Reviews with content warning for Rape - Prince's Gambit

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Prince's Gambit by C.S. Pacat

57 reviews

sumtime99's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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thegreatmanda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Same warnings as for the last book - this universe is an ugly, brutal world where slavery, violence, and rape are the norm.

The good parts from the last book become great here - Damen is still utterly, unapologetically himself, and the many, many onionskin layers of Laurent peel back in a slow burn throughout this volume. It's an enjoyable, gratifying experience to watch their mutual respect and regard grow over time as they run hypothetical battles over tabletop maps, admire one another's fighting abilities, and sneak around running secret errands.

Like Damen, I find myself desperately wanting to reach out and protect Laurent from everything in the world, including Laurent himself. Also like Damen, I keep breathlessly waiting for Laurent to reveal each tiny scrap of his true self to understand more about why I feel that way. One of my favorite moments is when Damen acknowledges that he wanted to hit the man who had hit and laid hands on Laurent when they were captured, and the way that Damen doesn't even realize he's moving or fully understand why he acts that way in that moment, and honestly? Me too, Damen. Me too.

It's also very interesting to see Damen slowly reframe his ideas about his own father and his relationship with Akielos and with military action. He learns a lot that he never expected to learn as he serves alongside Veretian soldiers who ostensibly should be his enemies, and as he comes to understand the way Laurent's entire life since his uncle became Regent has been one long, exhausting battle after another.

As with Captive Prince, nothing is fully resolved at the end of this book; the three parts really just make one long story, so that's how I'm reading them.

But finally, FINALLY, we get a little love and comfort, and good lord, does Laurent need that in his life. The slowness of the burn makes it that much more gratifying when they do finally kiss, and then, as Damen puts it, take their pleasure in one another.

Neither of the predictions in my Captive Prince review have been confirmed or denied, but still, so much of Laurent's behavior makes me think that all of his sexual experience prior to Damen was abuse at the hands of his uncle. He clearly grasps the mechanics of sex, but with Damen, he is seems very unfamiliar with the idea of two adults mutually enjoying one another. You can see him kind of learning that concept from Damen's experience, putting that trust in him, as they go.

As with the previous volume, there are also a lot of small hints in the things Laurent says; he mentions whatever taint exists in my family, Auguste was free of it when he tells Damen that the accusations of incestuous love between Laurent and Auguste are unfounded. He only says Auguste was free of it, not himself, which hurts my soul. Later when he's verbally shredding Aimeric, there's I doubt he even preferred you and my uncle is discriminating - echoes of a boy who would have been the same age as Aimeric, at the time. And then he admits to Damen that he remembers his uncle's long absence on that same visit to Aimeric's home fort.

It would also explain so many of Laurent's other jagged harsh edges if he's a man who had gone through those stages he observes and describes in these other boys: the attention and adoration of this older man when he was that vulnerable boy who had just lost father and brother; first experiences with sexual pleasure also with that older man, tangled up with that adoration; the feelings of wrongness of it being a close family member, and maybe a sense that he couldn't say no to things he wouldn't have been ready for because of that relationship; and finally, being thrown aside like a broken toy as he grew up, understanding what had been done to him and the protection he had lost along with losing Auguste, and the anger that would have transferred to Prince Damianos along with that.

It hurts when Paschal mentions offhandedly that Auguste had been Laurent's protector, and Damen can't imagine Laurent needing protection from anyone. I think Laurent needed it desperately when he was young, and I think Damen took that from him with no way of understanding it.

All in all, the sketch I was seeing in volume one of a furious, aching young man is now a vibrant, heartbreaking painting. It was such a relief to see him finally accept a small measure of love and tenderness at last.

And, oh, Nicaise... Nicaise. Just. The swath of destruction that the Regent leaves behind him, uncaring for those he's destroyed in his quest for power. The man is revolting. I hope we get to see Laurent tear him to shreds, very publicly and permanently.

Favorite quotes:

"I'm glad I brought you along. I wasn't expecting to have to tear things out of walls. Do you visit brothels often?"
"No," said Damen.
"Not brothels. Camp followers?" said Laurent. And then: "Slaves." And then, after the satisfaction of a pause: "Akielos, the garden of delights. So you enjoy slavery in others. Just not in yourself."
Damen shifted on the long bench, and regarded him.
"Don't strain yourself," said Laurent.
"You talk more," said Damen, "when you're uncomfortable."

