Captive Prince (Captive Prince #1) by C.S. Pacat

 Captive Prince (Captive Prince #1) by C.S. Pacat

SUMMARY

Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos. But when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.

Beautiful, manipulative, and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.

For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else…

                          

MY REVIEW

Incredible and overwhelming! All the stars There are so many brilliant reviews about this book and this series that I don't actually know what my review will add. Even the negative reviews are so well explained and justified that you cannot really argue with these reviewers. I just want to say that if you ever attempt to read this book, you will have a unique experience. The book is definitely dark, twisted and intense. And clever. It is a romance story. But it is such a slow burn romance that nothing happens in the first book. You only have the realization that something will happen soon. It is a haters-to-lovers love story. But you will only experience the hatred part in the first book. And maybe some understanding in the end. And maybe the beginning of some trust. This is a fairy-tale of a dark prince who was betrayed and gifted as a slave to another light prince. The dark prince was brave and patient. The light prince was cruel and manipulative. But they both have honour. In the beginning, I am sure you will not understand how these two so different stubborn men will fall in love. Prince Laurent will behave as he has ice in his veins. His slave Damen will do anything to force him to show something other than cool indifference. Of course, we only basically have Damen's POV in the book. So we don't know how Lauren thinks or why he behaves as he behaves. We only learn why he hates Damen so much. There is an extra story in the book about how Erasmus, a pleasure slave, managed to escape his death. This story deserves 10 stars. It is about true unconditional sacrificial love and I cried when I read it. Triggers: Just check the negative reviews.

             

August 2020 - Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

 Hi Friends!!!

I hope you are somewhere having the best holidays of your life and you are not in COVID-19 lock down mode. 

Wherever you are try to protect yourself and the people you love!

I think this month is perfect for some escapism. And what is perfect if you need to escape from reality? 

How about some romance reading?

How about a strong enemies-to-lovers story?

Enemies-to-lovers is a well-used and very much loved trope.  The relationship between the two main characters is problematic, manipulative, totally toxic and full of angst and desperation.

The main characters hate each other, but they will become lovers.

Maybe they will be lovers even before they fall in love. 

Maybe they will be lovers and still hate each other.

Maybe there will be no romance for several chapters or even several books in a series.

So, it is time to introduce you to Damen and Laurent, the two princes from two rival kingdoms who hate each other and who eventually will become

Slave and master

Lovers

Friends

If you don't have a strong heart and stomach better don't bother with their story.

The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith

The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith

It was her last chance:

Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth’s first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world…but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.

It was his last year of freedom:

Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him…especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known.

