Author: S. J. Himes
Rating: 2/5
After being rescued from slavers, Jaime works in the palace first as a servant and then as a healer’s novice, all while falling in love with the youngest prince.
Spoilers ahead.
Detailed Summary
James “Jaime” Buchanan was on a slave ship for six months before he was rescued by the captain of the guard. He works for the Cook in the palace in Taliesin City. One morning, he’s told to serve breakfast to Prince Maxim. Jaime falls head over heels for the prince and flees. Maxim finds him and takes him to the infirmary to be healed. Master Eames, the master healer, reveals that Jaime was a top student at a healing academy in Corinthia(?). Jaime’s father had died and he had mortgaged the house to pay for Jaime’s education hence Jaime being taken as a slave. Jaime is made a novice healer and resumes his training. Maxim courts Jaime and the two men become very close. Maxim’s father King Llyr is on his deathbed but he takes a liking to Jaime too. The men sleep together after the Solstice Ball. The book ends with Maxim proposing to Jaime and Jaime accepting.
Gryphons are mentioned several times because they’re the national bird or something? And Maxim wants to meet one really badly.
Plot and Pacing
Hm. I loved the premise of this book. A slice-of-life story about healing? And FANTASY?! That’s totally my cup of coffee (no, really, one of my WIPs is a slice-of-life fantasy novel about healers–uncanny, right?). However, I found this book to be quite boring. I didn’t like the instalove nor did I think the relationship between Maxim and Jaime had been developed enough to warrant them being lovers within, like, days. It all felt so rushed! There wasn’t all that much that happened in the book and while I enjoy reading about the mundane, there was just a whole lot of nothing here! Not even mundane things! This book was also a little too saccharine for my taste. If you’re looking for a short, sort of cute read, then perhaps this book is for you. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.
Characters
I liked that Jaime was both physically and mentally scarred because I felt there was a lot of potential to flesh out his insecurities and fears. However, it all sort of fell flat and he changes completely just after meeting Maxim. I found that a little hard to believe–that just one person could cause such a change. Maxim too was very one-dimensional and I was, frankly, getting quite bored of reading about his “handsome face” and how trim and lean his waist was.
Writing Style
The writing was the biggest issue for me. There were several run-on sentences and the same descriptions were used for the characters. I generally like the latter but in this book, it was just a bit much.
Earnestly Eccentric 