The sudden death of the Gryphon King throws the kingdom of Mythos into uncertainty, and Crown Prince Luca rushes both his coronation and an arranged marriage to a man he’s never met. Eirian is young and idealistic, and while they both want what’s best for their people, their philosophies couldn’t be more different. While Luca believes in honoring tradition, Eirian is determined to infuse modern values into their kingdom of magical creatures. When given the choice between loyalty to his husband and his own crusade, Eirian makes a decision that might doom their marriage.
Still, Luca is committed to making their union work, and that means forgiving his brash consort. But when Eirian becomes the target of a deadly conspiracy, Luca must act fast—or forever lose the chance to explore their burgeoning love.
Narrated by: Andrew McFerrin
Listening Length: 5 hours and 51 minutes
My rating doesn’t accurately reflect my love for the narrator. This is my first listen by him and I’ve already added more of his narrated stories to my Audible wishlist. He does a great job of emoting sincerity realistically and all his characters were distinctive.
The story itself intrigued me. Gryphons? Kings? Consorts? Yes, please! I liked the premise that humans and mythos coexisted. The world was an interesting one, I just felt that the politics of it all overshadowed the relationship between Luca and Eirian. The two are from two different political factions, Luca is a traditionalist and Eirian is a modernist, so they had a lot of fuel for banter. And banter they did, but it was all contentious and political.
It was obvious the two of them were forming a bond and were attracted to each other. They had a foundation to build from, I just had a little trouble reconciling their horny selves with their public political personas. I really liked when the two of them were letting their guards down, I could see how they’d be good together. I especially loved Eirian’s voice in these moments, his dialog was a treat to listen to.
But, then some kind of political thingy would happen and they’d get dragged away from happy times and end up arguing. The conversation would start rationally but end up going off the rails. Eirian was incredibly passionate about his modernist ideas and Luca’s thoughts were steeped in tradition, clashing was inevitable, but even when they seemed to agree, they didn’t and Eirian would stay his original course regardless of what the agreement he and Luca had come to. Luca would get righteously pissed and they’d take many steps back.
There was obligatory drama at the end that brought them together for keeps and I should have been happier for them than I was. I could just see more arguing in their future. If there had been some additional resolution to their political differences it would have been easier for me to believe. It was paid some lip service with inner dialog in the heat of the moment but I needed some of the resolution to play out in a few situations to believe it long term.
I loved the ending though. The author had a creative way to strengthen bonds that worked well with the crazy villain angle and with the world that had been built. If I would have had more relationship between the MC’s throughout it would have had more impact, but I still appreciated how Luca and Eirian got their HEA.
**a copy of this sudiobook was provided for an honest review**
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