The Traitor's Mercy

Starian Cycle #1

by Iris Foxglove, Kris Antham (Narrator)

In the court of Staria, mercy is rarely a blessing…

Sabre de Valois is the last of his line. Saved from the gallows while his family hangs for treason, Sabre is given the chance to pay off their debt and clear his family name. To do so, he must serve as a courtesan in the pleasure district, but the only House willing to take him in and risk the disfavor of the king is the House of Onyx, which caters to the darker desires of the Starian noble elite. There, he finds his masochism is an asset, the courtesans are kinder than the nobles of the Starian court, and that he cannot help but be inexorably drawn to the owner of the House of Onyx, Laurent de Rue.

Lord Laurent de Rue knows that love is dangerous. Abandoned in the pleasure district with no memory of his past, Laurent clawed his way to notoriety and earned his title through cunning and skill. He has seen love ruin the lives and ambitions of those he passed on his way to the top, and he has no intention of letting himself fall prey to the same mistakes. Yet he can’t stop himself from growing closer to Sabre de Valois, who loves so earnestly and so completely that even Laurent’s steel will is starting to break.

But Sabre has secrets of his own, and when the machinations of the court threaten to put Sabre in danger, Laurent will have to decide whether he will risk it all for love, or let Sabre de Valois slip through his fingers.

(Please note: The Traitor’s Mercy is an m/m dark fantasy novel, set in a fictional world where everyone is biologically either a dominant or a submissive, and compelled to satisfy those urges. As such, the biological imperative kink in this story is pure fantasy, and not intended as a representation of real-life BDSM practices or dynamics.

Please be advised that while this title features a happy ending, it contains darker elements that some readers may find uncomfortable. It is intended for adult, mature readers only. )

Genres: Fantasy, M M Romance, BDSM, Romance, Dark, Magic, Queer

9 pages, Audible Audio

First published February 23, 2021

About the author

Iris Foxglove is the shared pen name of Avon Gale (she/her) and Fae Loxley (he/him). Avon and Fae met in fandom in 2019, and began writing fanfiction together in 2020 during lockdown. They eventually decided to collaborate on original fantasy fiction, and haven't looked back since.

They write queer fantasy with an emphasis on biological imperative, natural power exchange dynamics, complex worldbuilding and unforgettable characters.

You can follow Iris on twitter @irisfoxglove, or sign up for Iris' newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hrhA6z

Iris also has a brand-new Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/irisfoxglove

Iris' Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...

You can also follow the authors individually on Twitter and Facebook:

Avon Gale
Twitter: https://twitter.com/avongalewrites
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/2p8hz4fv

Fae Loxley
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Fae_loxley
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/mrxt2fnn

Reviews

[Lyn❤Loves❤Listening to Real Voices Only!!!!❤️🎧📚 Addict ON HIATUS]

Audio - 5 +++ Stars
Story - dnf @ 12% It's me not the book

For a debut novel, the writing is very impressive, and the narrator Kris Antham is FUCKING AMAZEBALLS!! Seriously, I hope he gets cast for more audiobooks.

Unfortunately, the story is not for me. I knew bdsm was going to be involved in this story but it's seems like it's going to be more then I can stand. Being that I'm not a fan of bdsm, only tolerate it, I decided to dnf.

[Rosabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will not be for everyone, in fact until 46% of it I thought it wasn't going to be for me but I pushed through and I'm glad. 😊❤

You see, this world that Iris Foxglove has created is based on relationships between dominants and submissives, in kink and in the machinations of a kingdom, each book focuses on a different couple and a different kink so some books may work for me and others may not.

This one had a masochist in it and even though I like to read about a lot of kinks, I never enjoy seeing someone beaten up, I know the person enjoys it but it's just something that doesn't work for me. Still, as I said I kept going.

