A King Undone

What an odd book. I don't think I could have read it, due to the elaborate purple prose, but the narrator of the audio version is very talented and kept me interested. It was a fun listen, but I can't say it's a good book.

There are at least two m/m couples in this story as well as another single gay man, so I was expecting until the very end that this would be another series in which each book focused on a different pairing. Instead, this book is very much part one of a story. There are a million plot points introduced, and I don't think any of them were resolved. I was shocked that this book ended when it did.

Some of the other reviews mentioned there was too much UST and not enough sex. I disagree, because there are at least two sex scenes and they were extremely explicit. However, I was a little let down, because it was really built up that Arend secretly wanted to bottom, which doesn't happen. Overall, they have a lot to work through between them; although the bulk of the novel is Arend and Julian talking about their relationship, I didn't feel hopeful about their future in the end.

I also want to know a lot more about Arend's son. I felt like Arend forgot about him and the threat to his husband. Every time Arend and Julian were discussing their relationship (for example, their big argument near the end), I thought Arend would tell him the truth about the threat or at least think about it himself. But it was like the author forgot about it. And the threat is so over-the-top. It was also mentioned more than once that Julian would probably run the same risk if Arend and Julian got married, but again, this fact stops occurring to Arend (and he never tells Julian).

I didn't really like the way the book dealt with gender, regarding Julian. According to Arend, Julian has a “contradictory” gender presentation: he's tall, strong, and muscular, and he has a soft and gentle voice. Arend finds him attractive for this reason, but he tells Julian to tone down the “feminine” voice because he doesn't want people to know that Julian is his concubine. Arend's disgusted by his own desires so he takes it out on Julian, who already has a good bit of insecurity over his voice. Arend does tell Julian (eventually) that he likes his voice, which was probably meant to resolve this plot point. But I wanted Arend to decide that Julian's voice was objectively acceptable, that there was no reason a muscular man couldn't have a gentle voice. I feel like I want these two to change their world, in this way and others, but I don't actually expect that to happen.

I will probably return for book 2, because listening to this book wasn't an unpleasant experience and I really do want to know what happens next. A few things I did like: in general it's always nice to read book with older MCs (Arend is 41 and Julian is 30). I also appreciated that this book had an actual bisexual character (the cousin), and he and his wife were very appealing - she was the only on-page female character, though. There's also a bear (Finley), another rarity in m/m novels; I would probably read a book that focused on him.