Queen of Rot and Pain: A Dark Fantasy Romance (The Pale Court)

Beccaroo

Magnificently Dark

"Was this a happy ending filled with sunshine and rainbows? No. It was a happy ending with corpses, slaughter, and mutual villainy - and DANGIT I want more. I want the brother gods to have their own books. I want more of this world because I *know* that I am going to have a book hang over that rivals the ones I had from ACOTAR and the IPB series. So. SPOILERS AHEAD. I’m gonna talk about the story, beginning to end - so if you don’t want spoilers, scroll awaaay. Listen. Mortal woman who’s been condemned for years for being “barren” is caught in a dead donkey’s leathers and dragged across the land in a journey that took a “full day to ride”. She pulls up in the Pale Court - which is where all bones and flesh go when they die. She - and the rest of the realm she lives in - don’t believe in the real god because they were abandoned by him 200 years prior and have been taught by priests to worship a false golden sun god. Obviously, after her ride, she’s nearly dead. Death gosh “Enosh” doesn’t let her die - he “steals” her final breath away from his “soul god” brother Another-E-Name and keeps her captive in his court “because she’s warm”. Did I think this was a BIT insta-lovey? Well, it was definitely insta-obsession for Mr Enosh, despite all his mistrust and hatred of humans - for JUSTIFIED reasons, I want to add. Listen. If you haven’t read this duo yet but you’ve seen the reviews, you might be wary. Look. I was too. But a friend convinced me to read it and… everything I thought I knew was wrong. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS HE DOES NOT BURY HER ALIVE *all the way* He just… starts to before he realises that he can’t go through with it. HE DOESN’T BREAK HER LEGS *he twists them* He’s the god of flesh and bone. He can essentially reform her bones and handicap her when he’s frightened she might run away - and he doesn’t like to cause pain (without cause that is) SURE. Just because a body is pliant because of magic doesn’t mean the body is willing - so when he screws her before they get married, it’s all… non-consensual. Like, pretty solidly she’d say no if she could. If you’re looking for a hero that respects the female main character’s wishes?? Maybe look somewhere other than a book with a plot that is based on the hero keeping her captive and “enslaved”?? Like??? There’s a massive amount of “spice” - but a huuuuge portion of it is rape. But hey. In the second book, she gets back at him and rapes him on his throne so… EQUALITY? Also. His realisation that he was being a POS and his apologies afterward? I woulda liked more grovelling, maybe some revenge spice beyond her making him pull out - but it was still well done. The erotic scenes are all written hot (maybe not as explicit as I was hoping considering how eloquent the prose about all the corpses were) but in a way that makes the reader kinda uncomfortable cause it’s rape? And just cause they end up happy doesn’t justify any of it? But when dealing with a god of corpses and murder and enslaved souls and… Kay. It’s dark. But like, it ends up being… No. Still freakin’ dark af. I can’t even pretend. The Stockholm Syndrome is stroooong with this. But, in this genre?? What’s new? Tell a woman who has never been praised or appreciated that she’s precious and… well?? I’d probably fall in love too. So. In other news??? I had absolutely no idea how triggering this book would be for me - but in a mostly healing way?? Infertility, miscarriage, magically undying fetus that can’t grow because her mortal mother DIED while pregnant. The FMC is a midwife - so that was pretty heavy - but furthermore she is barren herself. An “unwoman”. As a reader who IS barren and unable to have the 12 children I dreamt of?? F**k this book was heart wrenching. It was well done though - done in a way that is going to live in my head for years to come. And the near shattering of her soul when she found out that she’d finally gotten pregnant after all and been MURDERED??!!! I felt that resonate in my soul, literally. It’s gonna haunt me for a while… But in a good way. Basically? My review is this. UTTERLY MAGNIFICENT and BEAUTIFULLY unique. I got vibes of the legend of “Eros and Psyche” - but a lil’ demented and filled with nauseating descriptions of corpses, murder, and possessions “made of skin, bone, and bug shells” which *shudder* good for Ada, glad she can appreciate. I could never. I’ll be buying physical copies and, I’m sure, re-reading this half a dozen times a year. ["

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September 16, 2022 Verified Purchase

Quisha

Good, but….

"I know she had to become the Queen of Rot and Pain but in order to she had to lose all her mortality??? Ada is strong willed and won’t let anyone including her husband tell her what to do. And I love that she has her own mind. It was hard liking Enosh in the first book but in this one, chef’s kiss… When he loves, he loves hard!! I’m hoping that Yarin and Elam get their own books ["

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January 27, 2026 Verified Purchase

Kent

Absolutely a must read!

"Both book one and two had such an amazing story line! It had me on the edge of my seat with all of the emotions! I absolutely loved this duo and I would recommend this to anyone. I have my friend reading the first book now ["

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May 19, 2026 Verified Purchase

paula rejas

Love the darkness

"Love that the book had a dark undertone, no one is good in the story and even the one good person goes dark for selfish reasons. Still seeing their relationship bloom is what kept this story going. Good drama. Not the best, not the worst. ["

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January 28, 2026 Verified Purchase

Brittany

Dark and phenomenal!

"𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒬𝓊𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝑅𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐿𝒾𝑒𝓈? 𝒩𝑜... 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓁 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽. 𝒜𝒽! 𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒬𝓊𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝑅𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒫𝒶𝒾𝓃. 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓇𝑜𝓉, 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓃. Immediately after finishing the King of Flesh and Bone, I had to jump into the Queen of Rot and Pain; with that cliffhanger, I had to know what had happened! 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝑒, 𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓎 𝓂𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓉𝓎. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝓂𝑒, 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑔𝑜𝒹, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓁𝑒𝓈𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝑜𝓃𝑒. Just like the first book, this one blew me away; it was freaking phenomenal!! It was light on the spice, but I didn't even notice it; this story was beautiful. 𝒲𝑜𝓇𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝒶 𝑔𝑜𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑒... 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝑔𝑜𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒. Enosh was a cruel monster, but I loved every minute of it. It's no wonder he is the way he is; look at how the people treated him, burning him like a roasted pig?! He was fooled once by love, and he wasn't about to be fooled again, so when he thought Ada wasn't going to return to him, he turned into the vicious, cruel monster that everyone made him out to be. Enosh was unbelievably cruel and unloving to Ada, not giving her the one thing she needed, which was his warmth. Did he take things too far by doing that one thing?! He did, but his heart completely shattered, and at the very last minute, he realized he couldn't go through with it. At this point, Ada is beyond furious, and she lashes her rage at him. After experiencing so much in her past and now with Enosh, she couldn't take his cruelty any longer. Ada's strength, determination to find the truth, and fight to protect the baby were remarkable! She was a strong FMC, and NOTHING was stopping her from being a momma. These two go through so much together, and they have a lot of pain they dealt with, and I loved that they finally got their happy ending. 𝒮𝓉𝓊𝒷𝒷𝑜𝓇𝓃, 𝑜𝒷𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓉𝑒, 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝓌𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃. 𝒜𝓇𝓇𝑜𝑔𝒶𝓃𝓉, 𝒸𝓇𝓊𝑒𝓁, 𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝒹. The Pale Court Duet will consume your soul; trust me, if you read anything, make sure you read this duet. Liv, please write Yarin and Eilam's books; these two, especially Yarin, had me chuckling throughout this duet. 𝒲𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒'𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎, 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒, 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑜𝓌𝓃. ["

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October 6, 2022 Verified Purchase