Rating: 4
Steam: 2
PoV: dual, 1st person
Genre: contemporary romance, MM
Tropes / tags: hurt / comfort, dislike to love, slow burn
A royal romance full of snark, unexpected attraction and sweet moments!
For characters that clashed at first sight, their story turned out to be sweeter and more romantic than I first thought would be possible. I loved the tension and connection between Aleric and Camillo, they were both snarky and while their initial interactions were a little hostile, there was also a lot of mutual attraction. Camillo had his reasons for being upset, and he made me consider quite a few things that I hadn’t thought much of before.
These two both had their fair share of baggage and trauma, and I liked the way they shared and communicated. They were good for each other and the hurt / comfort was fantastic. Aleric’s story in particular was heartbreaking, he’d been through a lot and it was heavy to read about his past. He constantly had people judging him without knowing anything about the abuse and mistreatment he went through.
The animosity between them didn’t last very long, but created some lasting push and pull, and it was easy to adore their budding relationship. The emotional connection between them was amazing, and while there wasn’t a lot of spice in this one, the intimate scenes between them were very hot. I loved how Aleric did his best in trying to understand Camillo and how to make him feel safe and treasured.
It took me a little bit to get into this one, but I ended up really enjoying Aleric and Camillo’s story. The dislike to love and slow burn between them worked perfect, and they were very sweet together. There was a depth to their characters and their struggles, and it was easy to feel for both of them. E.M. Lindsey did a great job at handling the complexity of the characters as well as the heavier subjects.
Book links:
Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | StoryGraph
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