Book Review: Kiss of the Basilisk

Last week I read Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube. It’s been on my radar for months now since I saw it go viral on social media.

The novel follows Temperance “Tem” Verus. Where she lives all young women who are born the same year as the prince compete against each other to become his wife and queen when he is at the age to ascend to the throne and take the crown from his father. Tem was born the same year as Prince Leo. The one who wins the competition is basically the one who can seduce him the best. In order to prepare for this, all the girls are trained by basilisk shifters. Long ago there was a war between humans and basilisks and the humans won so the basilisks serve the humans/royal family. Tem’s basilisk trainer, Caspen, has never had a student not win. But as he trains her in the art of seduction and Tem and him get closer together, feelings develop. Will she purposely try not to win so she can be with Caspen? Will things work out with them when basilisks and humans aren’t supposed to be together? And to make things more complicated, the more she gets to know Leo, the more she likes him and starts to fall for him too.

I liked this book, but didn’t love it as much as I had hoped I would. I thought the storyline was really interesting, but Tem really annoyed me at times. She was giving Bella in Twilight vibes at times and similarly at times I felt like both Leo and Caspen could do better like Edward and Jacob. Also, if you’re a regular around here you know I love spicy books and am no stranger to smutty novels, but I felt like there was almost an excess of sex here for no reason. It just got to the point where it was so much sex that it got boring if that makes sense.

Nonetheless, I still think the storyline is really interesting. I’m not sure if this is going to be a why choose or just a love triangle, but I do plan to read the next book when it comes out to find out what happens next! Right now I like Leo more than Caspen. I like Caspen too, but I did find him a little manipulative at times.

So while I didn’t love this book, I did like it enough to want to read the next book when it comes out later this fall and see what happens!