MY REVIEW 

“If you cannot have an easy journey, make an interesting story” This book is epic. An ODYSSEY that should not be taken lighthearted. I understand that the book may scare people off because of its length, but I believe it is important to treat it as 8 separate books as opposed to one book. The book has clearly eight distinct parts in which different events take place and you have a different degree of knowledge about the characters and their world. The emotions change. The number of characters and the familiarity between them vary. The landscaping changes too. Each part could be treated as a different book with a cliffhanger in the end. Something happens always in the end that gives a head start to the next part. Thus I would like to break down my thoughts towards this book in eight parts as well: BOOK 1 - AMBER: The start of the book is absolutely awesome. Earth has changed and not in a good way. Drugs and corruption are present. But still the human race is exploring the outer space and starting colonies in other planets. From the beginning it is clear that Amber is a survivor. Amber tries to avoid her dead mother fate and become a whore in order to survive and not die of hunger and without shelter. Amber and her sister decide to take part to the mission to colonize a distant planet called Plymouth. Her little sister is basically dragged to this adventure by Amber. I need to mention here that Amber is a big girl and her weight is a problem. She even takes drugs to reduce her weight and become fit for the mission. She is that determine to escape Earth. Pioneers’ ship will eventually depart from Earth and crash on an unknown planet. The description of the crash and burn was one of the best I have read in Science Fiction. As a result only a few people survive. Where are they? Who lives in this planet? Houston, we've had a problem here … BOOK 2 - MEORAQ: The action with the humans stops there and we meet Meoraq who is like the top dog (or should I say top lizard of this planet). Uyane Meoraq: A holly man, a warrior, a philosopher, a ruler, a leader, a judge. A sheulek. We see the world through his eyes. This is a new savage world. Cold and inhospitable. They solve their differences in the Arena. Females are the lowest of the low. Every father is proud if Meoraq takes the virginity of his worthless otherwise daughter. There is no description of the creatures/anthropoids, but you may notice that they are talking about their snoots instead of their noses. And about their scales. Thank God no talking about tails. And all I can think is “huh”? What? And I got even more worried for the poor ex inhabitants of the planet Earth. I was scared of the moment whey will be discovered – especially women (bahaha...evil laughter). Meoraq has seen the fires of the huge explosion and soon he will start his long journey to discover what God has sent him (Have I mentioned that he is an extremely religious male?) All these happen in like the first 100 something pages of the 1000 pages. BOOK 3 – LOST AND FOUND: Meoraq discovers the most plainly ugly beings he has ever seen in his life. So the miscommunication starts. He thinks they are not intelligent beings. They think he is some kind of a stupid animal. Only Amber tries to communicate, although Meoraq is not responding. Believe me she tries really hard in a “Me Jane, You Tarzan” short of way. He will stay with them. He will not kill them and they will start a journey together to the end of the world to Xi’Matezh because God told him to do it (Have I mentioned that he is an extremely religious male?). The survivors will be his pets. He will feed them, find them water and shelter. Like sheep and he is the shepherd. This is the part where you really start hating the rest of the survivors and mainly because all of them hate Amber (including her sister). The worst of them is Scott who named himself commander and all of them follow him. The humans treat her badly, they starve her to death, they tell fat jokes to her. And you will like Amber. For sure! She is clever and tough, she is a problem solver, she is not nagging, she is a natural leader but she doesn’t want to lead. Amber will try so hard to understand Meoraq, although he is the ugliest creature she has ever seen. There is this super, incredible, magnificent scene where Meoraq defends Amber and suddenly they all know that Meoraq can speak and understand English and that Amber is HIS. Oh and when Meoraq and Amber actually FINALLY start talking and exchange insults, points of view, experiences, emotions, they are just pure joy. Meoraq: “God see us both and we can both show Him improvement.” Amber: “I’m still an atheist!” BOOK 4 – PIONEERS: This is the book where Meoraq prays a lot and takes six breathes (the magic number) constantly trying to calm down. Humans drive him crazy, but he is not supposed to kill them. This is the book also that we discovered that the ancients of this planet were really advanced in technology until God contemned them and they abandoned their advanced cities and returned to the simple ways. Thus, Meoraq despises anything of technological value. The relationship between Meoraq and Amber is getting also more serious. Meoraq starts having naughty dreams. But they are tiptoeing around each other. Amber:”Will you miss us, when we are gone?”, “Aren’t you going to ask if I’m going to miss you?” Meoraq : “I don’t know what to do with you”, “I don’t think I can teach you. You upset me.” BOOK 5 – SCOTT AND THE SHIP: Scott is the man who named himself commander and all gave him the responsibility because simply they didn’t want it. This is the book in which Scott believes that he will find a spaceship at the end of the world and fly away. This is also the book where the humans have a look in an ancient city, Meoraq keeps praying for patience (Have I mentioned that he is an extremely religious male?), a huge storm almost kills them. And Amber almost dies twice. Meoraq looks for reasons to sit with her, to speak with her, to fight with her. The end of the book will find Amber and Meoraq alone, abandon by the rest of the humans. This is truly the best thing that could happen to Amber and Meoraq (and me). BOOK 6 – GANN: This is the book where Meoraq and Amber will really fall in love with each other. Soul deep. A communication of souls. Not because of body attraction. Not because she has sunny blond hear or because he has nice abs, but truly because they admire each other. An “I don’t understand your culture and the things I understand I hate them and I think you are butt ugly but I still want you beside me” type of love and connection. They will have the type of love that they could not understand, the one they don’t know where it is going. They don’t even know if they are sexually comparable, but they still have embarrassing dreams about each other. The tension is building up for them. He calls her softskin, she calls him lizardman. And then Meoraq prays and he has a vision (Have I mentioned that he is an extremely religious male?). And they FINALLY have sex. My favorite book :) BOOK 7 – ZHUQA: This is the book where Meoraq loses Amber and prays, Amber discovers more lizardmen and she becomes a slave and she makes friends, Meoraq turns berserker and Amber kills. This is a very hard book to read. It has many rape scenes described in graphic details and lots of violence. Blood and killings. Your heart may bleed, but as Meoraq keeps saying “Shit happens”. It is also time for Amber to reunite with whoever is left from the humans’ team. Meoraq is not happy (and neither am I). I really cannot understand why from the whole ship only these awful people survive. BOOK 8 – Xi’MATEZH: This is the book where Meoraq gets exceedingly disappointed with his God – although he is a very religious male (Have I mentioned that?). Favorite quotes from Book 8: a) Amber: “Why did you marry me?” Meoraq: “God gave you to me” Amber: “Did you keep the receipt?” b) Amber: “He doesn’t love me like He loves you, Meoraq” Meoraq: “If He loves me, He will never let you die.” c) Meoraq: “I love your ugly face.”, “I love your ugly fur”, “I love your ugly teats”, “And I love your beautiful shoulders.” d) Meoraq: “You saved my life” Amber: “Feels awful, doesn’t it?” (and this is my absolutely favorite dialogue!) Okay, you need to invest lots of time in this book, but It’s worth it. Totally. So my advice is that you need to take your time, have long breaks, and even read other books in your breaks. And then go back and start from where you left it. I can assure you that you will not have forgotten any details. Gann will be there waiting for you to be brave enough and continue reading about Amber’s adventure in the lizards’ land and the eventually green sky.

