The Royal Son

Lyesti Alliance Series #1

by V.M. Sanford

Zal’s life is as normal as they come, or at least it was until he comes home to find his father dead on the kitchen floor. His father’s killer is still in the house, and Zal has to run for his life. When he is wounded and faints, he doesn’t expect to wake up in a bed he doesn’t know, in a room he’s never seen before.
Jackson doesn’t usually stick his nose in stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with him. He tries to ignore the guy he finds unconscious on the forest ground while running in his wolf form. Jackson can’t let the guy die, though, even if it means fighting for him and taking him back to his house, something he normally wouldn’t do for someone he doesn’t know.
When Zal’s wound becomes black and his fever rises, Jackson knows he won’t be able to help him. He calls the only person he knows can help—Lonnie, a childhood friend and a man he hasn’t talked to in more than ten years. That simple action opens up a new world for Zal, a world Jackson will gladly share with him.
Zal’s attacker is still out there, though, and he wants what Zal now has—the Fey throne.

Genres: Fantasy, M M Romance, Romance, Paranormal

149 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 2016

Reviews

[Qin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly not awful, plot and characters-wise, but there are crazy or illogical ideas (first time the POV shifts to the were, he wonders "who would be in the forest at this time of the evening in October? It would probably be another shifter, or maybe some human selling drugs or something"; as if anybody would trade drugs deep in the woods come evening! plus the fatuous "or something" really ought to have been discarded) and the editing leaves a LOT to be desired. Words are dropped routinely (e.g., "he looked like he belonged on a magazine cover than in Zal’s kitchen"); comical misprints appear everywhere, which owe nothing to auto-correction by a word-processor for they reflect the author's command of English (e.g., "grumble" instead of "crumble", "scrunch" instead of "crunch", "squishing" instead of "squashing" or, better, "squeezing"); the dialogue is terrible (“Lonnie told me you don’t seem to know anything about yourself and what you are.” “I know what I am. I’m a guy, a college student. A coffee shop worker.” Zal swallowed. “I was a son.” “You’ll always be a son.”"); and the style all too often degenerates into elementary-school parlance (not so much infelicities like "the little moonlight that shone between the trees gleamed on the blade" for "what little moonlight shone etc" than abysmally poor writing perpetually falling back on the same colorless words at the shortest interval). Here is a typical example, which goes on for several more pages, culled from the encounter between the shifter Jackson, the assassin and our beta hero :

"THE GUY still didn't run, but at least he stood and stepped away from THE GUY on the ground. “Shifter,” he said, and Jackson blinked. How did THE GUY know about shifters? How did he know Jackson was one rather than a normal wolf? “Leave, wolf. This is none of your business,” THE GUY said. Jackson might have obeyed if he hadn’t mind letting THE GUY kill someone, and most of all, if he’d taken being ordered around well. He’d always hated it, though, so he grinned at THE GUY and took a step forward rather than backward. THE GUY bared his teeth, and it would have been impressive if Jackson hadn’t grown up in a wolf pack. THIS GUY wasn’t near as much intimidating as he thought he was. Jackson mirrored THE GUY’s expression and bared his own teeth, and this time, he thought he saw a flash of something in THE GUY’s eyes. It didn't matter if it was fear or worry, or something else entirely. THE GUY was more affected by Jackson’s presence than he wanted Jackson to know. Jackson took another step forward, and THE GUY pointed his blade at him. Jackson wasn’t going to let THE GUY threaten him, and he snarled again. THE GUY looked from Jackson to THE GUY on the floor, clearly wondering whom he should take care of first, but Jackson wasn’t going to let him choose. He charged, snarling at THE GUY. THE GUY squeaked and stepped backward, his arm extended, his blade pointed at Jackson. It wasn’t hard to avoid it, and Jackson closed his teeth around the THE GUY’s forearm."

On a much more reduced scale, yet still irritating, let me quote from chapter 2 :

"CALL ALEX. There was nothing Jackson wanted to do less than CALLING ALEX. He’d rather let someone pet him in his wolf form as if he were a dog than CALL ALEX.

Such horribly incompetent stories give the word of self-publishing a bad name.

[Tam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself wasn't that bad. A young man finds his father murdered and someone out to get him. He's rescued by a surly wolf shifter and Zal is thrust into a world he never knew existed and it turns out he's the half-fey crown prince. His grandmother wants him to come back and be queen, he's not interested and is now hooked up with Jackson as his bodyguard/consort and someone is still trying to kill him. Hmmm.

So I liked Zal and Jackson well enough. They were kind of snarky and sarcastic together, what I found were some weird language issues that kept annoying me. "You can renounce to the throne" repeatedly using "renounce to". You renounce something, not "TO" it. It was used over and over and just irked me. Some other editing things and all of the unusual fey names meant I had trouble keeping people straight, but ... I read it, considered stopping but finished it (relatively short). Don't think I'll continue on. Just didn't grab me enough.

[Pamela Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the : Lyesti Alliance .

This was decent start to a new M.M shifter/fey romance . As in all first books of a new series the reader is getting to know the characters . For me I can say that the main couple is alright I like them . So I'm looking forward to more of their story can't wait to find out who is really behind the assassination attempts on Val&s life and why .

[PurpleBunny♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great start of a new series. Wolves and Fey, yay!

Great start of a new series. Wolves and Fey, yay!

First time reader of this author and am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Add this book to your reading list, you won't be disappointed.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

if only, if only

[Alexis Woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I managed to get through this book, I found myself cringing at the poor formatting, the poor use of grammar, the passive, the telling. I found myself wondering why I was still reading this, hoping for some great reveal, but sadly no. So, since I didn't DNF it, 2 stars.