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The Plot
Every winter the kingdom’s Split or Swallow program (think The Bachelor filmed in a dungeon) pairs fourteen hopeful women with basilisk mentors to weaponize seduction and win Prince Leo’s hand. Tem, who has never been kissed, draws Caspen, the Serpent King: six feet of fangs, scales, and daddy issues. What begins as flirty lessons escalates into a conspiracy that could petrify both humans and basilisks, and Tem is the hinge on which betrayal will turn.
My Breakdown
This book gave me:
🐍 Utterly feral vibes — reality‑TV absurdity meets venomous court intrigue.
👑 Caspen — lethal yet reverent
🗡 Tem’s agency — she weaponizes softness, then claws back power when softness fails.
🎲 Competition‑as‑world‑building – each trial peels back palace politics.
Where to start?
This book has the most smut I’ve ever read in one book. I’ve read smut that was more extreme in some ways, but never this much of it in one place. So, if you do not like open doors, this book is not for you.
While I love reading smut, I’m a very difficult-to-please smut reader. Because, A, I don’t like tropes that are very common in smuttier books: bullying , Non-consent and age gap. So that kind of rules out two-thirds of the smuttier reading options. And also, I can’t feel like I’m losing brain cells while reading. I need some level of character development. I need a plot. I need to be curious about what’s going to happen next. Just reading about sex doesn’t deliver that on its own.
And I think that’s why I chose to review this book. I was curious, from the very beginning to the very end. And I’m still curious to read the sequel, which is coming out soon. I’m very intrigued to see how the author plans to make another book with these characters still feel fresh.
“You little slut”
It was the same thing Jonathan had called her – the time-honored insult men threw at women they could not control.
This book is a very “No, she wouldn’t… but then she does” kind of experience with Straube. I thought it was very well written. I’ve seen other influencers review this book (since it’s a hyped one on BookTok and Bookstegram)—and it was interesting that different people found it unhinged for different reasons. What feels icky to one reader might not be the same for another.
I’ve also seen people complain that there’s too much smut. Personally, I do feel like the book was a bit too long. Still, I enjoyed it. It kept surprising me. It starts off so heavy on the sex that you really don’t expect a plot, but the plot keeps evolving.
Is this the most immersive worldbuilding I’ve seen? No, it’s not. It’s a book that’s very fun and not too deep, but there is character growth, and you keep discovering more as you go. The worldbuilding develops gradually, it’s not all there from the start.
I picked it up after being super disappointed by a very hyped book that I DNFed. I felt like reading something fun and light, and I was definitely pleasantly surprised. I got the fun and lightness I wanted, but also so much more than I expected, and I’m definitely planning on reading book two.
You can purchase Kiss of the Basilisk on Lindsay Straube’s website*. Personally, I read it on Kindle Unlimited.
Are you #TeamSerpentKing or #PrincePretty, or are you chanting “why choose?” from the balcony?
*My links aren’t affiliated, I just love supporting authors.