In the Treator's Mercy, we meet Sabre who is a submissive and whose family has been accused of treason, he's saved of hanging by the king but it's still punished by being send to the pleasure houses to be a prostitute and where he meets Laurent, a former whore who is now a lord. I think this was a good book for a first installment in a series, Sabre being a traitor garners attention from all the nobility so we get to meet a lot of the characters that are going to have a book later, all of that while getting to see Sabre and Laurent's relationships grow and each of them grow as characters.

I think that the fact that Sabre was a masochist helped him survive the situation he was living (even though it made me uncomfortable), so I learned to not squirm with it all at the end. I also think that Laurent was the perfect couple for him, he helped him and made him embrace who he was.

At the end I enjoyed it for what it was and I think this is an interesting world, real excited for the rest. 🥰❤

P.s. Author you have to give me a book of Isiodore and the king, please. 😫💜

[Elena]

DNF at 39%

I liked the idea of this book more than the reality of it, which is another way to say that I overestimated my capacity to deal with this particular brand od BDSM, especially since I’m not feeling much interest for any of the characters or what seems to be the “romance.”
All that might be on me, the sometime-atrocious use of punctuation isn’t.

[Lisa KK · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know how to rate it.
The kink was not for me and I felt uncomfortable a lot while reading it, but it was intriguing (and very hyped, and a buddy read) so I finished it.
And I’m glad I did because the ending was clever and unexpected.
I would have liked more of the romance less of the politics. Will continue the series because I have been assured the next book is less… intense.

[Elle Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Traitor's Mercy is a complete gem. I was pretty much sold on the premise but from the opening scene, I was blown away by this intricate world and all its intriguing rules and expectations. There's a huge cast of characters and I feel like that can be tricky to pull off without confusing the reader, but the House of Onyx is written as a vibrant community of unique personalities, an exemplary found family. I'm an instant fan of this author and can't wait to see what comes next!

[Florence . · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You saved my life because you love me, and I will share yours because I love you, too.”

I really enjoyed this one. This was very dark, which I really like, but it was cut by much lighter and sweeter moments, which really wroked for me. Also all the BDSM scenes in this book really worked for me, those were very hot and I loved them a lot. This book just wasn’t romantic enough for me, I just wanted more scenes between the two main characters and to see more how their romance built because it just wasn’t enough for my taste. But I really loved the entire world building of this book and it made me super excited to continue on with the series.

I received an ARC of this book, and this is my honest review.

[AngelFire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rating: 1.5 stars (rounded down)

I knew going into this that I was taking a gamble because Avon Gale's contemporary MM romance aren't my thing, but because these books are a different genre and were co-written with somebody else, I decided to give them a try. Unfortunately, this book didn't redeem this author for me.

On the positive side, I did like a few of the characters (Sabre, Adrien, Charon) and I liked the scenes between these three characters, particularly the friendship between Sabre and Adrien. I also adored Charon and I feel he would have made a more interesting love interest for Sabre than Laurent, but more on that later. I'm disappointed that Charon didn't get his own book in this series, because that's the only one I'd be interested in reading (Adrien's book features a 'fathers-best-friend' situation and that's not my thing).

I also appreciate how much effort the authors put into creating an interesting and in-depth world, in particular, I liked that this fantasy world was based on the Victorian era, as opposed to the usual Medieval era. However, I'm not going to give credit for the 'everyone-is-born-dom-or-sub' idea because like with omegaverse, it's been around for ages and these authors merely borrowed the concept with minimal tweaking. I'm not 100% sure but I believe Xanthe Walter was the first to create this type of alternate reality, first in her expansive NCIS and SGA fanfics that won multiple fanfic awards in the mid to late 2000s (which you can find on AO3 under her handle Xanthe) and then in her fantastic original work Ricochet published in 2012, which I highly recommend if you enjoy such BDSM alt-realities.

Now onto the negatives.

