First Prince tells the tale of Wren, the beautiful yet rebellious first prince of Fontain, as he is forced to move to the Imperial Palace as part of a treaty with the Empire in order to maintain independence for his home kingdom of Fontain. Upon arriving in the Imperial Palace, however, he receives a less than warm welcome and realizes that his stay will be fraught with drama and danger.
As Wren adapts to life in the Imperial court and struggles to understand his shifting role in Imperial politics, Fontain is always on his mind and he will do anything to protect its independence, even if it means sacrificing his own comfort. But when he finds romance at the palace in an unexpected place, he realizes that life in the Empire may not be as dire as he first imagined and that pleasure can be found where it is least expected. As his romance expands into his first true love, politics bring his relationship into question and he is forced to choose between love and loyalty or face the ultimate price.
Trigger warning: rape. This was a great story, and while the ending was HFN, I’m hoping there will be a sequel soon. Isaac and Wren are so perfect for each other and I just want to see Wren happy with Isaac forever. I don’t want to give too much away, because the blurb really doesn’t and it works for the story. I loved it and I’m hoping we will get stories for Isaac’s nine brothers, especially Tye and Dashel.
I don't want to drag the author but this book was painfully amateur. It suffers immensely from over explaining and not allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions/understandings. It fails at creating tension, as almost every question posed is answered pretty immediately. There was also an unnecessary plot point in here that confuses me to my core. Overall, as a reader this book infuriated me. As a fellow writer learning, I think with a lot of editing, some rethinking, and some research, this could really be something.
Also, content warnings for rape, and somewhat non-consensual sex would have been nice. ... I'm so far away from wanting to call this a romance... But I suppose it is.