The Scholomance by R. Lee Smith

The Scholomance by R. Lee Smith 

For centuries, there has been a legend of a hidden school where magic is taught by the demons who dwell there to anyone who seeks them out, but they ask a terrible price: Anyone who reaches the door of the Scholomance may enter, but the Devil takes every tenth student who tries to leave.

A hidden school. Demonic masters. An inescapable fate for one out of every ten graduates. But Connie would do anything to have the magic her best friend was born with.

And Mara would do anything to get Connie back.

MY REVIEW 

You may call me naïve, but I thought that this would be a magical book about a magic school that resembles Hogwards but for grown up readers. A dark, doomed, not innocent school near Bucharest, located inside a mountain, with demons as teachers, with talented cruel adults as students.
Thus, I was really excited before I started this story.
But not for long.

I suppose my main issue (which I suppose it was an issue for the most people who read this book) is the main female character aka Mara: A young really gifted with mental power girl who is looking for her best friend, Connie. Connie wanted to become powerful, so she started attending this magic school and she disappeared from Mara's life until she sends a letter crying for help. So, Mara runs to find her friend and she ends up as prisoner/student in the school of magic.

Mara. I have read five books by R.Lee Smith, this is by far the most annoying main female character. She tries to pose as a kick ass, powerful, strong-minded heroine. She manages to look like a pathetic, cold-hearted bitch who is angry with everything and everyone and for no particular reason.
I did not like getting lost inside her head and her Panic Room. I did not like listening to her thoughts and her reasoning.

Kazuul. The main male character is weak - although he tries to be (unconvincingly) a strong demon. He does not have the substance and the personality of Kane, Meoraq, Azrael, Sanford.

The secondary characters are actually more interesting:
-The follower and wannabe best friend Devlin (the 'humorous' parts of the book).
-The professor and mentor Horuseps (the 'explanatory' parts of the book)

Moreover, the pace of the book is really slow and the way the demons talk does not help. Lots of "thou" and "thee" and "thy". I wanted to bang my head on the wall every time a demon was talking.

The mystery about the disappearance of the best friend which covers the majority of the book, after a while is not really important. Every time Mara was asking 'where is my best friend, I know she is alive', I was thinking 'yeah, yeah whatever...'

The most interesting parts of the book are actually the description of the school, the inside mountain, the caverns,the cells where the students are sleeping, the Great Library, the theatres, the labyrinth, the lyceum, the chambers, the dining hall.

Overall a really weak book. Unimportant characters. Uninteresting story. I was expecting something that would push my morality and ethical boundaries as it usually happens with Smith's books. Instead I was just bored.

The answers in the end of the book about what happened to Connie and who really Mara is, they did not satisfy me and they did not convince me. I felt that everything was left unfinished.