Boring And/Or Annoying Characters

Asides from Charon, I couldn't stand the majority of the side characters who were crammed into Laurent's brothel. There was so much attention given to these pointless, annoying characters that I quickly started skimming any group scenes. The worst were Rose and Yves, who irritated me so much with their incessant and pointless chatter that I skimmed anything that referenced their names. Not only that, but the constant attention given to Rose's blossoming acting 'career' was irritating, particularly because the MCs didn't get the attention they deserved (more on that later).

The biggest disappointment with characterization was that Sabre and Laurent weren't given character arcs. Sabre easily adjusts to being a sex slave and due to his submissive nature, he doesn't have a hard time with his new situation, which was a waste of potential. As for Laurent, he's essentially a Gary Stu. He's the perfect noble, the perfect boss, the perfect friend, the perfect pimp, the perfect dominant, the perfect brother etc. Everything about him was boring, which is why it wasn't a surprise that the most important and most interesting BDSM scenes in the book had Sabre paired up with dominants who weren't Laurent (it wasn't a surprise, but it was a huge disappointment). That leads to my next problem.

Poorly Developed Romance

The first problem was that Sabre and Laurent had zero chemistry. The second problem is that the authors seemed to enjoy pairing them up with other characters more than each other because those scenes had a lot more emotion than scenes of Sabre and Laurent together. Why was Sabre's first big BDSM scene in the brothel between Sabre and Charon?? Why was his First Night with Isiodore, not Laurent? Why was it Isiodore who shared really important info about Sabre's family with him, not Laurent? Why were the scenes between Rose and Laurent, Sabre and Adrien, Charon and Laurent (etc) so much more interesting and meaningful than scenes between Sabre and Laurent?? I think part of the problem is that both MCs lacked character arcs and they shared zero history, which meant there was nothing to go on. But it's mind boggling that the authors didn't notice this problem and fix it. I mean - the relationship between those other pairings I mentioned were really interesting and well done, so clearly, the authors have the ability to come up with good stuff. Anyway, as a result of these issues, I absolutely didn't care about Laurent and Sabre as a couple and when they finally did start having sex, I didn't care.

Romanticizing Sex Slavery

I felt the whole concept of sex slavery in this book was done in pretty poor taste. First - the workers were called prostitutes or whores, when they were actually sex slaves. Unlike sex workers (who might not have had many choices but still chose to get into that profession and they can quit whenever they want), these people were sex slaves. They had all been sold to different brothels and they had a debt that had to be repaid before they gained their freedom. So basically, Laurent wasn't just a pimp, but he was a literal slaver who bought and sold sex slaves and lived off the income they brought him. Oh, but he's a good guy because he allows them to keep their tips. YYYAAAYYY.....?!? Also, it was very convenient that every single sex slave working at Laurent's brothel was just THRILLED to be there and LOVED their enslaved position. They were all one big happy family who laughed and hung out together in between being forced to have sex with strangers in order to pay off the debt that Laurent had decided to buy. The whole thing was...weird. And not my thing.

Also, I hated the gaping plot hole that the slave debts created. It didn't seem like any official checks were ever done to ensure that the slaves were actually earning the amount that was credited towards their debt. So why couldn't Laurent just falsify records and write off all the debts in his ledger? Many of the slaves had other talents that could have been used to earn money. So it made no sense that Laurent continues to force all of his so-called 'family' members to keep prostituting themselves while he sits back and collects the money. I'm not a fan of pimp characters because authors rarely come up with a character backstory that makes me support such a character and that held true here.

Lack Of Plot

I don't know if I read the same book as everyone else, because mine seemed to have lost the plot. I mean that in a literal sense. There. Was. Barely. Any. Plot. There were many BDSM scenes and they were relatively well done (the technical aspects were good but they lacked emotion) but due to the number of BDSM scenes and BDSM interactions, even having a varied list of kinks to choose from made this aspect repetitive after a while. I mean - by the fifth time that Laurent pulls Sabre's hair or by the third time that somebody flogs/whips Sabre, I was over it. There were tons of pointless conversations between side characters. Lots of info-dumping about the world. Lots of repeating the same info over and over again. But I couldn't believe that by 50%, NOTHING important had happened beyond the introductory setup. This book felt like the authors were exploring their new fantasy world and writing little slice-of-life pieces as they tried different things. That's fine...but that kind of exploratory writing isn't supposed to be published as the first installment of a series.

