A review by wardenred
Prince and Pawn by Tavia Lark

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

4.0

What he feels for Corin deserves to be seen in sunlight. He doesn’t want to love Corin in the shadows.

This is my favorite book of the Perilous Courts series so far in some ways, and my absolute least favorite in some others. But let's focus on the positives first! 

I thoroughly enjoyed the non-romance backdrop plot and how it took the events of all the past books in the series. This book is a really satisfying conclusion to the Sandry family arc, and while I'm sad to leave this family behind, I'm also excited to head off to Dracora with the next books—not least because of some of the subtle hints laid out here. 

I very much enjoyed meeting all the familiar faces. Some of the side characters I already liked got more page time, and of course it was lovely to see the leads from the past two books and to have them play small but important parts in the plot. I felt like the magical intrigue surrounding Corin was pretty transparent tbh, but the way the Sandry brothers approached it and some extra details coming up still made it enjoyable to follow. And there was plenty of fun banter throughout that made me giggle.

Oh, and the pets! So many fellcats being fun, and getting to see Sarca the dragon again. My one regret was that Bastard, Bell's pet, was barely there, I wanted more of the cute disappearing creature.

Also, as someone who suffers from frequent dizzy spells due to Meniere's, I really liked how Corin's health situation was portrayed, even though it wasn't really a chronic illness. That one scene where he thought about how he had to accept he couldn't trust his body anymore resonated with me a lot. Those thoughts could have come straight from my own head, especially back when I was adjusting to the condition.

And now for the bad bits: the romance. Which was disappointing, given that I love Tavia Lark for the super tropey, super fun hurt/comfort-ish romance storyline specifically. This one had good bones for sure, and there were a lot of sweet moments between Audric and Corin, and the kinky scenes with magic were hot and all... But there were also a lot of details that made me cringe and question things. 

For once, there's this bit, coming from Corin's own head in the middle of the book:

Spoiler"He imprinted like a new-hatched bird on the first man who touched him, addicted to his first taste of desire. Anyone would fall for the gift of Audric Sandry’s full attention, even if they weren’t as affection-starved as Corin."

This doesn't scream grand romance to me, this screams potentially super toxic situation. Especially since Audric never truly addresses the power imbalance between them that exists pretty much on all levels. Audric is a prince and the future king, while Corin is his subject of really low standing. There's the kink aspect. There's the fact that Audric is older, richer, physically stronger, etc. I thought in the first book Julien was a bit clumsy about how he handled similar things with Whisper, but he did try to handle them, he thought about them explicitly, he wanted to figure out a way for them to be on equal footing as they pursued a relationship. Audric just hardly gives these subjects much thought. Yes, he does tell Corin a few times that he's free to leave if he wants, asks him what he wants, etc, but that feels shallow compared to their whole situation in which Corin is rather dependent on him and his whims. Which also makes me feel iffy about how the kink was handled. Yes, from Corin's chapters it's clear he is enthusiastically consenting to everything, but they talk so little, Audric has no real way of knowing whether Corin's consent is always genuine or he just likes most things they do and feels obliged to go along with the rest, etc. At least establish a safe word or something! 

And then there's also the insta-love aspect that was so jarring compared to the previous two couples who got to know each other before they caught feelings. WIth Julien and Whisper, attraction also developed fast, but they did actually talk and spend time together before it got serious, and even though Whisper was operating under a fake identity, his personality was out there. And Bell and Rakos in book 2 got to be badly disguised idiots together for quite a while before they acted on anything (may I just say that "I'm a master of disguises. Shut up, Rakos" is my favorite line in *this* book, by the way? :D). Here, Audric and Corin seemed to base their entire connection on the initial one-night stand. True, they got to know each other better later, and it solidified the feelings, but the feelings were already there—based on... what? Oh, right: Corin was affection- and attention-starved, and Audric enjoyed the sexual compatibility and the fact that Corin was good at reading him for whatever reason, that was basically it. More disturbing then romantic, with everything else taken into account.

I feel like all of this could've been mitigated if they, a) talked more; b) Corin wasn't such a blushing virgin the majority of whose personality/arc boiled down to "genderswapped delicate damsel in distress learning to be brave," and c) Audric thought for one hot minute about the subjects of power imbalance and everything related to it. Like, properly. Perhaps talked to Julien about it knowing that he has successfully navigated a vaguely similar situation in the past, or to Whisper, or to both. As it was, the romance here really isn't my favorite, and this last part about Audric also soured me to his character. Though I liked a lot of things about his "not perfect, just discreet" personality otherwise. But not this.
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