The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen #1)

The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen #1)

Emily R King

As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple. But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.
Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death- and her growing affection for Deven- Kalinda has only one hope for escape, and it lies in an arcane, forbidden power buried within her.
Excerpt taken from book.

Language

D***- 2

Religious Cursing

Gods-9

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A jug of alcohol is given to a group as a gift.  One man drinks a small amount to help the pain of needing to stitch up a wound.  

Wine is served at a meal.

Women and men are drinking and smoking hookah at a gathering.

The king drinks from a chalice as he watches an execution.

A woman is offered wine, she takes it but does not drink.  Many are drunk at a gathering.

A man’s breath smells of alcohol.  A woman puffs on a pipe. Wine is served.  

A man smells of alcohol. He later takes many drinks of his flask and his fiance encourages him, hoping he will get drunk.  

A man drinks a large amount of alcohol at a celebration.  A woman smokes a hookah pipe. A woman is offered wine.

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

Multiple young woman disrobe in front of their female peers for part of a ceremony.   A healer inspects each of them individually. They are then individually shown to a benefactor to be chosen.  Each disrobes, is blindfolded and the man comes out. For one young woman, he traces her jaw and neck with his fingertip.  She prepares to be groped but his fingers pull away. He chooses her and rubs her hip. He chooses two young women, one to be his wife, the other to be his courtesan.  

The young women were given a study course on “bedchamber behaviors.”  A young woman wonders if a man’s touch can truly “awaken” feminine pleasures.  

In a city it is common for parents to kick their children out at a young age.  Girls typically become prostitutes.

As a courtesan, the women essentially become prostitutes.  The woman is saved for the king first but is then expected to pleasure anyone in the court who requests.  They are not allowed to refuse a man. At their common area, some women are half-dressed and men join whenever they like.

A woman is given a bath by other women.  

After the initial wedding night, the wife and king are never alone for intimacy again.  Other wives and courtesan’s are invited.

The women often have a bare midriff.

A man drinks as a courtesan sits on his lap.  He pours some down her throat also.

After a man’s wife and child die he in inconsolable, drinking a lot and causing pain to women he slept with.  

A man and engaged woman kiss.  He wraps his arms around her and she caresses his face.  

A man rubs his fiance’s hip and says that he might not be able to wait till their wedding night.  

A man and woman passionately kiss.  They run their hands through each other’s hair.

While lying on a bed, a man and woman kiss passionately.  They sleep next to each other but no intimacy other than kissing is implied.  

Two fiance’s kiss hard, while she sits on his lap.  He says they will be together soon.

A man kisses his fiance.

A woman lies down naked on a table for women to draw henna markings on her.  

A woman walks out from behind a dressing screen completely naked.  She uses her body in a sensual way to entice her husband. Descriptive details are not given other than bare chests touching and being skin to skin.  No sex. Two men find the couple naked, they help the woman recover and cover her with a robe.

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

Young women are taught and fight with staffs.  They also are experienced in many sharp weapons and train often.

Multiple young woman duel.  They are given their choice of weapon and whomever bleeds first, loses.   One young woman has another pinned. To draw blood she deliberately slices her cheek, then goes to slice her other cheek when another young woman knocks her down and nicks her throat with the woman’s own sword.  

A man has 99 wives.  When he marries the 100, the other wives and concourses can duel and try to claim a higher rank or the first spot as his favored wife.  The one who is being challenged can be killed so the other woman can take her rank.

A woman fought for her rank as first wife and slit another’s neck open.  

A courtesan dies during childbirth.  She is not given a burial.

A woman carries a dagger around her calf.  

A group of cloaked men chase after a carriage. One jumps on and chokes the driver.  His face leeches of color, his eyes shrivel and his nose and lips wither, and his skin sags while his body crumbles to ash and blows away.  Two women hold a slingshot and dagger. A woman jabs her dagger at the man but he melts it with fire. Her eyes then roll back and she collapses.  Another woman shoots her slingshot, hitting the man in the forehead. He grabs her throat, threatens her then drops her and leaves.