BDSM =/= Dark Romance

Personally, I find it insulting and disrespectful when people refer to BDSM as 'dark' because that puts it on an equal level with things like abuse and problematic themes. In the fanfic world, it's always been customary to tag stories as either 'light BDSM' or 'hardcore/heavy BDSM', which tells readers what level of intensity to expect regarding the type of kinks that are included. This book is definitely hardcore BDSM, but it's NOT dark and I didn't appreciate having it labeled that way. Not only does that feel disrespectful but it's also misleading. I picked this up because it's marketed as a 'dark romance', but there was nothing dark about it. Like I said, the characters were all nauseatingly cheerful despite the situations they were in, the sex slavery aspect was romanticized to the nth degree and Sabre happily went along with whatever was happening. So there was nothing dark about it and that was a let down.

Weird Writing Choices

I didn't notice this issue in Avon Gale's contemporary books, so maybe it was the co-author's influence, but the writing style in this didn't work for me. There were awkward sentences where the word order made no sense. There were questions without question marks. There were missing words. And the biggest problem was the weird punctuation choices. I'll give two examples:

'He wouldn't, Laurent thought, be the first.'

'Laurent thought. He might get one.'

Just...WHAT? And...WHY? This weird way of chopping up sentences or using strange word order was common enough that it had to be a deliberate choice, but I didn't understand it. It only made the story more difficult to read and since I was already struggling to stay awake due to boredom and hating nearly every character, that wasn't good.

Surprise 'Father's-Best-Friend' Trope

This was purely a me issue, but the whole fathers-best-friend or former-teacher or best-friends-father thing is a no-go for me. Nope. Can't do it. Won't do it. I go out of my way to avoid books with this common age gap trope, which is why I really didn't appreciate having a lengthy BDSM scene between Sabre and Isiodore, a man who was very good friends with Sabre's father and took on an uncle role in Sabre's life - mentoring him and guiding him as an additional father figure. I could kind of handle the platonic portion of their BDSM scene, but the actual sex part...nope. I had to skim. Which is really unfortunate because the information Isiodore shares with Sabre in this scene is really important and it's one of the very few scenes in the book that actually advances the miniscule plot.

Conclusion

Overall, this is another time that I picked up an Avon Gale book due to a really great sounding premise but I end up very badly let down by the execution. This author's style isn't for me and I'm going to stop trying to make things work.

[s · Rating 5 out of 5]

EDIT TO ADD: I spent this weekend listening to the audio and adlfkjasdlf it was fantastic! Highly recommend if you like audiobooks. I've never heard of the narrator but he has a great voice and really brought the story to life.

I liked this, the premise was interesting (it was like a/b/o or omegaverse but without the parts of that I don't like) and definitely mind the warnings by the author, the kink scenes do get pretty intense but it was right up my alley. i'll for sure read more in the series, the worldbuilding was really great and i loved the secondary characters (esp the house of onyx crew, gimme more yves and charon). well-written and clever, would recommend to anyone who liked captive prince or the kushiel series.

[~Nicole~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not for the faint of heart. The plot is awesome and the MCs are interesting, I loved them . The BDSM part and the masochism thing are pretty hardcore though and I kind of squirmed uncomfortable..Still, it’s a good book and I enjoyed it a lot .

[Heather K (dentist in my spare time)]

100% not my jam. DNF

[Jewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

The Traitor's Mercy had quite the slow start for me, but it did grow on me a lot and by the end I was very much enjoying it. This level of sadism isn't generally my thing, but I did like the main characters and the story is intriguing. It's a bit harsh, to say the least, but I'll keep reading the series and see where it takes me.

