIS WHOLE BOOK IS ONE GIANT TRIGGER WARNING AND I ADORE IT. (Also, we now know where BoShadows angst went - here! This book has more angst than five other books put together.) OK, so our hero is named Darling Cruel, so we already know this book doesn’t give any f**** what you think and if you are not ready to follow its blend of delicious insanity. Anyway, Darling is a Caronese (planet) Emperor. Which is all well and good except his position is held in regency by his monstrous uncle who has no plans to give it up any time soon. He’s torturing the populace, and mistreating Darling and fam and is just generally a horrid person. So Darling needs to figure out a plan to get his family safely off-world before any coup and meanwhile he’s doing the Scarlet Pimpernel thing and working with the rebels, wearing combat armor so nobody knows the rebel hero is actually the useless royal everyone thinks he is. He also has a passionate relationship with a lady rebel leader, Zarya who also doesn’t know about his double identity. All is OK except due to a bunch of really bad luck, before he can evacuate his family and do in his evil uncle, he gets captured by rebels as himself. They have no idea he’s their big helper and proceed to gruesomely torture him for weeks. (This is probably a good time to reiterate the trigger warning is real - between stuff in his past, which is prob one of the worst romance novel pasts ever, and rebel torture stuff, this is probably the most triggery romance novel I’ve ever read - think Kenyon’s Acheron or Styxx only hero does not have divine healing powers. Or maybe Robin Schone’s The Lover) His girlfriend, aka the rebel leader, basically pays no attention as to what is going in her dungeons and lets them do whatever. He eventually gets rescued and stitched up by his friends but by that point, the little of his sanity he was holding on to has fled the building and he goes on a well-deserved murder spree, starting with doing in his uncle and culminating with building a tower of skulls of his enemies outside the palace. Man knows how to cheer self up! Anyway, his friends are all !!!!!! and bring back Zarya (who they dumped far far away) in hopes of trying to calm him down...This is delish and angsty and very very insane and I love it, maybe the most in this series because it’s a hardcore h/c angstfest with the whole “heroine is his sole link to sanity” theme. 

* Cloak and Silence - Darling’s gay BFF Maris gets his own book and romance. YESSSS! Maris is one of the few sane people in this series :P

* Born of Fury - a little less angsty that BoS :P OK, a lot less angsty. Hero is sexy rebel alien, heroine a League assassin that is targeting him, true love. It’s actually a perfect combo of not too much angst and ton of awesomeness. 

* Born of Defiance - another one of my faves! (I think this, BoS and BoN are my three favorites, though maybe BoL below also belongs.) Our hero is an outcast - who has no social standing or position due to the circumstances of his birth in the very rigid/class-structured alien society (yes, hero is a humanoid alien, so is heroine.) He is basically a tough, unbeatable boxer. Heroine? Felicia is a delicate and beautiful courtesan.Yes, it’s a boxer x h*oker romance. YES PLS. There are royal plots, angst, rescues, and the whole “he can kill anyone with a pinkie but turns into a leaf in her delicate presence” is my kryptonite.  

* Born of Betrayal - Talyn’s parents...I like it but don’t love it, tbh. 

 * Born of Legend - Ohhhh, this book. This book! On one hand I adore it, on the other, continuity-wise it gives me a headache. The protagonist is Julian, the evil twin of the hero from BoN, who also appears and does evil things in some other books. Kenyon tried to do the same thing here she did with Styxx (show evil twin of loved hero is actually not evil) and it worked a lot better in Styxx because she had to bend her continuity in insane fashion and turn some secondary characters from normal to headcases to do it. However, taken alone, this is a fun angsty book.  And I do mean ANGSTY!!! (Not as much as BoS but nothing could be.) Also a doorstopper. Also I am rereading it right now. It’s so gooooood!

* Born of Vengeance - love princes recovering their stolen inheritances? So do I!

#sherrilyn kenyon #the league series #romance #space opera romance