The Prince of Souls

Nine Kingdoms #12

by Lynn Kurland

One good deed leads to another, which for an evil mage desperately wanting to get back to his usual business of making mischief, is hardly a good thing.

Acair of Ceangail has, almost willingly, shouldered the quest of saving the world. Armed with nothing but his charm, a nose for trouble, and the determination to keep his beloved out of the magical fray, he’s marching off once again into the deepening gloom to engage in Noble Deeds.

Léirsinn of Sàraichte asked for magic, despite its devastating effects, to protect Acair as he seeks to fight a mage of terrible power and soul-draining spells. She just hadn’t expected her part in their quest to be quite so critical.

Time is beginning to run out for the two of them, and the battle to save the world and those they love draws ever closer. They just never dreamed how close to home that battle might be . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Mystery, Adventure, Magic, Science Fiction Fantasy

394 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2019

About the author

Lynn began her writing career at the tender age of five with a series of illustrated novellas entitled Clinton’s Troubles in which the compelling hero found himself in all sorts of . . . well, trouble. She was living in Hawaii at the time and the scope for her imagination (poisoned fish, tropical cliffs, large spiders) was great and poor Clinton bore the brunt of it. After returning to the mainland, her writing gave way to training in classical music and Clinton, who had been felled with arrows, eaten by fish and sent tumbling off cars, was put aside for operatic heroes in tights.

Somehow during high school, in between bouts of Verdi and Rossini, she managed to find time to submerge herself in equal parts Tolkien, Barbara Cartland and Mad Magazine. During college, a chance encounter with a large library stack of romances left her hooked, gave her the courage to put pen to paper herself, and finally satisfied that need for a little bit of fantasy with a whole lot of romance!

Reviews

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed the 9 Kingdom series. Adventure, magic, clean romance and an HEA ending. Out of the 4 stories (3 books per story) I think this may be my 2nd favorite. At times names and countries were hard to pronounce and hard to remember who was related. Lynn, we need more maps and a genealogy page in each book!

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best series of magical tales

I love these boo!s. They are well written. The characters are engaging. The repartee proves hilarious at times. Romance, magic, quests, dragons, horses, family, friends and love. Nothing left out. Quite an enjoyable read.

[Meagan Kusek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give this two stars: one for Acair and one for the humor.

I knew I'd be slogging through this, but admittedly, seven weeks of reading is pretty good for my recent records.

Let me start by saying that I still love the world Kurland has built. The cast of characters is still fun, and she has this way with words that provides a sophisticated sort of humor. That said, that way of words is also rather more purple than it needs to be

This book is a perfect example of why these sorts of romance stories (especially Kurland's PG ones) should only be one book and not three. As far as the plot goes, barely anything happened. Acair and Leirsinn moved from one locale to the other, talked to the cast of characters about the same issues over and over, exchanged the same insults, and honestly learned very little worth making a whole book out of. I didn't even remember what happened in the previous two books (it had been so long since I read them), but I really didn't need to because they rehashed everything so often.

Kurland spends a lot of time repeating the same thoughts and feelings in the characters' heads. Take away all that, and you'd have a third of the book. She also writes in such a passive way with a lot of the conditional tense, so it's hard to keep up with who's in the room or what actions people take because you only find out about it AFTER it happens. Something like 'Acair was surprised to find the book on the ground since he had thrown it in the air when Leirsinn spoke.'

All in all, the final meeting between the heroes and villain was anticlimactic. The villain himself was no real "big boss," so I couldn't have cared less about him. The "battle" was over a minute after it began. And then there were all the deus ex machina characters that descended just in time to help the two main characters.

While I loved Star of the Morning and the first trilogy of the Nine Kingdoms series, this is where I will be stopping, should Kurland write anymore. They grew less and less interesting with each trilogy, and this was the final nail in the coffin. Acair's personality was really all that made the story bearable. That and Solleir hiding in the closet. That made me laugh so hard! Honestly, I'd only consider reading more if we got Solleir's story, but even then, I'd hesitate if it was still in the same three-book format. A fantasy romance that only has some chaste kisses and "maudlin sentiments" needs more to bolster it if you're trying to attract the romance reader crowd.

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ends the trilogy of Acair of Ceangail and Leirsinn. I love all the Nine Kingdom books and hope for more. Lynn Kurland seems to have changed her publishing company to her own and I love the larger size of the book. I felt like she was better able to cover the story and end it well rather than feeling like she just got started before she had to finish. There are more than enough mysteries to go around for Acair and Leirsinn and they solved them together. Acair turns out to be a good guy even though in he had tried so hard to be the 2nd worst black mage ever!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a harder time getting through this one. It seemed slow to me. But worth reading.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of the Acair trilogy: these are 100% a guilty pleasure I binged but they've got issues.