[yaishin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa whether the other nobles believed it or not that ending fit way too perfectly for it not to be planned. I was kinda confused with Sabre's role in that forest though, I couldn't make heads or tails of what exactly happened there.

[Moraa]

DNF @ 25%

The concept is intriguing but the writing style isn’t working for me.

I needed a bit more passion from the MCs and less character introductions. I wish we could have focused a bit more on building the main relationship instead of introducing everyone who works at the House of Onyx.

[Randi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected this book to be mostly kinky erotica but then I got hit over the head with feelings and really invested in the story. If you are adept at separating your fantasy from reality and aren't bothered by escapism and a highly fictional version of BDSM, definitely give this a try. The writing was a cut above so many KU books I've tried to read. It had some dark parts as stated but also some humor, and I was really impressed with it.

[Carol (bookish_notes) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weird one. I enjoyed it! I knew going into this that it was a dark romance and I’m excited to start the next book, but I think it could’ve used some more editing. The worldbuilding also feels too vague to me, but maybe we’ll get more of a sense of all that as the series progresses. This book contains intense BDSM scenes and consent is a grey area.

Trigger warnings include non-con, abuse, graphic violence, mentions of witnessing a suicide, hangings, knife-play, humiliation, gun play(?), and deaths.

The story starts off with a hanging. It’s a festive day for the city, and almost the entire city has turned out for it. On the gallows is Sabre, his mother, and his sister being hanged for being traitors. At the last second, Sabre’s life is spared, but only just. He’s taken in by the Lord who runs a pleasure house called the House of Onyx. The house is for clientele who have darker yearnings than what the other houses can offer. Lord Laurent de Rue was once himself a courtesan. He managed to pay off his debt at the House of Gold. He’s since earned himself a title and runs his own pleasure house, but maybe a bit differently and is a bit fairer to his courtesans than the other houses would.

There is a fair bit of political intrigue in between the sex scenes. I wouldn’t say this book was primarily focused on the sex, but it’s just a natural part of the way the story is told. Consent is definitely a grey area in this book, since Sabre really doesn’t have a choice in whether he wants to be a courtesan, and there’s certainly still the power dynamics at play with Laurent being the head of the brothel. I liked Sabre and Laurent well enough. And I adore the giant Dom and sadist of a man, Charon, who loves dishing out pain, but also loves cuddling with his subs afterwards. I love good aftercare and Charon is a darling. All the courtesans at the a House of Onyx are lovely. There are quite a few of them and I only wish we could have seen Sabre and Onyx interact more with them than we already do. In a very unconventional way, they’re all a little like a found family.

I’m not really all that familiar with A/B/O books, but I think this story kind of incorporates those dynamics into the way Dominants and submissives exist in this world? People in this book are clearly either a Dominant or a submissive by birth, and something they find out in puberty, if not sooner. People are labeled as such in casual conversations and this seems to be very reminiscent of Alpha and omega traits in this book’s story, minus the mpreg.

One of the only real things that bothered me with the story is maybe the writing? There’s a lot of starts and stops in the sentences, because there’s an overabundance of commas and periods thrown in almost at random that takes me out of the story. I found myself re-reading sentences to try to parse out what the characters are saying. Maybe instead of periods, the author meant to put in an ellipses to show a character’s pause, or when they drift off mid-sentence?

I saw that the author plans on getting the books in the series made into audiobooks and that would do the story a great service, I think. It would be easier to tell the tone and cadence of a character’s speaking voice through an audiobook. There are moments when I really adored the author’s writing, and it even felt really lyrical at times. But, yeah...I just think some more editing and cleaning up the periods and commas in the book could do a lot of good and I can’t wait for the audio!

