Description
Given to the Warrior
www.violetstarbooks.com/given-to-the-warrior
She was the daughter of a cargo hauling smuggler, living her entire life aboard the spaceship Thunder Runner. Suffering in grief after space pirates attacked and killed her parents, she was now stranded on a tiny alien world full of savage natives. Faced with no family or home to return to, she had no choice but to make a new life for herself in a world entirely different to her own.
He was a mighty warrior on the primitive planet Ta’nai. Born during a tremendous thunderstorm and named for their God of thunder, he had proven himself to be one of the tribe’s best and most feared Fasaü. Burdened by grief, his soul mourned the loss of the woman he had loved deeply several winters ago, and he stubbornly refused to take another. Unwilling to open his battered heart to let another in again.
The arrival of the strange pale-skinned woman who fell down from the sky was seen by the Elders as a sign from the Gods. A special golden-haired gift from the Goddess, clearly intended to bring the sun’s light back to the child-of-thunder whose sorrow left him wallowing in darkness. With the woman in need of a home and the warrior in need of a life partner, the Elders demanded he accept the opportunity that he had been given – lest the Gods be angered at his refusal.
Both unwilling, the two begrudgingly wed. The offworlder who did not know their customs and could not speak their language, and the hardened warrior who did not want her.
- Forced marriage (unwanted by both)
- Gentle but grumpy Hero
- Shy virginal Heroine
- “Consent King” Hero
- Emotional Journey
- Hero who shows emotions & vulnerability
- Slow Burn
- Romance with Sci-fi/Fantasy aspects
- Third Person (past tense)
- Relationship established halfway through story
- Low-medium spice (sensual) love scenes
- No “3rd Act breakups” or relationship dramas
- No explicit love scenes
- No magic or mystical elements
- No Hero mistreating the Heroine
Click here for Content Warnings
Depictions of death & grief
The main male character’s former partner and unborn child died several years prior to the start of the book and him showing his grief, and slowly opening his heart to love again are large components of the story.
The main female character’s parents are killed in the beginning of the story, and her grief is mentioned and shown a few times during the story.
There are scenes of battle that include death and injury.
Minor Sci-fi and fantasy elements
This story is set on a planet of human-looking tribal natives, who have a strong spiritual connection to their Gods. It contains some elements of space travel and space ships (the main female character is from space, as are some minor characters), with one minor character who is not humanoid. However the vast majority of the story is a real-world-adjacent setting, with no magic or other high fantasy elements.
Sexual themes
Intimate scenes are more sensual and steamy rather than hot and “spicy”, using implied and euphemistic terms. “Low Spice” version has fewer and less detailed intimate scenes than the regular version. Neither version uses explicit or vulgar language.
Threat of sexual Coercion – [Removed in “Low Spice” version]
In Chapter 5, the female character believes she will have to consummate the marriage (in a public), and does not want to do so. She is explicitly given the opportunity to decline the marriage, but eventually affirmatively decides she will go through with it. The main male character realises that she does not consent to the consummation, so he instead briefly simulates the act (grinding against her while both are fully clothed) to pretend it took place to spare her from having to do it.
Threats of rape – Enemy characters make a threat of rape to the main female character – but they are threats only, and the characters do not have the opportunity to carry them out. While the female character is disrobed in both occasions, the men remain fully clothed and never actually touch the female character at all. The word “rape” is never used – it is referred to in more veiled terms such as “Have some fun with her”, “Take her to my bed”, “They attempted to dishonour her” and “I will have you”.
Instance #1 (at the end of Chapter 1) – [Not included in the “Low Spice” version]
Enemy makes a direct threat and is about to remove his clothes to do so, but he is stopped before anything happens (the attempt is referenced a couple of times in the story).
Instance #2 (at the end of Chapter 9) – [Slightly modified in “Low Spice” version]
Implied threat by a captor (“Take her to my bed”), which never takes place. (She convinces them not to harm her, so she is not taken to his bed, and nobody touches her).
