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A review by mediaevalmuse
The Prince of Prohibition by Marilyn Marks
2.0
I came across this book while researching something or other, and since I'm continuing my streak of picking up random books without context, I went ahead and got a copy. At first I had high hopes, fairies in the 1920s seemed like an interesting premise, and I was curious to see how fae lore complimented the decadence of the Jazz Era. Unfortunately, this book became way too quickly stuffed with too many things, and the plot didn't build in a way that kept me engaged. Because I also didn't really connect with the protagonist and I found the prose wanting, this book only gets 2, maybe 2.5 stars from me.
Writing: While I don't necessarily think the prose in this book is bad at a sentence level, I do think altogether, the writing primarily suffers from repetition, poor pacing, info dumping, and a lack of atmosphere.
For repetition, I often felt like the author would use some of the same descriptions over and over again (like Jack's serpent/amber colored eyes) or else saturate her prose with swear words in order to make the narration and dialogue feel more edgy. I'm not against characters swearing, but when it's overused, the prose starts to feel pretty stale. Unfortunately, that's what happened here (at least for me).
As for pace, this book is over 500 pages long and so much of it could have been condensed. There are quite a few details or scenes that didn't have much bearing on the plot, so eliminating them could have gone a long way towards making the pace feel more appropriate.
As for info dumping, a lot of information is withheld from the reader until about the 20% mark, at which point all the worldbuilding and contextual information is dumped on the reader. The characters simply explain everything to our confused protagonist, and this happens every time there is some new information that is needed (though the author would not craft a scene where that information could be shown or integrated more naturally). Personally, I don't enjoy it when books do world and plot building this way because it makes information hard to absorb in a meaningful way. I would much rather have the author dial back the worldbuilding and really think about what is needed for the story and what feels like is beyond the scope of the narrative.
Lastly, I felt like Marks could have done a better job at making the setting feel more atmospheric. Though this book takes place during the 1920s, I don't think the setting gives the story much flavor aside from the stray mention of a speakeasy or Jack's bootlegging. Given that the 1920s are known for decadence, I would have loved to see how the fae took advantage of that and how the aesthetics of the 20s can be integrated with fae tropes. (As a side note: the lack of atmosphere/setting is even more apparent when the author fails to correct basic historical references. For example, Addie calls the war "World War I" which wouldn't have been the term for it in the 1920s. Also, Jack is said to wear boxers as underwear, which would also strikes me as unlikely as they weren't invented until 1925 and this book takes place in 1926.)
Plot: The plot of this book follows Adeline Colton, a girl with the ability to see through faerie glamor and who is forced to move from small town Georgia to New York City. While in New York, she encounters a number of strange figures, including Jack Warren - her mysterious landlord and a major employer. Addie is inexplicably drawn to Jack and learns that they are tethered together by a magical bond from Addie's childhood. As a result, she finds herself drawn into a plot to aid the fae against the evil plans of an immortal druid.
The plot of this book was... a lot. Not only did we have Addie's personal journey of uncovering her past, but we had a huge narrative about the conflict between exiled fae and one particular druid. On top of that, there were references to a whole bunch of magical creatures (like wyverns) and an alternate history of the Knights Templar that just made the worldbuilding overwhelming. In my opinion, there was too much to wrap my head around, and I had a really hard time feeling invested in any of the individual plot threads because so much was being thrown at me all at one time.
On top of that, it takes about 200 pages for the meat of this plot to really get roasting. The first section of the book is primarily focused on Addie growing up, moving to NYC, and then encountering Jack and the fae. While not a problem in itself, the fact that it took so long to get to the magical plot meant that I was already pretty exhausted as a reader by page 200. If the first part had been condensed, I think I would have had the mental bandwidth to get more excited for the main plot.
Characters: Addie, our narrator and protagonist, is a bit of a mixed bag. The times I liked her best were when she was thinking about her family and how she felt about them. Most of this occurs within the first few chapters, which I maintain are some of the strongest. I really liked the blend of "old world" superstition and small town Christianity, and I loved the way the author describes the effect of World War I on Addie and her brother.