The ending is very dramatic and everything is resolved quite quickly. It’s all resolved with a neat little bow as well. I would say this ends in a HEA, and I’m honestly not sure where this book’s overarching storyline and characters are going to go. I did see that the next book is with Devon and Duke Sebastien (and literally a demon who rides his soul). So, I’m super excited about that!! I love a good demon (or maybe half-demon in this case) MC. Devon is also the villain in this first book. He’s one of many, but he ends this book quite hated, so to see him be the MC in the next book?? I can’t wait to read it!!!

Book 3 is about a prince and his father’s advisor. I am INCREDIBLY intrigued in how that comes about. And what the King’s reaction to that will be. Judging by only the title of book 4 at this point, I want to venture a guess that it’ll be about Devon’s brother (who is also on the run). But who he gets a HEA with is currently unclear. Book 5 is even more vague because the King has no mage as far as I can tell. Or at least not yet. And if it’s a book with the King himself??? It’ll be very interesting indeed.

Overall, I’m very pleased to have read this book, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the books in this series!!

[Stephanie W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sabre's life has been spared. He is left alive to clear his family name. His only safe option between a courtesan or in the quarry, is the House of Onyx.
Lord Laurent clawed his way to the top after no memory of what happened to him many years ago.

Refusing to become prey to love like so many others, he refuses to allow himself to fall for anyone. Unfortunately, he can't get Sabre out of his head.
Sabre's past is quickly coming back to haunt him. Will Sabre trust Laurent? Will Laurent risk it all for the very love he tried to avoid?

Their intensity of romance and passion is incredible as is the world building of the main characters.

If you enjoy dark romance, I recommend adding this to your TBR pile.



**I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.**

[the kevin (vaguely alive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the character dynamics in this story a lot. The biological BDSM was an interesting feature as well, but the differences in how the author handled character interactions is what made it for me.

Both characters, but especially Laurent, have mysterious pasts (though some of Laurents is a total blank)…but these aren’t held back, from either the reader or Sabre. Laurent just tells him his story, in order to help Sabre, to make a point. It reads so smoothly this way, and I really appreciate the lack of silly secret keeping that might have happened otherwise.

Somehow, despite this being heavily focused on sex, it didn’t take over the narrative. The background plot was worked in well, a thread woven through that didn’t take over or get lost. Emotions still feature heavily which helped balance all the physical out.

The world-building was fascinating, even outside of the biological BDSM. There were just hints of magic, complexities of other lands, and really well done hints at future main characters. Just enough of Devon and the Duke to really reel me in for the second book, and even more for the Prince somehow.

Overall, this was an intriguing and romantic story, and I look forward to the next novels.

[Merrikat · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounding up for the amazing audio performance! i'd read this already and then used my monthly audible credit on the audio and i'm SO glad that i did! i enjoyed the story when i read the book, but it's really fun to listen to. i know some people had issues with the author's stylistic choices for Sabre's speech pattern (it's written with a lot of short sentence fragments in his dialogue) and i'd recommend the audio if that's the case, because the narrator does a good job translating that to more natural speech. i'm reading the second book now and i really like it! excited to see the author say the same narrator will be doing that book, too. i'll save my credit for it for sure.

[Mysterious · Rating 5 out of 5]

First five-star book in almost six months. Excellent character work. Incredible chemistry between the MCs. Good balance between the A-plot (the courtesan house) and B-plot (the palace intrigue); good ratio of comfort to hurt.

And Laurent definitely hit my competence kink. (What is it about characters named Laurent?)

I have a feeling Book #2 is not going to be to my taste but I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Gin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for the world building and the incredibly well done fear kink -- the scene with Sabre and the gun would have been enough to get five stars from me, even if I hadn't liked the rest of the book (which I did, very much.)

