Sera T
revor was a lovely recent guest on our show. To find out more about her and get links to her work, check out Episode 185: Ugh Reality!
There are some books you feel comfortable with right away. After the first page I knew this book and I would get along just fine. It was something indefinable, accessibility to an author’s writing or put another way, this seemed a friendly, approachable book. It welcomes the reader in and assures them that a good story is about to be told.
Prince Paurick is a bit a tool, to be honest. He’s reckless, spoiled, libidinous and vain, with little sense of duty. When he has to be joined with an acolyte to an all-powerful Goddess, to ensure his family’s royal lineage and bring fertility back to a starving land, he does it ungraciously. The monk isn’t to his taste at all, swarthy, shy fellow who he finds desperately unprepossessing.
Brother Laurel is loyal to the Goddess and will do his duty whatever it takes, but he doesn’t have to like it. After Paurick’s unflattering response to him, he just wants to get it over with, but the machinations of the Goddess and his own feelings complicate matters, especially when he finds he is enjoying the luxury the Prince takes for granted.
So that’s the premise, and it’s told with humour, wit and sparky dialogue. Laurel is sweet, and has a bit more about him than his subservient manner would first suggest. There are some comic moments, but also an underlying theme of the damage caused by brainwashing by cults, greed and duty over love. I thought the pace of the story was terrific and not once did I feel the story flagged. It was a joy to read, with Laurel being a perfect foil for the profligate Paurick. Their burgeoning relationship was sweet, the love scenes and language used within them helping to create the atmosphere. It’s a magical kingdom where the prince had to sleep with someone he doesn’t like in order to appease a power-hungry regime, but written with flair and comic timing so it never felt dark and gloomy.
This was a book I could sit back and enjoy, knowing that nothing truly nasty would happen. A bit of angst, some hot sex between two lusty lads, and a feel-good plot verging on the ridiculous (although this isn’t the first time I’ve read a book with magical bodily fluids) and this was a huge amount of fun. It’s well-written too, with a knowing glint in the author’s eye. Yes, I could see where she was coming from with this. I’d definitely read another book by Ms. Trevor.
BLURB
Prince Paurick is a hedonistic degenerate—or at least that’s what his father and the rest of the royal family thinks of him, and he’s happy to live down to their expectations.
But when the crops of their kingdom start failing, the king commands that Paurick be joined to Brother Laurel, a monk, in order to combine Paurick’s royal magic with that of the Goddess, and thus bring fertility back to the land.
The union is only meant to be temporary, but Brother Laurel is so ugly and prudish that it might as well be an eternity. However, as they get to know one another, Paurick realizes he has misjudged Laurel and finds himself falling for the thoughtful and sensitive young man.
The fate of the kingdom relies on their sexual union, but as time goes on, it becomes clear that the fate of their hearts is in jeopardy as well.
