Title: The Robin On The Oak Throne
Author: K A Linde, narrated by Stephanie Nemeth-ParkerI
Length: 400 pages, 18 hours 53 mins
Genre: Romance, fantasy, adventure. Sub-genre: forced-proximity, found family
Is this part of a series? Yes, this is book two of the Oak & Holly series.
I discovered this book via… the author’s instagram.
Published: June 17th, 2025
Summary courtesy of Goodreads:
Can you trust the dark when you know that it lies?
Kierse McKenna just shattered the Monster Treaty. Again.
It wasn’t entirely her fault. The job was supposed to be simple: steal a goblin-made bracelet off of the Queen of the Nymphs in her own palace. Trade the bracelet for a way to uncover the truth about her past. Except everything goes sideways.
And then he shows up to save her.
Graves—the warlock who ensnared her, betrayed her, and left her to fend for herself. He’s a villain. A monster draped in charm and shadows. And gods help her, he always knows exactly what she wants.
But Graves never does anything for free. He has a job for his favorite little thief. One that will pit her against the most powerful monsters in existence, including his mortal enemy, the Oak King.
An ancient artifact has been located, and only together can they hope to steal it. She just has to let him in.
But once she lets a monster in, he’s impossible to forget… and even harder to resist.
My thoughts:
I actually finished this book a few weeks ago, but I have a bad habit of telling myself I need to process or wait before reviewing- sometimes because I feel like emotions will make me unfair…. and sometimes because I know damn well that if I start directly after reading I will sound like a deranged fangirl. In this case it was the later, and I will most likely still sound like a deranged fangirl (because I am). There will be spoilers, I apologize in advance.
First, you will have wanted to read The Wren In The Holly Library- this book starts a few months after the events there. (Plus it’s amazing). I fell completely in love with the Kierse with that book. We always talk about the strong female lead- she’s a badass. Loyal, smart, strong and hilarious, I loved watching her. In this book we had a lot of character growth- seeing Kierse allowing herself to be a little vulnerable, learning to trust and love, accepting help… and then there’s Graves. He let himself open up, treated Kierse as an equal and explained himself. These are things I would have said were he wasn’t capable of. Watching him try to make amends with Kierse was everything. Also, the way he kept introducing her as his wife, and watching her reaction to it, was amazing.
In this book we have expanded on the lore and world built in book one. Kierse and her friends are learning to navigate not just being part of a triskel, but the fact that two of them chose to go with Graves, and one with Lorcan. Ethan upset me a couple times, but he did show growth. It would be easy to hero-worship the man that taught you about your world, so I do get it. Lorcan, and his obsession with Kierse, was twisted. There were times I felt bad for him, but there were also times he infuriated me. I did like the way the link between them was portrayed. How Kierse was nearly blase about it once she knew. Basically, “Yeah, I can feel him- he’s over there.” I am glad that she didn’t fall all over him when it was revealed he was her soul mate- that wouldn’t have been in character at all. The introspective “oh” moment where she understood her own earlier reactions to him- that was in character.
I am seeing a lot of people say that the first half was a slog, I didn’t feel that. It moved more slowly, but I needed the extra time in the goblin market. I wanted more lore, and I wanted to know more about Kierse’s past. Kierse’s growth in the first half made me happy. Watching Graves grasp at absolutely anything to win her forgiveness made me smile (petty, I know). For me, it wasn’t a terrible ride. It did make the fast pace of the last fourth of the book a tiny bit jarring, so I would say that the flow of the story was not fantastic. It got a bit choppy, but it was still easy to follow.
All in all, I loved the book- a five star find for me. I might be biased, though, because I love Kierse. I did think book one was better in many ways, but the relationship growth (both with the couple and the chosen family) made up for the pacing. I bought the book the morning it came out- audio and hardback (shoutout to the poor guy at Target that had to go to the back to grab it for me. He didn’t even blink when I showed him my Audible read so that he could see the cover of the book he was going to search for). I also bought the sticker bundle from Linde’s website.
As far as adult content, there is language, substance abuse, physical and emotional trauma, sexual content (the scenes get pretty spicy) and violence. I would say this one is geared toward adults.
It bares noting that this is aparently a companion series very loosely related to the Blood Type series, which talks about the monster war that is so often referenced in this series. I have yet to read the first book, The Monster and the Last Blood Match, but I have it. I am excited to dive in. Have you read any of these? It looks like The Monster and the Last Blood Match is a renaming of an earlier book, Blood Type.
Happy Reading,
Gwen