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I definitely liked the second half better than the first half. The writing took some getting used to. It was rather abrupt, or vague, with some strange punctuation, but I eventually adjusted to it. Sabre was a very likeable guy. He was a submissive and a masochist, so when the King banished him and he ended up working as a courtesan at a house that specialized in a variety of kinks, he wasn't exactly unhappy. In fact, he came to love the people he worked with, especially Laurent, the owner of the establishment.

I wouldn't really call this a romance. It was a dark fantasy that ended with love and a HEA. The BDSM parts were mainly told and not shown. Sabre was treated badly by the nobles who came to visit him in the House of Onyx, but he enjoyed that treatment.

I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series. There were several characters whose stories I would be interested to read, but the next book is about someone who I did not like and who I never thought would get his own book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I was totally engrossed in this wonderful world that Iris has created. The relationship between Sabre and Laurent was powerful but I also loved the other characters in the House of Onyx - Charon, Rose, Yves - and of course Prince Adrien and Isiodore. I can't wait to see where this series goes and I hope there's a hundred books!!

[nagel__bagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprising, strong three stars! I'd almost go for four but I wish the text had been more descriptive of environments, costume and so on, which was mildly lacking for this reader. A bit heavy on the kink, but that'll be a personal preference or matter of taste for most, overall I'd almost call this cozy, if you can tolerate the (mild kink spoiler) impact play, humiliation and subjugation. I loved the slow-but-inevitable angst free romance, clean conclusion and strong HFN (the main pairing has a second book in the series! Eep!). Definitely going on to read more in the series, what a treat!

Miscellaneous highlights:
- Excellent supporting characters - Yves! Rose! Adrian!
- Rose's play! I'm going to have to reread just to reconsider that. I love the meta of media within another form of media. Excited to see what happens with her character too!
- Very very minor use of magic, just cracks the door open for involvement in future books
- Twist ending! Not going to spoil it, and many will see it coming, but it felt right to me.

I'd like to speak more about how the book covers sex work as legitimate work, but honestly I haven't done the reading on the issue and this book is about being sold into sexual slavery after your family has been hanged as traitors so it's kind of a fraught case. There's almost no quibbling over the morality of sex or kink, which is rare and wonderful. There's an absence of plot-dumping, though there are some flashbacks, and as it's an establishing book it feels like exposition has been economized in favor of active plot, which is fine - there are some secondary threads that are revealed as the story goes on, which I found tidy and satisfying. I can see why some might have found this too slow, and while it did spend too much time on transactional sex for my taste, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey nonetheless.

RIYL the involvement of sex in the court of Vere in the Captive Prince books, or ever wanted to see more of what went on in the brothels of Game of Thrones, with a mildly campy queer bent, some forced proximity and pining. Sex-as-politics, historical fantasy personal drama, steamy and unabashed. So happy to have gone for this one.

PS - This was jointly written by Avon Gale and Fae Loxley.
PPS - Remembered a lingering niggle - not sure I understand the necessity of including firearms in high fantasy, but hopefully this reasoning will be more evident later on. Kind of a stretch though.

[Bizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars. A noble is stripped of his title and forced to work as a courtesan to pay off his debts to the crown after his family is convicted of treason. All of the Iris Foxglove books in this world have biokink (where the characters are biologically dominant or submissive), but this is the one where it plays the biggest role.

Although I enjoyed this book overall, the biokink really doesn’t work for me. It’s an interesting idea for a way to create a social hierarchy based on biology that isn’t related to race or gender, but I have a hard time believing that biological dominance and submission would map onto our modern gender roles so neatly, or that a world with these attributes would be so similar to ours. I can understand why the authors didn’t want to open that can of worms and chose instead to focus on individual relationships, but the lack of detail makes the biokink-related aspects of the plot unconvincing for me. It’s also not clear how biokink really adds anything to the character development, when you could handle dominance and submission as you would in a non-biokink world and accomplish essentially the same thing.

