Yup. I read book 3 first and came back for this and book 2, and I was right. I’m a Rodman fan.
The author’s got a commercial style that keeps the story focused on the romantic conflict, and has terrific scenes with endings that keep you turning pages. The characters are never quite as developed as they could be (here, I felt I knew Rhydian, the non-POV MC, better than narrator MC Jamie, which was odd…!). And this one felt…longer than it needed to be? It got a bit repetitive. But I still enjoyed the heck out of it.
TW for on-page SA of an MC. We don’t truly see it; it’s the non-POV MC, and our narrator is hiding his eyes/ears, but, we know it’s happening.
Fey have taken over a world of humans and paranormal creatures (and the humans barely knew the paranormals were even there…now they’re all subject to the whims of the cruel fey). Jamie is shocked when he arrives at work only to be taken into custody by a powerful fey prince and marched to Buckingham Palace, the seat of the UK fey ruler, and made into the prince's “pet." And his prince turns out to be The fey prince, the ruler of the UK.
Rhydian is cold and harsh, but, he treats his pet well, pampering and giving Jamie the finest of food and clothing, and not immediately forcing him to be physical. Though that’s coming. But by the time it does, Jamie’s kind of accepted this as his lot and become inured to the idea that his hopes of saving himself for his true love are the silly yearnings of his former self. Which is kind of sad, for a while. But as Stockholm Syndrome kicks in and he comes to yearn for everything…and I do mean everything…Rhydian can give him, things look up. I loved that Rhydian was pretty much immediately possessive of Jamie, answering the not-infrequent requests to “play” with his pet with a firm and definitive NO time and again.
Much of what Jamie learns about the fey and their ways shocks and horrifies him. The people he interacts with…some are forced to be whores for others. Some are cruel users who laugh at the less powerful. But some become unexpected allies, and while they can’t do a lot for Jamie, they do subtly help him with his own sort of nefarious and mild plans to remain human/kind. And when Jamie decides he wants to do something about the ill treatment going on in court, he really steps in it and causes uproar.
There’s a truly evil villain (noted SA-er…I rarely want to murder people, but him I’d have murdered…but my complaint is, he does the SA for a reason, to access that hero’s power, and we never find out what for. An annoying loose end.) It’s rather brilliant how the author shows that even the seeming most powerful is vulnerable to evil and trickery in the fey world, and it made me empathize with Rhydian a lot more.
Jamie’s a sweetie, but, holy cats he is terrible at standing up for himself. For others, he’ll risk it all, but, I really wanted him to push back more. Oh well, it was still fun. I still liked him, just…someone fairy him up a backbone on his OWN behalf please?! The ending is awesome, but, Jamie’s still acting to protect someone else, not himself.
HEA, fey-human, magic, court politics and shenanigans, sex-slave “pet” to lovers to love, dark themes. No cheating/others in any way. Very sad SA moment. Very great justice for that moment later on. Yes, the main baddy does NOT get away with it. Highly recommended, as is the series.