Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Prince and Assassin

Oh wow, this book! It took me a bit to get into the writing style (third person past tense isn't my favorite), but once I adjusted to it, I was absolutely hooked throughout. It's been a while since I read such awesome hurt/comfort outside of fanfiction. Whisper and Julien absolutely melted my heart, and there were so many little moments that made me feel like this book was written for me. I loved the way they were growing closer through the secrets, Whisper's inner turmoil, Julien's kindness, the D/s overtones in the bedroom, everything. I kind of want to forget this book and read it again, to get all the feels afresh.

I also greatly enjoyed the supporting cast—so many colorful personalities and great people. A lot of the characters didn't get a lot of screen time, and still they left a very distinct impression. I'd love to read a book with almost any single one of them as a more prominent presence. I also really liked the worldbuilding. It's a combination of "a lot packed into it" and "broad strokes"; there are all those politics, assassin orders, different types of magic, dragons, magical drugs, cats with superpowers, and each of these cool details just makes me want to dig deeper into it.

The setting is also completely queernorm: no one assumes that a marriage necessarily involves a man and a woman, there's a lovely casual mention of a character being trans, etc. I remember not so long ago fantasy queer romances (especially the ones with royalty) used to have all the homophobia-induced drama, but nowadays, I keep seeing these wonderful queernorm worlds where the characters are free to have and sort out problems that don't have anything to do with their orientation. I'm absolutely digging all these beautiful fantasy worlds.

Back to the book: the one reason I'm not giving it a full five-star mark is that one twist at the end, the one with the betrayal. I feel like it simplified the conflict and the solutions to it. There might have been ways to get to the happy ending without that, too—though admittedly I would probably fall off the edge of my sit if the author went with some alternate route. :D But, yeah. Not really a fan of that specific character turning out to be a manipulator. Very much a fan of absolutely everything else in this book, though!

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mallorypen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I KNOW I have a book type, and that type is queer romance set against the backdrop of political scheming. And Prince and Assassin DELIVERED. Was pretty much everything a little expected and trope-y? Oh, absolutely. Did I eat it up with a spoon and wish it was twice as long so I could enjoy more of it? Of course I did.

The concept of the Assassins guild isn’t new, nor is the the idea of controlling the members. But the blood magic, the “father and children” element, granting boons of freedom just to send your next child assassin to clean up loose ends, and the casual cruelty of calling them Hounds in a Kennel … I was totally bought in.

I also expected Julian to be an asshole with the way he was initially described, and I adored the twist to make him his brother’s champion. His self doubt about inheriting his father’s magic and not wanting to turn into him felt a little weak, but overall Julian delighted me.

Whisper was such a great character - frank about his own shortcomings, distracted by giant cats, trying to protect people even when he shouldn’t have any empathy left. His dynamic with Julian was very hot, and easy to fall in love with.

I think my favorite thing about this book was the world building. The casual mentions of creatures like dragons, wyrms and fell cats place the story into a fantasy setting without trying too hard with lengthy, ungainly backstory and exposition. The rivalries between the three countries and political machinations were complex while still being laid out in an easy-to-follow manner. I loved the two queens, and that they got children by way of a biological father without giving him a right to the offspring; that dynamic was explained well and also grounded the character behaviors without needing to use dozens of pages to ascribe importance or motivations.

When

Whisper was revealed as an assassin and poisoned, I felt that Julian got over it WAY too quickly, and I also felt that Hemlock’s betrayal wasn’t given enough time either. Those both could have had juicy story arcs on their own, and

for that reason (and because of some of the predictability) I’m not giving it a five star rating.

That said, this was an enjoyable and highly entertaining read! The narrators were both wonderful and embodied their characters well.

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brims's review

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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_isabel_'s review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.5

This was freaking lovely.
Tavia Lark's writing seems to be specifically created for me: this is the fourth book of hers that I've devoured and absolutely adored, and I can already see myself checking out her other series.

"Prince and Assassin" is everything I love in fantasy and romance, and then some: a simple, but extremely vivid, world-building, all the hurt/comfort tropes my little romance-starved heart can wish for, a vast (and totally lovable and hilarious) cast of side characters, steam with a nice helping of a light D/s dynamic, heartstopping action and two protagonists that absolutely STOLE my heart. Plus, the writing was fabulous.

I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of hidden identities in my reads, but Whisper and Julien's relationship was lovely: it's sweet and spicy, fuled by a ton of chemistry. Julien was probably my favourite: he's so charming, so protective and ugh, just the best, most respectful and understanding boyfriend ever. I also adored Whisper, but I hated seeing him so stifled by his father and the curse that was put upon him: I wanted to scream at him for not asking for help sooner, but yeah, I guess that's what his horrific upbringing brought him. I still loved him to bits, and I loved seeing him slowly but surely trust Julien with his body and heart.

I also completely ADORED the side characters. Nadine and Rosin and Dury cracked me up; Audric is so damn intriguing and I cannot wait to read his book; I already love Bellamy and the brothers' mothers to absolute death; and Rumi and Fisk were fantastic and totally hilarious. The best feral cats ever.

I'm so excited to read the next book, not only because we'll finally meet Julien and Audric mysterious younger (and much coddled) brother, but also because there are a ton of threads left to unravel in what will surely be another explosive series by Tavia Lark.

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prettynerdy3's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.0

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