Amur Thera's Reviews > Prince's Tide

The good
    + Troller's enthusiasm for learning everything about living on the surface
    + Troller shopping for clothes. I love the way he didn't know that humans decided clothing is a gendered thing for some reason, and just picked whatever clothing he liked
    + Royce not giving up on Troller
    + Royce braiding Troller's hair
    + Pete. He's a very good friend


The neutral
    o I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. My review remains honest and unbiased
    o The writing felt a bit too simplistic sometimes. The text didn't always flow pleasantly, and things were often left unexplained. It made the connection between the main characters at the start of the book and Royce's background feel very surface-level
    o Paranormal species were 'out' and everyone knew about magic, but for some reason the existence of the merfolk was a myth and nobody believed Royce when he said he met one of them


The bad
    - At some point, I got so sick of the word "vocalized". Royce vocalized. Troller vocalized. All the merfolk vocalized. Everyone fucking vocalized. Aaaargh!
    - Royce's father (view spoiler)[hired Royce's best friend in some kind of attempt at matchmaking. That is a shitty thing to do and Royce didn't really get mad at his dad about that (hide spoiler)]
    - The first time they had penetrative sex, Troller didn't know what was going on. Royce just stuck his dick inside without asking and Troller didn't really know what was happening. That's not how consent works, and it was dubcon at best
    - They had sex in the same room as where their babies were sleeping. I have no idea if parents actually do this but it sounds like a terrible idea and made me very uncomfortable. Especially because silence spells existed in their universe
    - Many things were left open-ended or unexplained. Will there be a sequel to this book? I still have so many questions. Royce was secretly semi-royalty, but what country/region was he a prince of? What was special about their third child? What happened to the bad guy?


Quotes

    "Pete worked very hard and did intimate things for the pastries," Troller said, with all the sincerity of someone who had become very serious about bread in the last two days.

I liked the story and how sweet Royce and Troller were to each other. I did not really like the way the sexual component of their relationship was handled. I could have done with some actual consent for Troller's first time, and I could have done without the sex in the same room as their kids. However, the world did intrigue me and if there is going to be a sequel I'll probably read it anyway.