Laurent wasn't loved. Laurent wasn't liked. Even among his own men, who would follow him off a cliff, there was the unequivocal consensus that Laurent was, as Orlant had once described him, a cast iron bitch, that it was a very bad idea to get on his bad side, and that as for his good side, he didn't have one.
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Prince's Gambit is the second book in the Captive Prince series written by Australian author C.S. Pacat. I wrote a review after finishing Captive Prince that you can find here, that was... well... rather caustic. This series, set in a highly sexualized fantasy world, blends the lines of fantasy and what has become known as "slave porn". Now, I don't go out of my way to read pornographic literature. It's not like I'm rooted through the erotica section at Chapters scouting for my next read. But I had heard really good things about this series, about the world building and the different culture's views and opinions on sex and in particular, sexual identity. And then I started reading it. The world building was amateurish, the writing was so poor, and the main characters were one-dimensional, annoying, and incredibly dimwitted. I was honestly confused as to what I was reading, and who it was intended for. It had the writing level of a middle-grade fiction for children transitioning into chapter books, while having the content that most people would blush at. I should have stopped the series with Captive Prince, but my OCD would not let me put the series aside when I only had two more books to get through... even if that thought filled me with despair.
Last week I finished the second book in the series, Prince's Gambit. If Captive Prince was a 1/5, I'm happy to say that Prince's Gambit was a 2/5. That's right, a whole extra point! Though I wasn't sure I'd like it any better, especially throughout the first half of the book. The first half is more of the same terrible writing, boring character development and interactions, and a lot of eye-rolls on my behalf. The last fourth of the novel is really what coerced me into giving it that extra point. And there's two reasons for that.
The first, was the character development of the character Laurent, one of the princes and main characters in the novel. In Captive Prince, he's vain, ignorant, dull, and incredibly flighty. He tortures his slave, Damen (a prince from the neighbouring kingdom, who has kept his identity a secret) and takes pleasure in seeing him humiliated and run down, but in this book, somewhere, he comes around to Damen, and the two begin to fall for each other. EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO REAL REASON FOR THEM TO, AND THERE AREN'T ANY SCENES OR EXPLANATION AS TO WHY THEY SUDDENLY LIKE EACH OTHER. Yes, we discover that Laurent isn't as mean-spirited as we thought, and a lot of sympathy is thrown his way as we learn more about his vindictive uncle who's trying to keep his throne from him, but there's really no prompt for him and Damen to fall in love with each other. But Laurent receives a lot of character development in this book, and while he spends the first half running around making shady deals and having odd interactions with people, near the end all his scheming comes out, all the pieces fit together and I was actually impressed. Impressed with both Laurent for being smarter and more cunning than I had surmised, and impressed with Pacat that she could string together a plot that actually came together.
Of course, this is all seen through the eyes of Damen, the point-of-view character, who is dumber than a wood stump.
The second thing that caught my attention was a rather spicy chapter towards the end of the book. There's a good sized chapter towards the end that literally one big sex scene. I read the whole thing with my eyes wide and my mouth dropped in shock, because it was literally the most explicit thing I've ever read. And, if I'm being honest, Pacat's writing style, which to me comes off as choppy, unpolished, quick, and straight-to-the-point, worked really well with this chapter. If there's one thing she knows how to do, it's write a sex-scene... sex-chapter? Like I said, I don't read really any erotica, and there are some sexual scenes in my own book, but nothing that explicit. Was it enjoyable to read? Um, yes? I mean, it was an interaction that I'd been waiting for since the first book, I just didn't think it'd be so intense... or work so well with Pacat's writing style. What can I say, sex sells!
I've since moved on to the final book in the series, Kings Rising, and let me tell you I'm back to the eye-rolling, the face-palming, and the groaning. Lord, give me strength to power through this series so I never have to read it again.
