Tellulah Darling

I’m not sure love is strong enough of a word to capture my feelings for the Captive Prince series. First off, let me say that despite my adoration of both fantasy and m/m romance, that between the cover and description, I still would never have picked this book up, thinking it was probably going to be earnest and over-wrought, had it not been highly recommended to me by someone I trust.

Pick. Up. This. Series.

This is a story of political power plays and king making and the level of strategy and counter strategy employed between Laurent and the Regent is dizzying. The intelligence and creativity with which Pacat wields this game playing, made Game of Thrones look like the junior leagues.

Then there is the writing itself, which is gorgeous and expressive, and always maintains the perfect tone and balance between detail, exposition, and inner thought. Our POV character is Damen, and he is a great character but I’m going to rave about Laurent because he may be the twistiest, most devious character I’ve come across in a long time and it was a delight to read him.

And then there is the sexual tension. Dear god, what a slow, delicious build. This is tension in the hands of a master and I bow low before her. A long, slow drag of tension that leaves the reader as build up, pent up, and longing for release as the characters. Seriously, I think I’m giving up writing now because after this level of brilliance, there is simply no point.

There is no dealing with middle book syndrome here. No feeling like book two is the filler while we wait to get to the good stuff. The Captive Prince trilogy all good stuff. Very very good, and trust me, darlings, you don’t want to miss out.