There was a war between common people and men with powers.  The common people eventually overcame them but not before many of their villages were destroyed and everyone in them.  

A wife has run off with her lover.  When found, she will be killed. When found, she is dragged in front of a crowd and  given 35 lashes with a whip-like blade.

Upon seeing an enemy, a man draws his sword.

Soldiers carry a khanda which is a double-edged sword.

A young woman is sent to the infirmary after sparring with another woman.  Her throat was damaged after a staff was pushed on it.

When wives refused to duel, the king sent archers to shoot the resisters.  

A woman gives another woman a hidden dagger.  

People with powers are found and killed.  Their powers lie within their blood so they are drained of blood then rocks are piled upon them.  The king orders one to be “finished” and large rocks are dropped upon her while the sound of crushing bones is heard.  The people with powers used to be considered good but the king killed most of them and burned their texts and changed the public opinion of them.  He keeps a small vial of each one’s blood.

A large snake is placed in a woman’s bed.  She tries to defend herself but a man comes and chops it’s head off with an ax.

Multiple women duel.  There is blood, numerous weapons, gruesome battles and death.  One woman will die with each duel.

Using a form of dark magic,  the king intends to bring back his first wife and place her in the soul of the hundredth wife, therefore making her soul die.  He also plans to kill the 200+ courtesans he has.

A woman is going through a ritual that will “bleed” her and find her powers.  Her blood is released with a knife and she is cut multiple times and feels her insides are on fire. She screams in agony.

A married woman falls in love with another man, and is pregnant with his child.  When she tries to run, her husband catches the two and executes the man. The woman is sent into early labor and her and the child die.  

A man beats his young wife.  She often has bruises or split lips.  

A man is imprisoned and his face is beaten beyond recognition.  He is sentenced to a death of stoning. He is being tortured when a small group intervene.  One hits a guard with a slingshot stone, another throws an ax in another guard’s chest. The guards retaliate and one man holds an ax to a woman’s throat. The woman brings a hidden knife to his throat and kills him.  Another man throws a dagger at a guard’s back and he falls, dead. Running, they encounter archers but one man throws his ax and kills some, while others continue to come. A woman touches a man, turning him to ash. Another man fights with a sword.  They encounter many more guards, each using multiple weapons. One woman throws a dagger, another man throws fire. Someone hits a woman with a blade and she falls. She dies in her friend’s arms, blood pooling around her like wings. While running, a man jerks and falls, blood flows down his back from an arrow.  A woman drags him by his feet as he leaves a bloody trail. She gets him away but is caught, she tries to fight with a dagger but is hit in the head, unconscious.

A man and woman fight three guards, knocking them unconscious and hitting one in the head.

A man is said to have drowned and washed ashore with his face eaten by fish.    

In a duel, a woman stabs another in the chest, and blood pours out.  In another duel, a woman cuts another woman on the arm with her sword.  She is hit in the face with a shield. Another woman is stabbed in the thigh.  One woman holds her weapon high to bring it down to kill but she is struck in the back and killed.  During another dual, one woman grabs another woman’s hair, controlling her head, and knees her in the back.  They fight back and forth with hands, no weapons, choking each other, stomping on previous injuries and more.  One grabs a dagger and is being held back while aiming for the other’s neck, so close that she is piercing skin.  The other woman is able to push her off, turn the blade around and plunge it into her chest.

A woman is asked to kill a man next time she is alone with him.  She agrees.

A woman is given an oil that contains poison.  When she places it on her skin, whoever touches it becomes sick.

A woman intends to poison a man and kill him.  She slips poison into his cup. He doesn’t drink so she puts it in some lotion.  He feels it burning, he can tell she is causing him harm. He stumbles about and falls, eventually the light leaves his eyes.  

A man causes rocks to fall on a group of soldiers.  A woman causes a wind to lift soldiers off the ground very, very high then drop them to the ground.  Screams are heard then silence.

Potentially Intense Themes

Young women are warned of evil demons living in nearby caves.

Young women are “claimed” without their opinion.  They are used as servants, courtesans or wives.

Three people run as the building they’re in collapses all around them.