Read This F@!%ing Book (57)

Welcome to a feature we're going to post on Mondays called:

Read This F@!%ing Book!

This is a feature for us to push our favorite reads that just aren't getting enough attention!

We're also opening it up to anyone who would like to guest post. Do you have a book that you just LURVED but feel like its not getting the play it deserves? Email us to let us know and we'd be THRILLED to have you post about it here! Especially if its something we haven't reviewed yet - that's even better (but not necessary)! If you're interested email us: 

goldiloxandthethreeweres@gmail.com

 This week's post comes from our very own: 
Rose Red!

Read This F@!%ing Book Post 57: The Captive Prince Trilogy by C. S. Pacat

  

(Click book cover to go to Goodreads page)

I Feel Like I Need To Give A Disclaimer
Okay, guys. Let's talk about this trilogy. It's been getting a lot of hype in the online book community recently and it made me curious enough to pick it up and give it a shot. I will be upfront about the fact that not everyone is going to like this series. In fact, I know a lot of people who couldn't get past Captive Prince. Personally I liked it overall but I found several things in it disturbing. For one, I don't usually read romance books where one of the love interests has been a slave of any sort to the other but I couldn't quit reading this series. Unfortunately, that was not the disturbing part. The kingdom of Vere has a very hedonistic culture where sexual violence like rape and physical abuse as entertainment is common place. And that attribute of Vere is one of the reasons I had problems with the first book. It's a book where it may mean putting up with squick factors and triggers while reading but there is a huge reward in return for that in the next book.

Thankfully by the time I finished the end of Prince's Gambit, I realized none of the elements that had upset me in Captive Prince had been gratuitous and were actually integral to further the plot. And while some aspects of the first book were disturbing, I was fascinated with the characters and the political intrigue in book one enough to continue with the series. I wanted to know more about Damen and most especially Laurent. I also wanted to know what was going to happen next because I was sucked in and committed.

The writing style is fairly simple but enthralling. I was unknowingly hooked from the first. It was kind of like a train wreck I couldn't look away from. Thankfully, the second and third books in the trilogy were not located in the royal court of Vere so we didn't have to deal with the things I had problems with in the first book. And they were SO much better! OMG! SO much better!

Hello, Characters with Different Sexual Orientations!
One of the things I really loved about this series as a whole is that it's a slow burn romance between a gay prince and a bisexual prince! And it was done so well! These characters aren't the token LGBTQ characters I've seen written into other books. This world is a world where same sex relationships are normal and accepted and not a taboo thing. It was so refreshing to read a book where the whole plot around the romance doesn't revolve around it being a taboo thing. I would recommend this series on how LGBTQ characters are portrayed alone. After finishing the first book, I didn't think I was going to ship Laurent and Damen as much as everyone else was. At that point, I didn't get it. But by the end of book two I was totally on board the Lamen ship.

The Plotting And The Pacing Are A Thing of Beauty!
I loved the worldbuilding where the world is a fantasy world without magic. These kingdoms are their own entities. And as much as I loved the world, one of the most wonderful things about this trilogy is the plotting! It's full of surprising twists, secret political maneuvers, and devious stratagems. The amount of well-written political intrigue in this trilogy is marvelous! There will be some little detail revealed in the middle of the book and later in the story you suddenly discover just how important that small detail was. And the thing is that those things aren’t what they appeared in any way, shape or form. I was thrown for a loop in each book because I couldn't predict what was going to happen and was surprised with the twists every time! And everything was perfectly paced on top of all of the magnificent plotting. This series is seriously a work of art that way.
 

Have you read this series?

Let us know in the comments below!

Did we persuade you to add these books to your TBR mountain?