Prince's Gambit

I enjoyed this book a little more than the first because it had more action, a lot more character development, and we saw more of the lands and culture within Vere. A lot of the twists honestly surprised me - like Damen, I am not of a scheming mind like Laurents and couldn't have predicted a lot of his plans, but Pacat has done an excellent job tying the twists together to make a cohesive plot (no doubt by benefit of being published by Penguin with an actual editor, unlike the first book which started as a self-published web series). This book did have a lot less sex than the first (since they are away from the palace and “bed slaves”) which made the will-they-won't-they between Damen and Laurent a little sweeter - the “slow burn” many reviewers have mentioned. I'm definitely enjoying this series.

Updated review 06/25/2018

What do you write about a book threw all that you thought you knew about the characters out the window, put you through an emotional wringer and ends on a cliffhanger that makes you want to pick the next book right that minute. And that's exactly what I did. To say that I love this book would be an understatement.

The plot picks up right after the ending of Captive Prince. Damen and Laurent start off their journey towards the border knowing full well what they are going to find at the end. They have to navigate a haughty captain, incompetent soldiers, tricky terrain and mercenaries hell bent on killing them – and in the midst of all this also deal with their changing relationship.

We get to know Damon much better in this book now that he has a semblance of freedom. He is honest, loyal, straightforward, a strong warrior and a brilliant military strategist. He is a very honorable man and strives hard to keep his promise to Laurent about protecting him. He is a natural commander and succeeds in turning a ragtag bunch of scrappers into a loyal guard capable of defending their Prince. As he encounters various attempts on their life and destruction of entire villages, he realizes he has been a warmonger and responsible for so many deaths previously and slowly, a lot of his attitudes and prejudices towards the people of Vere change. He comes to respect the soldiers and view them as friends rather than his enemy. He also gradually gets to know Laurent better, figuring him out behind the walls that he has built up and discerns his true feelings for Laurent.

Damen was aware that what he was witnessing was nascent kingship, the first flexings of command of a prince born to rule, though Laurent's brand of leadership – equal parts consummate and disturbing – was nothing like his own.

Laurent is a total revelation in this book. I really did think he had no redeeming qualities but through Damen, we see that he is so much more than the ice cold facade that he puts up for others. He is sly and slippery, his mind works on a whole other plane, he is a great political strategist and master manipulator. But he is also that little boy who loved reading books, worshipped his older brother and lost all his family in one day; a boy who had no one who loved him except his cunning uncle with ulterior motives – all of this made him grow up very fast, repress all his emotions and present this stoic image of a person always in control. But through his cautious friendship with Damen, he becomes aware of how much he wronged Damen,he begins showing these little vulnerabilities and starts growing into the kind of leader no one believes he is capable of being.

Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone.

The way their relationship grows from reluctant allies to cagey friends to gentle lovers is a delight to read about. They are just awesome together and I couldn't get enough. They tease each other, poke and prod and argue but also respect each other at the end of the day. Their friendly banter, their struggle to hide their attraction but unable to do so was so heartwarming. There are many amazing moments that they share, full of sexual tension which are unforgettable. Every time Damen wished that they had been in a different time where he could have courted Laurent made me feel so sad. And when Laurent said that he considered Damen to be as good a man as his brother, I was awed by his honesty and his character development.

And then there is chapter 19... and my paperback also had an additional chapter 19 1/2 at the end... which just overwhelmed me with all kinds of emotions. Damen and Laurent know that they have just one night together, so when they make love, it's beautiful, sweet and gentle, but also sad and bittersweet. They bare their souls to each other, see each other completely with all the flaws and insecurities, cherish the love they have. There is so much tenderness expressed in every thought, gesture and word, it just made my heart ache.

It felt, in all the lies between them, as if this was the only true thing. It didn't matter that he was leaving tomorrow. He felt remade with the desire to give Laurent this; to give him all he would allow, and to ask for nothing, this careful threshold something to be savored because it was all Laurent would let himself have.

I read a lot of NA novels and have encountered many sex scenes before, but I have to commend the author here because she took a barbarian warrior and a scheming ice cold prince and showed us that they can fall in love and be so generous and caring towards each other. This book definitely has one of the best lovemaking scenes I have ever read.

The writing in this book overall gets so much better. Without all the triggering content from book one, the plot becomes more about the journey and uncovering the Regent's subterfuge. There is a lot of action, moves and countermoves, betrayal and heartbreak and despair. Through this thriller of a ride, the author gives us great character development, forcing us to acknowledge how much they have changed and make us fall in love with them. And then came that ending.... it was so unexpected but also so much like Laurent and the amount of far reaching consequences it can have, just made me pick up King's Rising in the next second.

All I can say at the end is if you read the first book, forget everything you felt about it and dive right into this one and I promise you will not be disappointed.

06/23/2018
Now that's a slow burn romance alright!!! I loved the book so much and there's nothing else I can say for now...
RTC

This sequel has the same compelled-to-finish feeling as the first one.

The first book ended with the cliffhanger that the Regent was trying to kill Laurent and if succeeded he would go after Akeilos next. So Damen and Laurent are forced to work together to prevent that. It was a great chance of scenery having them headed towards the frontier and out of the court and shifting the focus on tactical moves on war prevention and camaraderie. The inclusion of the neighboring kingdoms was also very welcome. Although some of the twists and turns were a little disjointed, the overall plot was pretty engaging.