They're too fucking long. These three books are full of the main couple bouncing from location to location, looking for spells in books. It becomes VERY redundant and formulaic. This book could easily have been condensed into 1. And for all the length, the main plot's mystery is resolved in a single chapter and requires an outside character to piece everything together because even after miles and miles of plot, readers still have no clue wtf is going on. This author needs to take lessons on crafting tight structure bc there is none.

The names are unpronounceable and there are toooooo many location names with no context. Which is funny bc the author said in an interview I read that she hates complicated fantasy names "with lots of apostrophes" in traditional fantasy. Joke's on her bc she's done just that. I got confused with name after name being thrown out with the expectation that they mean anything to readers who weren't given context.

So why 4 stars? Because Acair is a fascinating, funny, witty character whose banter with Leirsinn and everyone else keeps you turning pages. It's a veryyyy slow burn romance, it is not until half way thru the 3rd book that you get any sort of romantic payoff for committing to read it. But I'm not sorry. And the idea of a dark mage doing an apology tour for his misdeeds after attempting to steal the world's magic, while claiming he lives for michief/murder/mayham and slowly evolving to be a do-gooder, is a unusual and fun idea. He's the star of the book. And also I lived for the couple of chapters in the middle of romantic, domestic life in a wizard's home ;)

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the first two books in this trilogy, The Prince of Souls slowly develops the character's relationship and plot. There are more 'romantic' gestures expressed by Acair and Leirsinn as they finally declare their love, sort of. There are multiple enemies loosely tied together that are finally overcome by Acair and Leirsinn, with the aid of expected and unexpected allies. So, I like Acair and Leirsinn's banter. I like Sianach the horse that prefers to shape-change into a dragon or tiger. I like their quest to discover what the soul stealing shadows are, who is making them, and how to undo them. However, to me this story could have a tighter, well paced storyline, with more character development that could have been summed up in one book. Acair and Leirsinn rehash many of the same sentiments that they have in the first book and their characters really don't develop as much as they should to face their deadly enemy. The enemy, too, is vague and seems content to lurk about but isn't well defined. He finally comes out for a confrontation at the end, but I just wasn't clear as to what he hoped to gain from Acair and Leirsinn that he couldn't have gained by other means. There were some loose ends that were unresolved and perhaps the purpose is for future stories. This is a clean read with mild kissing, mild profanity, and mild violence. Basically, I made it through the series, but it was a slow process and even with the happily ever after at the end, I was glad it was over.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love everything written by Lynn Kurland and find myself always looking for her next release. This story of the Nine Kingdoms was about Acair of Ceangail and Leirsinn. Although Acair is a black mage and very problematic in early stories in the Nine Kingdoms, he has definitely become one of my favorites...and Leirsinn was a fun, spunky love interest to draw out the best side of Acair. I thought there was a little bit of repetitiveness in this last book of Acair's and Leirsinn's story, but I was also very sad to see it end. I can only hope to hear more of them in future stories in the Nine Kingdoms. Who doesn't love a good redemption love story?

[Kelvin Buck · Rating 3 out of 5]

out of all twelve nine kingdoms books this may have the best chemistry and humor but the worst plot. i absolutely adore acair and leirsinn and could read twelve more books of their adventures but the plot had zero motivation it felt like the other characters just sprang out of the ground when it was their turn to do something. at least my pookie soilleir was here

[Kristine Drumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

Great ending for the Nine Kingdoms.
Kept me interested and ready for more all through the entire series.
Good reads,

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the ending of this last trilogy

[kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, as always great book.

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Can not wait to read the next book!!!

[Tammy Marcelja · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF

[Hilary Keys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ye gads. Glad to be done with the series. This last storyline had so much potential. It seemed to drag onnnnn just to wrap everything up in the last 20 pages. Bah!

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one took me a long time to get through. I was never sure exactly what was going on (seriously!). The humorous banter between the main characters, Acair and Aislinn, is amusing and give the story a certain lightness, but saying that, I also must comment that the plot never really got serious so it was hard for me to get feelings of appropriate dread at the approach of an evil mage, etc. I'm not warning anyone away from this book, particularly if you love the Nine Kingdoms series. I just don't think this one was among Lynn Kurland's best works.

[HDST · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, Acair might just be one of my favorite characters. Overall, this is quite an enjoyable read.

[Hannah Carey]

Definitely my favorite book out of Acair’s trilogy and quite possibly one of my favorites in the whole series! I’ve loved reading Acair’s redemption arc and watching him grow as a character. His dry wit and sense of humor definitely made this book. I also really enjoyed watching him teach Leirsinn how to use her magic and her own journey discovering more about her past and her abilities. The ending wrapped up with a perfect happily ever after for the hero and heroine. Such a fun read!