However, once Addie is thrown into the world of the fae, she got a little irritating. Because she's in over her head, she doesn't make good decisions, and she lacks a lot of agency. While somewhat understandable, I wish more was done to show how Addie could use her wits to navigate unfamiliar territory; instead, it felt like she was making mistakes that we, as readers, knew were mistakes (like mistrusting Jack), which in turn made me less likely to sympathize with her. Granted, this gets better as the book progresses; she becomes more agentive and a lot of her character growth involves her learning to assert herself. However, it felt a little unbalanced to have Addie basically stumbling her way through each major plot point while surrounded by much more competent magical beings.
Speaking of Jack, I personally found him to be a little bland. He doesn't have much personality, and even though we're told over and over again that he's a bootlegger and a gangster, he doesn't have that edge to him that would make me think he's dangerous. As a result, Addie running away from him and disliking him so fiercely seems foolish.
Other supporting characters were fun, and some of them even had touching moments with Addie. It seemed like all the other fae in Jack's circle had more chemistry with Addie than Jack did, which made me enjoy the moments when they were interacting more than the romance. Lillian and Violet were perhaps my favorite, as they had more screen time, but I didn't really find fault with any of the side characters.
Romance: Though I wouldn't call this a romance novel, I have a few things to say about the romance between Addie and Jack. The two are magically bonded through something called a "parallel bond" which is not only rare and contains a lot of magic potential, but also means that the two share a soul and are soul mates. The bond also makes them incredibly horny for one another, no matter how hard Addie tries to fight it.
These types of magical bonds aren't my favorite kinds of tropes because I feel like it deprives characters of romantic and sexual agency. Without the bond, there's little reason for the two of them to fall for one another aside from Jack being obscenely attractive, so I felt like the bond was inserted to avoid doing the work of showing the two coming together.
TL;DR: The Prince of Prohibition is a book with an interesting premise, but ultimately lacks the storytelling craft needed to pull it off. Between repetitive prose, overwhelming worldbuilding, a main character who is overshadowed by her companions, and a lack of atmosphere, I couldn't connect with the story and ultimately, have little interest in continuing the series.
Writing: While I don't necessarily think the prose in this book is bad at a sentence level, I do think altogether, the writing primarily suffers from repetition, poor pacing, info dumping, and a lack of atmosphere.
For repetition, I often felt like the author would use some of the same descriptions over and over again (like Jack's serpent/amber colored eyes) or else saturate her prose with swear words in order to make the narration and dialogue feel more edgy. I'm not against characters swearing, but when it's overused, the prose starts to feel pretty stale. Unfortunately, that's what happened here (at least for me).
As for pace, this book is over 500 pages long and so much of it could have been condensed. There are quite a few details or scenes that didn't have much bearing on the plot, so eliminating them could have gone a long way towards making the pace feel more appropriate.
As for info dumping, a lot of information is withheld from the reader until about the 20% mark, at which point all the worldbuilding and contextual information is dumped on the reader. The characters simply explain everything to our confused protagonist, and this happens every time there is some new information that is needed (though the author would not craft a scene where that information could be shown or integrated more naturally). Personally, I don't enjoy it when books do world and plot building this way because it makes information hard to absorb in a meaningful way. I would much rather have the author dial back the worldbuilding and really think about what is needed for the story and what feels like is beyond the scope of the narrative.
Lastly, I felt like Marks could have done a better job at making the setting feel more atmospheric. Though this book takes place during the 1920s, I don't think the setting gives the story much flavor aside from the stray mention of a speakeasy or Jack's bootlegging. Given that the 1920s are known for decadence, I would have loved to see how the fae took advantage of that and how the aesthetics of the 20s can be integrated with fae tropes. (As a side note: the lack of atmosphere/setting is even more apparent when the author fails to correct basic historical references. For example, Addie calls the war "World War I" which wouldn't have been the term for it in the 1920s. Also, Jack is said to wear boxers as underwear, which would also strikes me as unlikely as they weren't invented until 1925 and this book takes place in 1926.)
