Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Prince in Disguise

Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Prince in Disguise by Tavia Lark

5 reviews

wildatheart1339's review against another edition

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4.75

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tragicgloom's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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wardenred's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.75

“I’ll distract them. You run that way. They want me, not you.”
“Why?” Bell seizes his shoulder. “Tell me why they want you.”
“Later,” Rakos snaps. “Just go.”
“Oh, fuck you,” Bell snaps back—and stays.

Such a fun read! I love it as much as the first installment, and I'm eager to continue the series. Bell and Rakos were so charming together. Both were also kind of dreadful at maintaining their fake identities/concealing the fact that those identities were fake, but hey, they tried! And I can forgive them for being willing to ignore certain persistent coincidences and weird discrepancies about each other. When you catch feelings and really don't want to think about reasons to keep things casual, that kind of happens. :D

I absolutely adored the balance of tropey romance and fantasy adventure here. This book truly has it all: awesome banter, believable relationship development, some really hot scenes that were very much part of that development, the leads becoming their best selves around each other... and also magical combat, precarious escapes, tense pursuit scenes with dragons, engaging travel, cutthroat court intrigue, and plenty of excitement in general. All the good stuff I love so much about the fusion of romance and fantasy. My favorite part was seeing Bell deal with all that adventure, passion, and character growth while having chronic migraines. I really liked that while his migraines are triggered by exposure to magic among many other things and that Rakos can help him deal with that specific trigger, the problem itself isn't magical and there's no magic cure. Not that I would wish migraines on anyone, even a fictional character. Just... it's always great to see characters with familiar chronic health issues thrive and grow and end up in a good place.

It was also absolutely lovely to see Julien and Whisper again. So often in romance series where the couple changes each book, the protagonists of previous novels sort of fade into the background to become ever-static models of good relationships. It's nice to see this isn't happening here. While neither Julien and Whisper take super active part in the plot, they clearly continue to exist in the world, they're present, their actions and reactions to the book's events matter, and from the glimpses we get into their continuing relationship, they are still growing together. Aww. What's not to love?

I also continue to enjoy the worldbuilding here: the magic system, how queernorm the setting is, how adoption is treated, how sex work is treated as just another profession, the turbulent political landscape, and all the magical beasts. The big telepathic cats from Prince and Assassin were fun; now how about a teleporting ferret? I'd love a blinkmink pet! Okay, well, that's a lie. I'm probably way too much of an anxiety goblin to have a pet that can be anywhere any moment. But I'd love it if one of my friends could have one for me to play with.

Oh, and speaking of the political landscape: the whole mystery/intrigue here was really tense and exciting, and I'd love to meet Prince Vana again under better circumstances. But this part of the story also contained the one letdown, slightly reminiscent of the problem I had with the subplot about Whisper's sister in book 1. I really, really wish Irenka's storyline played out differently.

It looked so promising at first, and then it continued looking promising albeit precariously, and then it took the most predictable "curse-your-sudden-but-inevitable-betrayal" path possible. Ugh. Why couldn't her role be more ambiguous?

That's really the only reason this isn't a complete five-star mark for me, but it's come so, so close.

Now excuse me, gotta go buy Tavia Lark's entire fantasy romance backlog.

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shadowspinner's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

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purrson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I wasn’t going to leave a review but I have to give this extra points for the disability/chronic illness inclusivity, especially as the character deals with common issues disabled/chronically ill people navigate all the time—and as the chronically ill character isn’t magically cured or killed off. Pretty cute story, all in all.

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