What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller

What Fury Brings (Wrath and Fury #1)

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Tricia Levenseller makes her adult debut in What Fury Brings, a sexy, empowering romantasy featuring a warrior general who must kidnap and train a husband in order to take her rightful place as queen.

There's a shortage of men in the kingdom of Amarra. After a failed rebellion against the matriarchy, most noblemen in the country are dead. Now the women of Amarra must obtain their husbands (should they want one) by kidnapping them from other kingdoms.

Olerra, a warrior princess vying for the throne, is determined to prove her worth by kidnapping a husband. And not just any husband. To outmaneuver her treacherous cousin, she needs the best. Fortunately, the second-born prince of their greatest enemy is widely known for both his looks and his sweet, docile temperament. He's the perfect choice to secure her claim to the throne.

Sanos, heir to the Kingdom of Brutus, has nothing but contempt for the idea of a society run by women. Trained from birth to fight, lead, and follow in his father's overbearing footsteps, his path has always been set. Until he takes his younger brother's place in a drunken prank and finds himself kidnapped, carted off to the Amarran Palace, and informed that he is to become the husband of Queen Potential Olerra. Sanos needs to escape before anyone learns his real identity, but the more he gets to know his captor, the less sure he is of what he truly wants.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Gender-bent dark romantasy with a kidnap plot
• Badass female characters running the show and tearing down the patriarchy (in an absolutely problematic way, of course)
• Unhealthy romance with banter, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, and strong characters
• Political plotting and scheming
• Social commentary based on gender

Overall

I absolutely devoured The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller, so of course I was so excited to see an adult debut coming down the pipeline from her! Plus, that cover? Looks absolutely fierce. Everything about it screamed something I needed to read!

What Fury Brings is a romantasy featuring a strong, badass female character with a matriarchal society, ill-fated and forbidden enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and lots of plotting and scheming.

While I really enjoyed this book while I was reading it and was thoroughly entertained, now that it’s been a few weeks since I finished it, I find that it’s not one that has particularly stuck with me. It’s a book that is wildly entertaining in the moment, but not one that feels very memorable. That being said, I DID enjoy this! Tricia Levenseller is great at enemies-to-lovers and dark romance, in a way that always entertains me. Plus, Olerra is a badass. Who doesn’t want to root for that?! That makes this one incredibly hard to rate . . . but what are ratings, anyway?

I received a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

My Thoughts

Meet Olerra, supreme badass warrior and potential future queen of matriarchal Amarra, who has to kidnap a husband to win the favor of her people and earn her queendom.

The world Levenseller weaves is an interesting one. Amarra is a matriarchal society, where men have no rights, and women can prove their status in society through their harem. It’s basically a gender-flipped society, which opens the narrative up to some interesting discussion about the treatment of people based on their gender. Especially considering that Amarra is very gender-inclusive and allows flexibility for those who don’t fit cleanly into boxes. But don’t get mistaken in thinking that it’s some great utopia . . . because, as Sanos is about to find out, that is far from the case. The legend behind the founding of Amarra is heartbreaking, but does a lot to explain how everything swung so far in the other direction, rather than a happy medium.

Olerra decides to send a powerful message to her people (and her foes) by claiming an enemy prince as her spouse. Too bad she kidnaps the wrong one.

It’s an entirely understandable mistake, of course, considering there are, like, seven sons, and it’s not like Olerra has actually seen any of them. For all Olerra knows, her plan goes off without a hitch, and she has successfully kidnapped the mostly useless, poetry-obsessed second son of the Kingdom of Brutus. Only Sanos, the eldest son and therefore the heir, knows her mistake . . . and he has no reason to be honest about his identity, as long as he believes keeping the secret will also keep him alive long enough to escape. Classic mix-up trope, but one with serious consequences, because kidnapping an heir to the kingdom is a declaration of war.

What Fury Brings is a sex-positive dark romance has some medium spice, if that’s your thing, with an emphasis on it being consensual . . . but with somewhat dubious consent?

I know that the whole premise of kidnapping and forced marriage could absolutely lead to some potentially triggering things, so consent is technically given in all the on-page sex scenes . . . as much as it can be when someone is taken captive, chained, and has no rights. I think we can argue that it’s not really possible to give consent when you’re a slave, or at the very least it’s not true consent. While I’m not at all qualified to talk about the quality of the sex scenes in general, I will point out that they are very sex-positive with lots of checking in on partners, ensuring everyone’s needs are met, and discussing likes and dislikes.

The romance is . . . interesting. It’s a dark romance with a lot of common tropes like forced proximity, enemies to lovers, forbidden love, and banter between two very strong characters in their own right.

These are all tropes that I absolutely love, so they worked in my favor, of course. There were also tropes that I didn’t particularly enjoy as much, such as forced submission and humiliation. These make sense in the context of the book, of course—and there even may be an argument that Olerra “had to” behave this way due to societal constraints—but they aren’t things I’m particularly fond of.

That being said, the romance was fun . . . which feels really weird to say about a kidnapping? Hmm. Well, anywho . . . Levenseller spends enough time building out the romance and building the characters’ growth, both individually and as a couple, that the progression was enjoyable, if not entirely believable. I still struggle with the idea that a first-born prince from a severely patriarchal society would be able to forgive a woman who subjugated and humiliated him. This feels a lot like Stockholm Syndrome. That being said, this is a dark romance, and it follows a lot of the same tropes as traditional dark romance (which I generally find problematic in general) but gender-flipped, so I suppose it makes sense in that context.

Sticking Points

The romance is also a sticking point . . . for all the reasons stated above . . . plus for the weird insta-lust thing.

Despite these two kingdoms being mortal enemies and their beliefs being diametrically opposed, these two leaders immediately lust for each other the moment they see each other. I mean, I kind of get it, I guess? She’s hot. He’s hot. People are human. Maybe it’s the Ace in me, but I still think it’s extremely freaking weird to immediately want to jump the bones of your sworn enemy.

While I enjoyed the glimpse into Amarra, the political intrigue felt very stale and almost cartoonish in its villainy. It makes me wonder how no one was caught or figured things out before the “big reveal”.

On one hand, it felt very timely and realistic with the whole everyone knows what’s going on but wink wink we don’t really have proof so we can’t do anything. But on the other . . . I need a more compelling villain than that. Olerra was pitted against her cousin, who was supposedly a shrewd, cunning woman. Except I didn’t get that impression. She felt more like a spoiled rich woman who everyone knew was hot garbage but allowed her to behave that way for . . . reasons? Which I did not understand?

There is a sort of magic system that was kind of confusing, and I’m not entirely sure what its purpose was, but it gives the women of Amarra strength over men.

On the surface, this plays into the feminism aspect of women being able to overpower men, but in actuality . . . it was kind of weak? The only way it impacted the plot was by making Olerra Not Like Other Girls(™). I understand the way this comes full circle, and the message I assume the author was trying to send, but it does rub me the wrong way. Plus, this was the only mention of magic, which makes it feel a bit like a copout rather than an element of the world.

About Tricia Levenseller

Tricia Levenseller is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of eight YA romantasies, including the Daughter of the Pirate King duology and The Shadows between Us. Her books have been translated into twenty languages and counting.

Tricia grew up in Oregon, where she spent her childhood climbing trees and playing make believe. She now lives in Utah with her bossy dog, Rosy, where she writes full time. When she’s not writing or reading, Tricia enjoys putting together jigsaw puzzles, playing video games, and finding tasty restaurants to frequent.

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