A young prince must rely on a mysterious stranger to save him when he is kidnapped during his coming-of-age tour in this swoony adventure that is The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue meets Pirates of the Caribbean. Prince Tal has long awaited his coming-of-age tour. After spending most of his life cloistered behind palace walls as he learns to keep his forbidden magic secret, he can finally see his family’s kingdom for the first time. His first taste of adventure comes just two days into the journey, when their crew discovers a mysterious prisoner on a burning derelict vessel. Tasked with watching over the prisoner, Tal is surprised to feel an intense connection with the roguish Athlen. So when Athlen leaps overboard and disappears, Tal feels responsible and heartbroken, knowing Athlen could not have survived in the open ocean. That is, until Tal runs into Athlen days later on dry land, very much alive, and as charming—and secretive—as ever. But before they can pursue anything further, Tal is kidnapped by pirates and held ransom in a plot to reveal his rumored powers and instigate a war. Tal must escape if he hopes to save his family and the kingdom. And Athlen might just be his only hope…
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-This is very plot driven, constantly pulling the reader ahead, lots of action. This was mostly fine, and kept me wanting to turn pages, but I do think there was almost too much drive--I'd have liked a little more time to settle into the story and characters before moving along. This also meant that there was 'processing' of trauma and emotions happening on the go--I wanted to stew in those more.
-Tal's character was well drawn and multifaceted, I rooted for him and cared about him. Athlen conversely was too mysterious, I didn't feel like I got to know him the same way (maybe because of the single POV?)
-Loved the family dynamics, loved their support and togetherness and care
-Was great to see minimal/no patriarchy or heteronormativity--we saw strong good and strong bad women and multiple gender pairings
-I wanted to see more from this world and about the magic
-The twist/resolution with the sea witch was done cleverly, but also felt like a loophole, and wasn't resolved to my satisfaction
Tal is threatened and then kidnapped not long after the start of his coming-out tour, and he holds strong when pressured to reveal his magic-until he can't. Then he's rescued by the merman Athlen, and they fall in love while unraveling political schemes.
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