When We Were Kings (The Wolf of Oberhame, #1)

by Auryn Hadley

[EBookObsessed]

Gladiators, Princesses, Political Intrigue. When We Were Kings is all action and suspense. It was so hard to put down since every scene was a fight for their lives or preparing for one.

One moment Leyli was a princess sleeping in her bed, the next she is tossed into an arena to fight for her life. If not for dumb luck and the help of The Lion of Lenlochlien, Leyli would not have survived her first day. But the Lion saw the fighter–the survivor–in the young woman he named The Wolf of Oberhame.

What started out as a marketing gimmick by their owner to fight the large man and the tiny woman in tandem matches has become a phenomena. Everyone wants to watch the Lion and the Wolf work together to defeat the other gladiators, but the attention might just be Leyli’s downfall. The night her cousin killed her brother, he dragged her away to die in the pits all to remove them both from the throne’s succession. If he knew that Leyli lives, he need only set up a fight Leyli cannot win against a bigger and stronger opponent.

Tristan and Leyli live and train together. They have come to rely upon each other and their friendship has become one neither could live without. But some secrets Leyli cannot share, not even with the man who has become her whole world. Tristan has trained her to fight and hold her own, but if he knew that the woman beside him was the missing princess, he would get himself killed trying to keep her safe.

Tristan and Leyli have to draw that line in the sand between partners and something more. Tristan allows the other fighters to believe they are lovers to keep them from trying anything. A female is fair game–even a female gladiator–but no one would touch the Lion’s woman. Leyli even convinces her owner not to sell her body to the local nobles since a pregnant gladiator is a dead gladiator. While they never become lovers, they are very intimate. Tristan makes Leyli undress in front of him, not for any sexual reason–Tristan has spent two years being sold for the pleasure of rich women–he does it, so that she would not be shocked if someone were to tear her clothes during a battle. A moment of distraction or modesty could get them both killed. But their relationship eventually develops deeper and they even begin to sleep together (not sex) for just that illusion of having someone who cares about them. Try as they might to ignore them, feeling grow between them, especially since their partnership has become all that either of them have.

Leyli knows that she might not survive until she can get word to her father, if he is even still alive, but Tristan needs only to survive for a handful of fights and by law, he must be freed. Leyli would give up everything, including her own life, to see Tristan survive the games and start a new life as a free man. But Tristan is beginning to want that new life with Leyli by his side. Will they both survive to gain their freedom and what happens when Tristan finds out that the woman he believes might be a merchant’s daughter turns out to be the future Queen?

I really enjoyed the story but it is hard not to since it is all about Leyli and Tristan developing their relationship between bloody, gladiator battles. While you think how can a woman keep winning fights against the bigger, brawny men, Tristan teaches her how to use her size to her advantage and when fighting tandem, she is the shield and he is the blade.

This is the first of three and I am waiting for the release of the other two stories in audiobook format. Mostly because I have so many eBooks to read already, I like to split what I can into the audiobook pile. I started listening to the audiobook series since a copy was offered to me by Tantor, but narrator Justine Eyre, who also does Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series, is not one of my favorite narrators. I would have enjoyed it that much more if they had used someone different.

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