Review: Prince's Gambit

Prince's Gambit by C.S. Pacat
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

FIVE FULL STARS FROM ME! Why? Because this is awesome.

Let's start with the obvious. This is a completely character-driven story, and so the characters have to be exceptional, which they are. All characters have a purpose to be in this story, and they keep on propelling our main character's story forward. Laurent is as cold and brilliant as ever, but this time you actually see another side of him, a human side. And Laurent is so human it almost hurts. The cold layer around him is being shattered, by Damen, and we get to see it. Also, we can also see the extents he's willing to go just to make his plans work. Damen, on the other hand, is finally given the spotlight. Before, it was always Laurent who shined, who was the most intelligent, smart and bright one. But here, Damen finally shows us why he was fit be a king himself. He's falling in love, hard, but that doesn't keep him from displaying his brilliant mind. Seeing his emotions and his internal conflict make us ache for him and it gets ourselves conflicted as well. As for the side characters, the Regent keeps on being the Regent, Gouvard keeps on being Gouvard, and Jord keeps on being Jord. But poor Jord... I can honestly say he's the third most important character in this story, at least from a certain point of view. Jord is in the middle of everything, and that's why he's probably the one who suffers the most.

But don't get me wrong, we DO get world building in this one. Just enough to understand what's going on, and it never feels lacking. C.S. Pacat has a way of telling stories where you get completely enthralled and almost forget how little you know of the world. But you don't need to know anything else for this to work out.

Also, I saw some negative reviews of people saying this book was full of sex? I have to disagree. As the world of Captive Prince, you'll obviously read sex, but it's mostly for the first part of the book. All of the sex scenes and mentions of it are still important to the plot, they have a way in the plot that doesn't make them feel unnecessary. They're there for a reason, just like in the first book they were there to show how the Veretian court functioned. This time, it's not to show us how the court works, but to show us the emotions of the characters, and one mention of it even to save Laurent and Damen while making them laugh about it (I laughed too). I must also be honest, I am under the impression that Captive Prince was a lot more sexual than Prince's Gambit.

Once again, C.S. Pacat has completely won me over and I can't wait, I really can't wait to read the third, especially after that ending. EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE, EVERYONE IS GOING TO SUFFER, AND WE WILL SUFFER ALONG WITH THEM, AND I DON'T THINK MY HEART WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT (it won't even be able to handle the wait). This one ended in such a plot twist, with such a revelation that we all knew that was coming, just like Damen, but we don't know what's going to happen, once again just like Damen. Also, for everything I just explained above, for all the politics and movement in the plot, I think I actually like this one more than the first, but they're both so so so good. C.S. Pacat, I adore you for creating this awesome world with awesome characters that shows politics in a way that is nowhere close to be boring, and that makes us feel real emotion, even when we're just reading. I honestly love this series, and will read it a lot more times.

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