A review by secty
Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash

4.0

A solid ending to a good series. Once again proving to me that not all trilogies get worse as they go on.

This time the book was not only told from Niko’s perspective but we also get the POV from Vasili and Yasir. It was an interesting way to tell the book, though I sometimes got confused about which POV I was reading, because oftentimes the characters are all together. Many chapters were also very short, some only a minute or two to read, which was a bit jarring, but it was nice at night to know that I could keep ‘squeezing in one more chapter’!

Characters were one way again true to form, with a consistency which was comforting and reliable. And the relationships were well done. No rape in this book but the sex scenes are graphic as ever, which is grand if you’re into that type of thing. The sex definitely adds to the plot though; it’s not meaningless smut for the sake of smut, which is refreshing.

I have to say that throughout the series I didn’t really understand the magical system that was at play. The first book I don’t think you’re supposed to understand it but as the series progresses I was still not really following what was going on with the dark flame. And I certainly didn’t understand it during the climax when the dark flame was destroyed. But that’s probably on me… I find myself skimming sections in a rush to get through the climax of a book for some reason and no amount of going back to reread helps me. C’est la vie.

There was also a lot of back and forth again: Vasili being captured, a chase to get him back, Vasili being threatened, blah blah blah. The plot is rather minimal as a result and I couldn’t really tell you what happens in this book alone.

The plot definitely spans all three books though to make a nice story of adventure, romance and some mystery. Overall a solid read, would recommend to any adult reader who enjoys a bit of M/M fantasy.