The Phantom King (The Kings #2) by Heather Killough-Walden

Siobhan Ashdown was born of magic; it rides her blood like a phantom, tainted and dark and unpredictable. She is a warlock, and the power within her is unlike any before known to her kind. So it’s no surprise that the most powerful of the demons who feed off of this warlock magic not only recognizes the enormous potential she represents but determines that he will possess her at any cost.Even if it means war with the entire supernatural world.
Thanatos has ruled Purgatory as the Phantom King since time immemorial. King of a vast plane of solitude, he is a free spirit, a lone rider, a tattooed man of wind and dust and nonexistent boundaries. Then he turns around one morning to find himself face to face with Siobhan Ashdown, a woman with hair as red and wild as his soul, eyes like melted gold, and a spirit as elusive as his own. Time stops, the world tilts, and the fact that she attacks him right off the bat does little to deter his romantic convictions.
Thirteen Kings are severed by lust and greed, an ancient vampire and his rogue creation lay claim to what is not theirs, the whisperings of war begin to shake the foundation of the supernatural world, and primordial evil awakens from its slumber to slither across the land in this second installment in the Big Bad Wolf spinoff series, The Kings, by Heather Killough-Walden.

Hi all! Just finished up this book tonight, The Phantom King... #2 in The Kings series by Heather Killough-Walden. Read, once again, but the quirky sounding Antony Ferguson. His reading didn't quite bother me this time around, which I think had something to do with the fact that he read the first book as well, and I listened to that one directly before this one. I recall not really preferring the first book, thought it might have something to do with "first book syndrome" lol! Even if they aren't a newbie author, sometimes books in a series just have that curse on them! ;) But... I am happy to report that I really did enjoy this book and it was much better than the first book, in my opinion. There still is a bit to learn and take in and REMEMBER (most importantly, I think) but it was pretty much all crammed into the first book, so with this one, you are kind of feeling like you know a bit more about the characters and whatnot. This is actually a really good start to series that I'm finding myself kind of excited to follow. There will obviously be 13 books in the series, if not more, based on "The Kings". Each of the kings rule over a paranormal type of myth/legend/creature... like the first one was the Vampire king... this one was the Phantom king, ruling over the dead and so on and so forth. In each book they are giving a bit more detail into the other kings and I'm finding myself looking forward to particular kings' books! Like the Frost king sounds interesting! ;) But like I said, this was about Thanatos, the Phantom king. And the name is either coincidence or a nod towards Death of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse... not sure if Walden meant it that way or not? But the way the reader, Ferguson, read Than's name literally almost killed me. Like every.single.time!!! Gah! Obviously, the reader is quite british and his accent is extremely thick and its just how he says certain words like GAR-AGE, oh my gosh, just kills me! And so of course this book has to be one of those cliche girl-loves-cars book (you know the ones I'm talking about...) so GARAGE was like every other paragraph... *sigh* so yeah, the reader slaughters the pronouncing of the name Thanatos, putting the emphasis on the wrong syllables and whatnot. Literally kills me!

Okay... moving along. So how do we get the sound of SHA-VON from the spelling of "Siobhan" I mean, like honestly? How does that even WORK?! Luckily I don't READ the books, I just LISTEN, but every time someone said her name in the book, the spelling immediately popped into my head... IDK. But those are just weird, goofy things about me. Those things have nothing to do with the book, LOL! :P I'm just a dork. Okay, so moving right along... oh! Speaking of moving along, this one (like the first book) went along mighty quickly. It was like one minute they meet, the next they bump uglies, then, TA DA, they are WED? WTF? And it even popped into her mind for a second that it sounds a little quick to her. But, she gives into the big hunka-hunka burnin' love! I have to admit, these books need more hot n heavy. They are a little TOO quick for me, barely registering at 7 hours total, so pretty short books, relatively, and though I really am starting to enjoy the really fantastic detail and writing style, there are still some parts that bounce back and forth between the present of the book or swap between points of view and "reverse" the plot to do so... it throws things off a bit. I understand WHY she does this in writing, but it sometimes doesn't really translate well when you have such a short book. Those moments could be skipped over and  and more chemistry between the characters could be built up. After getting over the shock of the complete non-existent bond between the Vampire king and his queen in the first book, I was surprised to see more interaction between Than and Siobhan (I can't even spell that without tripping out... but I digress...) and it was a nice change. Anyway. Enough late night rambling from me. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the books in this series! :)

Not too shabby... it's gettin' there...

See you guys next time! Not quite sure what's up next, I have a lot in my TBRP!