Dark but excellent first have ruined by 2nd half

trigger warning about Rape and extremel physical abuse required!
So this starts as a surprisingly Dark and brutal story where the king is a highly abusive piece of shit who let's his mage molest the prince on a regular basis. The prince is deeply in love with his page, who also receives all the arbitrary physical brutal punishment while the prince gets gaslight by his father and molested by the court mage.

Unfortunately I had to change my review from 5 to 3 stars because the entire 2nd half of the story is extremely repetitive, basically just one sex scene after another with minimal story or character development. Nerrator is still excellent but you can only listen to so many variations on the same theme.

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Suffers from it's serialisation

This book was originally published in weekly short story increments. I think it suffers because of it. The sex is overt, bold but way way too much. It's original episodic format would tone this aspect down and make it more palatable, but as a novel it doesn't work.

That said, the story line, which is good, doesn't wrap up in this book, but ends in a cliff hanger, does make me want to buy the next book. Just not now. Not for a while I think.

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High Fantasy, Highly Sexy

I first read this tale years ago in the Circlet Press website & I think that its strength is in its serialization. There is always something sexual in any given chapter which I really appreciated. for anyone who's loves reading a lot of lemon, there is an over abundance here.

I thought the world building was well done. Really liked that the magic system relies specifically on hay sex to work.

Tan is able to make me root for the main couple to find each other, even though they spent most of the book apart.

The narration is also very good. Wagner has the range to give each character a specific & distinct voice, especially when he uses accents.

A fun, sexy read for anyone craving gay high fantasy.

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Compelling yet weird!

I'm going to write this review as encompassing both volumes of "The Prince's Boy" rather than writing two separate reviews. To begin with, I listened to this very slowly, knowing it was written as a serial. I only went through two or three chapters per sitting. This kept the constant sex from feeling so overwhelming! The story obviously kept me engaged enough that I listened through both parts. It's nice to be entertained by erotica that isn't bound by the rules so many publishers put on their works. i.e. Partners should only have sex with each other, no one can be under twenty-one, no violence, no rape, no drugs, no this no that no anything blah blah blah... Just let the author tell the freaking story! And Cecelia Tan certainly does! Her plotting was well done and engaging, though it felt somewhat rambling at times--as though she needed to meet a certain number of installments and therefore just filled up space. This fantasy world she's created seems quite thought out and detailed; for a fantasy, I very much appreciate that. I found her writing style somewhat uneven. At times it was flowery and elegant, then I would feel as though I was hit with the most ridiculous similes which pulled me out of the story and made me think, "This woman doesn't know how to write male characters!" Which is an unfortunate thing to think considering that there are literally NO female characters whatsoever!

There were a few things I found somewhat repellant: the description of the villains *throat clearing* member, if you will, the fact that the prince himself, due to the spell put on him, has to subsist only on men's "milk", and finally, the general's lack of male parts and how that figures in sexually. I also found it hard to believe in the feelings the prince and his whipping boy have for each other when both are so eager for sexual acts with anyone and everyone they come in contact with. As a result, they seem to fall for these vast numbers of males and yet quickly come back to one another and act as though they hadn't really felt a thing for all those many, many, many...many, many men.

As for the narrator... Mr. Wagner, or however he pronounces it, really is quite talented! He's certainly up for the task of performing this work! Almost too much so. While he is consistent in a separate narrative voice for both prince and boy, there seemed no rhyme or reason to the various dialects he chose to use for the many characters. I understand when a book has nothing but male characters that there are only so many men's voices a person can come up with. I heard Irish, English and Scottish (and unfortunately, his English accent in particular didn't come off well and lacked the subtle nuances that would ever make me think he might actually be a Brit; if one can't do an effective dialect, one shouldn't attempt it!), some kind of French and even something that sounded Russian. Most of the time he was consistent in the character voices, but occasionally someone who didn't have an accent when first introduced would suddenly be Sort-Of-English later in the book, or while talking to another character who was Sort-Of-English, he would also become Sort-Of-English. He also gave emotional inflections to his voice at odd times and I found that extremely distracting! Just because there is an exclamation point at the end of a sentence, doesn't mean the line needs TO BE SHOUTED!!! Overall, as a voice-actor, Mr. Wagner seemed to think that in this one book alone, he needed to pull out all his vocal tricks and make them work somewhere. His performance would truly have been excellent if he had just calmed down a bit. He really just acted the crap out of this novel and I don't mean that in a completely flattering way.

In spite of the nit-picky things mentioned above, I enjoyed myself for the most part and would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a decent erotic yarn! But if those nit-picky things bother you as a listener as well, you might want to avoid this book.

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2 people found this helpful

Makes the Unfathomable Seam Reasonable

The Prince’s Boy takes place in a world where male/male lust feeds magical powers. Wizards are very busy in the bedroom.

"Prince Kenet" seeks pleasure with his whipping boy, Jorin, while a war that threatens the kingdom swirls around them. "Seroi," the dark magician, tries to bespell the Prince and enslave him as his submissive lover, as well as take over the kingdom.

The Prince and his “boy” struggle to stay together—can love overcome magical chains?

The Three Musketeers meets The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.

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1 person found this helpful

An Erotic Serial With Sex in Every Chapter

The audio version of this book jumps directly into the narration, and is missing the author's preface from the paperback which introduces the reader to the concept of the serial. The Prince's Boy was originally published one chapter per week over the course of two years. Each week the protagonists are thrust into an erotic or sexual situation that pushes the quest and adventure plot forward. Unlike a novel, where the flow of the plot ebbs and surges, a serial charges forward every week with a new sex scene. The result is a LOT of sex, with erotic plot twists coming fast and furious. Some might feel this is "too much sex." All we can say is it is the intent to have a sex scene every chapter, so pace yourselves!

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10 people found this helpful

I'm truly speechless

oh well written book and at times it just shocked me and I wondered back then if there was such a thing. were men like that back in the day? it's a good book but you have to have an open mind cuz in the beginning in the middle and in the end I was really getting turned off but the story captured my attention.

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Found a new favorite author!

Loved this book all the way through! Kinkier than I was expecting but I just loved it even more because of that! Great characters and a unique fantasy setting. The voice actor had talent and gave a great performance. This book needs to be approached with the appropriate headspace, or else the situations the characters are put through can be mosconstrued. Highly recommend this author and will be reading more of her work!

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1 person found this helpful

A little lacking

I think the book could have been really good had it had more substance.... Hot Sex in a book always works ,but It can't be all there is ... in this case thats about all there was ...Too bad the idea for the book was really good and could have gone a lot of places.

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Great book

It's about time that they come out with more books for gay people. I like the fact that the book is more then 2 hours long.

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