Minotaur: Blooded by Naomi Lucas [Review]

Minotaur: Blooded (The Bestial Tribe #1) by Naomi Lucas
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: October 30, 2018

The Bestial Tribe
1. Minotaur: Blooded - Paperback | Kindle
2. Minotaur: Prayer

Naomi Lucas
| Website | Facebook | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Aldora lived in a bordertown on the edge of the maze. A labyrinth that spanned an eternity filled with creatures that howled through the night. She was a daughter to farmers that worked the fields and endured a quiet life as a peasant, away from the capital and its nihilistic celebrations; away from all that would look at her and discern her worth. Because to be chosen as a sacrifice was to be chosen to die. Until one night, while at the edge, she heard a husky voice in the darkness.

Vedikus Bathyr.
He prowled the overgrown passages at the farthest edges where the true, intelligent beasts roamed. They were all there for the same reasons: to kill each other and capture the humans that entered the labyrinth.

On one fated night a human girl called out to him. A girl with a voice that quickened his blood. But he wasn’t the only one to hear her call...
---

Minotaur is a dark fantasy romance with explicit violence and possible triggers. Mature readers only.

Thoughts on Minotaur: Blooded: Naomi Lucas has created a dark, fantastic world with this series that I think I'm going to like. Vedikus and his brothers are walking the thin edge of...I don't know how to put it. Extinction, maybe. They're tribe is withering and Vedikus knows they need to do something fast to change things, but he never expected someone like Aldora to drop into his world.

She is, to put things bluntly, completely unprepared for the reality of survival in the labyrinth. It's not her fault, though, because everything about the labyrinth is cloaked in mystery and whispers on her side of the wall. She literally has no idea what to expect other than death. Fast if she's lucky, slow if she's not.

Vedikus isn't terribly patient with her, either, in the beginning. He basically tells her to suck it up and deal (which, while harsh, is exactly what she needs to do) and it isn't until later that he begins to see her as more than a potential broodmare for his tribe. (Not that that particular thing is off the table, but it turns a little more loving toward the end.) (Or, you know, as loving as a minotaur bred for battle and bloodshed can get.)

Sure, things are a little dark and the mist/labyrinth itself is a hotbed of dangerous things, but I'm digging it here. From the sound of things, Vedikus's brothers are going to have their own twisty hurdles to get through before they can claim a piece of the happiness. Maybe then things will change in Vedikus's world. Or maybe not. Only time (and the next few books) will tell.