Madness of the Horde King is book 3 in the Horde Kings of Dakkar series, and it starts of thrilling and terrifying.  Vienne, the heroine of our story, is sneaking into the Dothik at the command of the Ghertun.  She has a message to deliver, and a response to receive before she can return to the Dead mountain. 

Davik, our hero, is hiding out in an ally, just trying to get some peace and quiet away from all of the activity of the city.  As he is roaming, he sees this tiny cloaked being and is immediately enamored with her. 

I will be completely honest, I have more negative to say than positive about this book, and I know it is going to come across that I don’t like the book.  I want to make sure I state very clearly, I really do like this book.  I think it is an excellent book that continues the overarching plot that book one and two laid incredibly well.

The two main characters were incredibly well written and diverse in their thoughts and actions.  The best part about this book has to be the secrets Davik and Vienne keep from each other, which I know is an odd thing to pick.  But these two characters have kept secrets their entire lives, because it was a matter of survival.  Even as they fell in love with each other, even as they grew to trust each other, they kept these secrets from each other.  When you reach the end of the book, and the are FINALLY sharing those deeply kept secrets, it feels impactful, important, and worth the wait. 

In addition, the way these two characters dealt with their trauma, and healed from it together, was sweet.  It is something that honestly should happen in most relationships, not necessarily just romantic ones.  And Davik is an incredibly selfish character.  I see this happen so often in books where a character is selfish, and they never face the consequences of it.  But Davik does, which I greatly appreciated.

That being said, you knew it was coming.  This book does one of my all time LEAST favorite tropes in the world.  Davik is dealing with some incredibly intense trauma in this book.  The kind of trauma that you might not necessarily heal from, and if you do, it won’t be quickly.  The trope in question, is the “I have terrible trauma so this makes me bad, insane, unworthy, and seen in a terribly negative light”.  I can’t stand it.

I have trauma that I deal with.  Some of it healed, some of it not, all of it scarring and impactful.  I am not evil, or dark, or terrible, or insane.  I get tired of reading books where men have trauma and it makes them bad.  Nothing against Zoey, because she crafted and incredibly tale, but this is the latest book I have seen this in and I am not a fan.  Davik is considered the “Mad” Horde King because of his trauma (and something else you will read about) and people just generally don’t like him because he is stand offish and untrusting.  LET HIM BE A COMPLETE PERSON EVEN WITH HIS TRAUMA.  Let him have friends even though he has trauma.  Let him function as an adult, even though he has trauma.

Overall – As I said, I love this book, I love how the characters mesh together.  I think the author did excellent in continuing the story from book 1 and 2, and this is well worth the read.  That being said, just because I don’t like the trope doesn’t mean other people won’t, but I would love to start seeing the way male trauma is handled be a bit different. 

Plot – 8/10

Characters – 10/10

Originality –  9/10

General Joy of Reading – 7/10

Overall Score – 34/40

Madness of the Horde King – Zoey Draven

Cost* –  Kindle is $3.99 Paperback is $14.99 Book is included with Kindle Unlimited

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published