"What makes you think Kastor is the weaker man? You don't know him."
"But I'm coming to know you," said Laurent.

“Damen felt Laurent start shaking against him, and realised that, silently, helplessly, he was laughing.
There came the sound of at least two more sets of footsteps striding into the room, greeted with: "Here he is. We found him fucking this derelict, disguised as the tavern prostitute."
"This is the tavern prostitute. You idiot, the Prince of Vere is so celibate I doubt he even touches himself once every ten years. You. We're looking for two men. One was a barbarian soldier, a giant animal. The other was blond. Not like this boy. Attractive."
"There was a blond lord's pet downstairs," said Volo. "Brained like a pea and easy to hoodwink. I don't think he was the Prince."
"I wouldn't call him blond. More like mousy. And he wasn't that attractive," said the boy, sulkily.
The shaking, progressively, had worsened.
"Stop enjoying yourself," Damen murmured. "We're going to be killed, any minute."
"Giant animal," said Laurent.
"Stop it.”

"You're alive," Damen said, and the words came out on a rush of relief that made him feel weak.
"I'm alive," said Laurent. They were gazing at one another. "I wasn't sure you'd come back."
"I came back," said Damen.

A prudent ruler would want a seasoned diplomat overseeing this fraught standoff, not Laurent, who had arrived like a wasp at an outdoor feast, annoying everybody.

"That's right, I'm still captured," said Damen.
"Your eyes say 'For now,'" Laurent said. "Your eyes have always said, 'For now.'" And then: "If you were a pet, I would have gifted you enough by now to buy out your contract, many times over."
"I'd still be here," said Damen, "with you. I told you that I would see this border dispute through to its finish. Do you think I'd go back on my word?"
"No," said Laurent, almost as if he was realising it for the first time. "I don't think you would. But I know you don't like it. I remember how much it maddened you in the palace, to be bound and powerless. I felt yesterday how badly you wanted to hit someone."
Damen found he'd moved without realising it, his fingers lifting to touch the bruised edge of Laurent's jaw. He said, "The man who did this to you."

"Friends," said Laurent. "Is that what we are?"
Laurent's voice was tightly knotted, as though the answer was obvious; as though it was as obvious as what was happening between them, the air disappearing, mote by mote.

Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone, traded for the high cliffs of Ios, and the uncertain future across the border, the chance to stand before his brother, to ask him for all the answers that no longer seemed so important. A kingdom, or this.

Damen's skin felt too hot, too tight. His ideas of what might happen in bed with Laurent had not moved beyond an aching tenderness, which was only now finding physical expression. The reality of it was different; Laurent was different. Damen had never thought that it could be like this, soft and quiet and acutely personal.

He felt some sense that he needed to hold onto this, to hold it tight and never let it out of his grip.
You're mine, he wanted to say, and couldn't. Laurent didn't belong to him; this was something he could have only once.

"He needs me," said Damen. "I don't care if you tell the world."

Damen knew his body now. He knew the surprise that gentle attention could draw from him. He knew his lazy, dangerous assurance, his hesitancies... his sweet, tender hesitancies. He knew the way that he made love, a combination of explicit knowledge and almost shy reticences.
Stirring drowsily, Laurent shifted a fraction closer and made a soft, unthinking sound of pleasure that Damen was going to remember for the rest of his life.
And then Laurent was blinking sleepily, and Damen was watching Laurent grow aware of his surroundings and come awake in his arms.
He wasn't sure how it would be, but when Laurent saw who was beside him, he smiled, the expression a little shy but completely genuine. Damen, who hadn't been expecting it, felt the single painful beat of his heart. He'd never thought Laurent could look like that at anyone.

Laurent had restored both his shirt and a flickering version of his usual standoffishness. But he had not laced himself back into his clothes, had not reappeared in his high-necked jacket and shiny boots as he might have done. He was here, hesitating, on the edge of uncertainty. Damen drew on Laurent's hand.

"I lack," said Laurent, "the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with," you could see him pushing the words out, "a lover."
"You lack the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with anyone," said Damen.

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