I guess I liked the progress in their relationship, overall, although I would have appreciated it even more development. They didn't interact enough to justify their newly acquired super closeness, for my taste. I could barely detect any chemistry between them so when they finally got together (all consensual, thankfully) it felt pretty jarring and sudden even though it's been two books in the making. I feel like they are more of a bromance than anything else. I can see them go from enemies to friends but I don't buy the enemies to lovers part. I'm still invested in how their stories will all end, I just don't see them as a couple. I've read books with barely a touch between the characters and there was so much chemistry and tension you could cut it with a knife. But here, there was still a coldness between them despite being intimate physically (besides the big elephant in the room aka Damen killed Laurent's brother). I don't know, maybe I'm asking too much from a book in this genre.

Loved this sequel just as much when I was first reading it. The natural progression of Damen and Laurent's relationship, the building trust is thrilling to read. Loved the elaborate schemes and planning, the mind games. And the last 100 pages are even more exciting than the rest. Great book, can't wait to finally finish the series, and see how all this resolves.

So I started this book right after I had finished the first. After 6-7 hours, I have finished this book. Prince's Gambit takes the plot to new heights and the sexual tension higher than ever. With the stakes getting higher, there's no wonder that the action had increased ten-fold. I was assured that Prince's Gambit would be an explosive sequel and I was not disappointed. Damen found himself ever so drawn to Laurent with each passing moment- attracted by his physical features and by his intellectual prowess. It is a wonder how two very different and antagonistic people could ever come to an understanding or even come close to any kind of intimacy. But Pacat makes it work. I have never read such an interesting interplay between two beautifully flawed characters and I doubt that I can ever come across such a couple in the world or in any other piece of literature (because those found in the Secret History of course).
I must give props to Pacat's battle descriptions and strategies for they were so intricate and so well-thought out that I have to acknowledge her efforts possibly stemming from weeks of planning and researching. However there were some parts that I did not quite like and it's mostly the ambiguity of Damen's musings and epiphanies. Sometimes I would have to reread some paragraphs to see if what I thought Damen was thinking was what he was actually thinking. I do not know if this is due to my own lack of insight or if the writing was sometimes to confusing. This did not detract my enjoyment of this novel, of which I am still recovering from the overall greatness from it.

WELL. Now I understand the hype with these books!! All the horrors of the first one aren't seen on this, thing I'm really grateful for. The character development is the best thing of this book, I loved both the main protagonists. The plot keeps you glued to its pages and it's well written and planned. Everything has a reason, a purpose, a path.

Really enjoyed this second book. I'll forget the first one exists.

2019 reread: I. Am. Again. A. Mess. Of. Human. Emotion. Sobs continuously I should just read these books every 6 months.

I. Am. A. Mess. Of. Human. Emotion. I did not expect to like these books. At the start of the first book I was so nervous, getting major Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty vibes but I thought it might be more scary. Now here I am having just finished book two at 3am...silently screaming because my husband is asleep in bed next to me and I don't want to wake him up.

I'm the type of reader who often doesn't give a shit about what's happening in a book as long as I can get emotionally invested in a character. I will say I'm emotionally close to multiple characters in this series and it both makes my heart swell with joy, and tears me apart with worry for them because some real shady shit is going on.

I am so anxious to read the third book but, just like when I was a kid at the start of summer vacation, dreading the end.

This is book 2 of 3 in the series Captive Prince and wow, I loved it infinitely more than the first one. While the first book was exceptionally crude and violent, this was mostly warm and fuzzy with a slow burn to end all slow burns at its core. Book 2 picks up where book 1 left off: Damen and Laurent are sent to defend the border on the regent's orders, despite the obvious danger to Laurent's life. We continue with the same crew of soldiers in book 1, but are introduced to a few new ones, namely Aimeric (who will become very important later in the story). Damen and Laurent still hate each other at the beginning, up until the halfway point of the book when things start to shift a little bit. The two go on a few secret missions on their own, and this draws them closer to one another in unexpected ways. I was reminded of [b:Luck in the Shadows 74270 Luck in the Shadows (Nightrunner, #1) Lynn Flewelling https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531049892l/74270.SY75.jpg 2495] during some of the adventure scenes (which was a nice comparison in my mind).The crudeness and violence was considerably toned down in this one, though it had its moments. This time, the violence was much more balanced and less gratuitous, which was definitely an upgrade from the last book.The politics were still present in this book, but a little less than in the first. While book 1 dealt a lot with court intrigue, book 2 was more war-focused, which was a good progression of events in my opinion. I'm curious to see where book 3 takes us!

If anything the second book sucked me even more in than the first did. The development between Damen's and Laurent's relationship and the slowly unfurling scheme's Laurent's uncle had plotted.

I devoured the book.

At the end of it I just wanted to scream for more! I don't know how to survive until 2014 for the third book to be published

And as Damen looked out, the army was dropping to its knees, until the courtyard was a sea of bowed heads, and silence replaced the murmur of voices, the words spoken over and over again."He lives. The King's son lives. Damianos."

I read Captive Prince last year and enjoyed it. It seems like you either love or hate this series. It is a slow burn which takes three books to escalate. This one picks right up from where Captive Prince left off with them beginning the military campaign. You find out some major information that is important to the plot of book three but overall I loved this book. This series made C.S. Pacat an auto-buy author for me and I have been reading some of her other works.