Series Saturday Review: Oria's Gambit by Jeffe Kennedy

Series:	Sorcerous Moons #2
Pub. Date:	Aug. 18, 2016
Publisher:	Self-Pub
Length:	198 pages
Source:	Author

Oria's Gambit, the second book in Jeffe Kennedy's Sorcerous Moons series, picks up right where Lonen's War left off. So I do not recommend you read these books out of order, you will need to get the majority of the world-building and character introduction from Lonen's War. As a recap, the Bara are a magical race living in a desert environment, and the males and females have a symbiotic magical relationship. The Destrye are a non-magical barbarian race who conquered the Bara in Lonen's War.

King Lonen of the Destrye has returned to Bara because someone sent the uber-creepy Trom on their dragons to continue stealing water from his people and burn all their crops. With his people facing starvation, dehydration, and now destruction by the Trom, Lonen is desperate. Just desperate enough to agree to Oria's crazy proposition - marriage.

Oria is feeling a bit of desperation on her own. Her mother has gone half-mad from grief, and her brother has gone half-mad from power. The Bara throne is in limbo, and its a race to see who can marry first and be crowned Queen or King of Bara. Unfortunately for Oria, unlike her brother Yar, she is unable to travel to neighboring kingdoms in search of a compatible spouse. So Lonen's appearance, while the reason was tragic, it really presents an answer to both of their problems. A marriage between the pair will allow Oria to ascend to the Baran throne (hopefully), summon the Trom, and protect the Destrye. 

Despite the marriage between Oria and Lonen being political in nature, they have an undeniable pull toward one another. Unfortunately, our couple still cannot touch one another without causing Oria pain and/or passing out. So this definitely throws a wrench in the romance, but there is a little more here than there was in Lonen's War. Oria got on my nerves a little bit in this book, she keeps throwing that hand up and shutting Lonen out. Lonen is the one making all the effort to establish a relationship and happy marriage, and coming up with inventive ways to get around the no-touching issue.

I enjoyed the political and magical intrigue that continued in this story. Priestess Febe still has her uppity disapproving nose in things, and this time she goes way beyond what I expected from her. There was disagreement between the council and the priestess, which created an unexpected ally for Oria. But things come to a head when Yar returns, and this book ends on another cliffhanger. I am very intrigued about where we are going next. I look forward to seeing if Oria can harness the wild magic that was mentioned in this book, and what will happen once Lonen's people learn of his marriage.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars / 2 flames.

Sorcerous Moons