Plot: The plot of this book follows Adeline Colton, a girl with the ability to see through faerie glamor and who is forced to move from small town Georgia to New York City. While in New York, she encounters a number of strange figures, including Jack Warren - her mysterious landlord and a major employer. Addie is inexplicably drawn to Jack and learns that they are tethered together by a magical bond from Addie's childhood. As a result, she finds herself drawn into a plot to aid the fae against the evil plans of an immortal druid.
The plot of this book was... a lot. Not only did we have Addie's personal journey of uncovering her past, but we had a huge narrative about the conflict between exiled fae and one particular druid. On top of that, there were references to a whole bunch of magical creatures (like wyverns) and an alternate history of the Knights Templar that just made the worldbuilding overwhelming. In my opinion, there was too much to wrap my head around, and I had a really hard time feeling invested in any of the individual plot threads because so much was being thrown at me all at one time.
On top of that, it takes about 200 pages for the meat of this plot to really get roasting. The first section of the book is primarily focused on Addie growing up, moving to NYC, and then encountering Jack and the fae. While not a problem in itself, the fact that it took so long to get to the magical plot meant that I was already pretty exhausted as a reader by page 200. If the first part had been condensed, I think I would have had the mental bandwidth to get more excited for the main plot.
Characters: Addie, our narrator and protagonist, is a bit of a mixed bag. The times I liked her best were when she was thinking about her family and how she felt about them. Most of this occurs within the first few chapters, which I maintain are some of the strongest. I really liked the blend of "old world" superstition and small town Christianity, and I loved the way the author describes the effect of World War I on Addie and her brother.
However, once Addie is thrown into the world of the fae, she got a little irritating. Because she's in over her head, she doesn't make good decisions, and she lacks a lot of agency. While somewhat understandable, I wish more was done to show how Addie could use her wits to navigate unfamiliar territory; instead, it felt like she was making mistakes that we, as readers, knew were mistakes (like mistrusting Jack), which in turn made me less likely to sympathize with her. Granted, this gets better as the book progresses; she becomes more agentive and a lot of her character growth involves her learning to assert herself. However, it felt a little unbalanced to have Addie basically stumbling her way through each major plot point while surrounded by much more competent magical beings.
Speaking of Jack, I personally found him to be a little bland. He doesn't have much personality, and even though we're told over and over again that he's a bootlegger and a gangster, he doesn't have that edge to him that would make me think he's dangerous. As a result, Addie running away from him and disliking him so fiercely seems foolish.
Other supporting characters were fun, and some of them even had touching moments with Addie. It seemed like all the other fae in Jack's circle had more chemistry with Addie than Jack did, which made me enjoy the moments when they were interacting more than the romance. Lillian and Violet were perhaps my favorite, as they had more screen time, but I didn't really find fault with any of the side characters.
Romance: Though I wouldn't call this a romance novel, I have a few things to say about the romance between Addie and Jack. The two are magically bonded through something called a "parallel bond" which is not only rare and contains a lot of magic potential, but also means that the two share a soul and are soul mates. The bond also makes them incredibly horny for one another, no matter how hard Addie tries to fight it.
These types of magical bonds aren't my favorite kinds of tropes because I feel like it deprives characters of romantic and sexual agency. Without the bond, there's little reason for the two of them to fall for one another aside from Jack being obscenely attractive, so I felt like the bond was inserted to avoid doing the work of showing the two coming together.
TL;DR: The Prince of Prohibition is a book with an interesting premise, but ultimately lacks the storytelling craft needed to pull it off. Between repetitive prose, overwhelming worldbuilding, a main character who is overshadowed by her companions, and a lack of atmosphere, I couldn't connect with the story and ultimately, have little interest in continuing the series.