Additionally, Sabre is a masochist and many of his scenes involve him experiencing significant physical pain at the hands of antagonistic clients. The book is surprisingly blase about the effect this has on Sabre, I guess because he’s a masochist and ultimately enjoys a lot of it even if his clients have bad intentions. I had a hard time enjoying these scenes, and the resulting implications of a social hierarchy that puts things like innate masochism at the forefront. The issue isn’t Sabre’s desires but what the book implies about consent and the importance of setting explicit boundaries with your partner.

The romance itself is sweet and there’s lots of caretaking and “oh no, where did these feelings come from?!” which is fun. And, issues with biokink aside, the worldbuilding is interesting and well-executed. Overall, I recommend this so long as you’re prepared for the dark elements hinted at by the blurb.

[Juniper · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Things I liked about this book:

Strong characters

An intense romance (steam AND feelings)

Interesting world building

The kind of writing style that can bring a dark, complex story about loss, cruelty, love, and redemption to life

If these things sound good to you, check this one out!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Iris Foxglove]

Now available in audio, narrated by the amazing Kris Antham!

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Traito...

PLEASE NOTE this book is dark fantasy due to themes of dubious consent, capital punishment, intense descriptions of kink play that might be upsetting to some readers (including fear play, threat play, intense impact play, gunplay (mild), voyeurism, exhibitionism, and breathplay), and sex work used as a punishment. If you would like further clarifications please do not hesitate to contact the authors. All books have an HEA, but as the catalyst for the series, it is by far the darkest.

Also please note that the biological kink imperative/natural power exchange element to this story is entirely fictional and intended as fantasy, and is not meant to represent IRL BDSM practices/relationships between consenting adults.

[LJ Henley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The twists and turns between Sabre and Laurent are well written and sensitive. This story has so many elements.. deceit, lies, sex, pain, deep emotions, love. Secondary characters play into this story and make me want to see them in future strories. This first book in the series holds a lot of promise of drama, BDSM, dark romance and intrigue. Enjoy!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Shelba]

DNF @ 11%.

Not really my cup of tea. The writing would need to be more compelling for me to stick with it, but I find it doesn’t flow very well and have encountered a few too many sentences that read awkwardly.

[Stormy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Way more complex than I thought it would be. Enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot!

[Trefoil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this series, even half way through the first book I think, but by the last page of this book, I'm incredibly eager to start reading the next book and future books of this series.

This is a dark fantasy romance. Everyone in this fictional world is either born as a submissive or dominant, that comes into bloom around puberty time. The main character, Sabre, is a submissive and he is also a masochist. The fictional bdsm in this book might not be your cup of tea. I personally wasn't sure about it myself ..just because so many of the nobility was abusing the main character after his family hanged for treason ..and he got off on it? And I was just like 😳

There's a lot of serious elements in this book, it starts out with Sabre's family hanging for treason (the family is part of the nobility) and Sabre being saved and he has to pay off the debt the king sets by working in a pleasure district as a courtesan. That's where the second main character is, Lord Laurent, he is the owner these establishments , and also a Lord.

I found a lot of the characters to be quite interesting and I was quite curious about them - a few of the courtesans, the adviser to the king, the son of the king, and the king himself. In each book of this series, different characters are featured as the main characters. I haven't started reading the second book yet, but I know by how the first book ended, it will flow well into the second book with two different characters we were introduced to in the first book.

There is magic in this series, that takes shape in different forms, but to the reader (so far), its mysterious as it is to the characters in the book. I imagine as the series progresses there will be more magic and a lot more things will start to make sense and fall into place.

There's romance and sex in this book, kinks as well. The being born as a submissive or dominant make things different than what I'm usually used to I think because there's this extra biological trait to factor in and consider. I'm looking forward to more of this from different characters and how it plays out in different books, and how it factors in to their sex and romantic lives, but also everyday things, because it can manifest differently in different individuals from what I understand,

There is also politics of course, with the nobility class and royalty, and I found it interesting and am definitely looking forward to more of this world and its characters.