Court of the Vampire Queen collects all three novel(la)s (Sacrifice, Heir, Queen) of the Bloodline Vampires series by Katee Robert.
Finished on: 4.1.2023

Content Note: dubious consent, ableism

Plot:
Mina is a dhampir, half-human and half-vampire, but with none of the abilities that usually come with that. Since her father has no other use for her, he gave her as a gift to Malachi, one of the few Bloodline vampires left – not turned, but born a vampire. In the best case, in her father’s opinion, Mina will carry his heir. In the worst case, she will have kept Malachi under his control a little longer. Mina is not particularly happy about this, but to her surprise, neither is Malachi. As the two start to slowly form their relationship, Malachi is visited by two old friends who couldn’t be more different from each other, Wolf and Rylan. But both take an interest in Mina as well. And together, they have enough power to take up the fight against Mina’s father.

Court of the Vampire Queen is mostly sex scenes in a rather elaborate political world, an intriguing mix that is not exactly good, but very fun to read.

Court of the Vampire Queen is the kind of book where it takes approximately 3 pages to get to the first orgasm, just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about when I say that it is mostly sex. The third part is a bit more plot-heavy, but not overly so, either. That this first orgasm isn’t consented to isn’t ideal, to put it mildly, and there are a couple of more moments in the book where Mina isn’t given a whole lot of choice, but fortunately, it’s not too much to ignore (at least that’s what I thought). And for the most part, everybody is really enjoying themselves and wants to fuck. That fucking often has plot reasons as well and not just lust is something you have to roll with, though.

In any case, Mina and her three men, because yes, this is a polyamory/reverse harem story, and yes, it is also gay/bi/queer, are thrown together by chance and do work things out rather nicely. Malachi is still the main dude though, Wolf and Rylan don’t get the same attention, especially not emotionally. Which is fine, just something to keep in mind. I am pretty sure the book works through all constellations in this foursome (and a fair share of sexual positions).

If you’re considering this book for its plot, and not its porn, I wouldn’t bother, though. The world-building is quite extensive, as I said, but the plot isn’t all that interesting per se. There are a couple of things I found problematic (apart from the consent issues), especially the way that Mina’s disability is healed through the magic of vampire blood. That’s just an ableist trope.

The book is written competently enough that it’s a good read, even though there are a couple of repetitive explanations (easily explained when you consider that these were three separately published books first) and it’s not exactly well-written. I’m not sure whether I will look for more stuff by Robert, but I certainly won’t run screaming should it fall into my hands.

Summarizing: if you want vampire porn, there are definitely worse books to read.