Captive Prince trilogy by C S Pacat - review

The Captive Prince series is one of those things I had been aware of for some time, floating around.

It started out as original fic on livejournal and I knew people who were seriously invested in the first two books. When C S Pacat published, and confirmed that yes, there would be a third book, I bought the first two.

I read them first ... a year or two ago, I think? And was pretty much immediately hooked. Like. Hook. Line. Sinker. Me.

Anyway.

Damianos - prince of Akielos and rightful heir to the throne, is a bit startled one night when he's tied up, imprisoned and shipped off to Vere to be the "pet" of Laurent - prince regent and hissing snake/hedgehog. (Laurent is my favourite. I love him very much of a lot.)

Damianos - now Damen - and Laurent - don't get along. For one thing, Damen is a bit surprised to suddenly be shipped off as slave, courtesy of his older brother Kastor, and his former lover Jokasta, who has now thrown her lot in with Kastor.

Damianos is younger, but is the legitimate heir as Kastor is the son of the deceased king and a mistress. It's all very ............... .................. well. The intrigue has intrigue.

While Damen battles his new position in a court where ostensibly no one knows who he is, Laurent is fighting his own battle against his devious uncle, the Regent of Vere.

So Captive Prince is the set-up for Prince's Gambit, wherein Damen and Laurent have to learn to get along and also stay alive and also ALSO fight a war and also also ALSO stop Laurent's uncle from killing them both and stripping Laurent of his throne.

Everyone's got a really long to-do list.

Things come to a head *ahem* in one way, in Prince's Gambit as Damen figures out how to navigate the hissing snake-hedgehog that is Laurent.

Then, of course, Prince's Gambit ends on a CLIFFHANGER and everyone had to wait until this month to find out what happens, which is where King's Rising comes in.

I think, overall, Prince's Gambit is my favourite of the series, because it's full of lots of intrigue and Damen and Laurent plastering themselves against walls (and each other) but dammit if King's Rising wasn't a satisfying end to the trilogy.

All KINDS of things go down, which I won't go into because of spoilers but all of the loose threads come together and knit up into a very satisfying jumper. (Sorry, that metaphor got away on me just a little bit.)

It's like. King's Rising is like this amazing ginger beer pannacotta I had once. It was light and creamy and delicious and rounded of the meal I'd had perfectly.