All the King’s Men Duet Book 1
This story is a duet and the first book has a time frame of fourteen years. I guess I’ve become used to single books, even series, having a tight timeline and I got a bit frustrated with the slow movement of the plot. This means there’s a lot of detail and multiple layers and issues covered. It’s hard to review the book without giving a lot of those details.
The plot charts the relationship between Lennix Hunter, an Apache, and rights activist for marginalised groups, and Maxim Cade, scientist, and son of a ruthless billionaire oil tycoon. They first meet at a protest against his father’s company where he saves her from attack dogs, but he doesn’t reveal who he is. As an environmentalist, Maxim has been pulling away from the control of his father, but when he learns about his plans regarding the sacred Apache site he cuts all ties.
There is a lot of backstory before the plot jumps forward four years to when they meet again in Amsterdam and things really take off between them. At this stage we get to know a lot more about the characters and they have great depth.
Lennix very strong with a firm sense of who she is. She knows what she wants and is unwilling to settle for less. Maxim is also brimming with confidence and determination. He’s got a sense of integrity that clashes with his father’s. Both Lennix and Maxim have aspirations to save the world. She wants to save people, while he literally wants to save the planet, and they’re both zealous about their subject.
Lennix jokes about how Maxim inspires her: “I feel chagrined and incredibly turned on and concerned about the planet all of a sudden. I want to recycle and dry hump him in the middle of the square.”
Maxim has been using a different name, but the attraction is impossible to resist. They recognise they have a short time together before they have to go their separate ways and achieve their dreams. At this point I’m internally shouting that they have something special and surely they should at least try to be together while they fulfil their aspirations, but it’s not to be. She finds out who his father is, and she can’t forgive his omission. He vows he will come back for her when the time is right.
Fast forward ten years and they have both achieved so much, but they still can’t forget what they had together. He refuses to give up on her, but Lennix has intimacy issues caused by the disappearance of her mother. Her problem is she is so focused on helping others she doesn’t allow any time for what she needs. I spent a lot of the book wishing for someone to make her realise this, but finally, she gets it: “Does never having someone to lose mean I’ll never have someone . . . at all?”
So they finally get together. The reader is riding the high with them, but they have to part once more. I’m clawing through the last ten percent with an inkling of doom, and praying for her to return to him safely, but no. It ends on a literal cliffhanger that had me downloading the second part straight away.
This review is much more detailed that my others but the drawn out plot made it necessary. The characters have such depth it’s so easy to get into their heads and root for them. The feels in this really kick off when they meet in Amsterdam and while there are only a few sex scenes, they are hot and passionate. There’s so much to this story that I could write about, such as the myriad issues facing indigenous people, but I urge you to try it yourself and you won’t be disappointed.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
