Charlotte Kersten

“Nobody could want more than who you are.”

Year published: 2021

Categories: Sci-fi

LGBTQIA representation: M/M (main characters)

Summary: While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat’s rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam’s cousin, the disreputable Kiem, in a bid to keep the rising hostilities between the two worlds under control.

But when it comes to light that Prince Taam’s death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war… all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.

My thoughts: This is a book that wears a few hats – it’s a sci-fi space opera, a trope-laden romance, and a murder mystery all wrapped up into one. At the end of the day, the romance is definitely the most prominent part of the book, which is good because it’s also probably the strongest part of the book. To be unnecessarily organized, I’ll break my review down for each part:

Romance: as most readers probably know, this story originated on Ao3, and you can really, really tell. By this I mean to say that fanfic lovers will delight in many comfortingly familiar story beats and tropes – arranged marriage, contrived reasons for having to sleep in the same quarters and, later, spoon for body heat, hurt/comfort and a dramatic declaration of love during a massive press release to name a few. If you don’t care for those beats and tropes? Definitely don’t read this book.

The one thing that drives me absolutely insane in trope-y romance is contrived miscommunication, and there is a LOT of miscommunication in this book. On Jainan’s part this stems from his past abuse and his assumption that Kiem will be the same as Taam was; fair enough, understandable. If that had been it, I wouldn’t have enjoyed reading it, but I would have understood why it was happening. The problem is that Kiem has absolutely no idea what’s going on with Jainan for like 90% of the book, even when what is going on with Jainan is appallingly, infuriatingly obvious. Kiem isn’t supposed to be the greatest intellect in the galaxy, but he’s supposed to be really intuitively good with people and their emotions; I find that hard to believe when he doesn’t see what’s right in front of him with Jainan.

As far as the hurt/comfort aspect goes, most of it is extremely sweet but I’m really on the fence about the scene where Kiem enters Jainan’s torture hallucinations, sees him being raped again and stops Taam. There’s something that just kind of feels a bit clumsy or exploitative about the scene to me (I think this can happen with hurt/comfort occasionally), though I can certainly understand others feeling differently. One problem for me is that, prior to this, Jainan is incredibly upset that Kiem sees a recording of him being hit. It’s established that he is horrified to have people see his abuse, but his feelings about Kiem seeing him raped are never addressed. This feels like a big oversight to me.

Generally speaking, though, these characters are pretty delightful to read about. Kiem is a big old sweetie, hilarious and irrepressible and almost like a puppy; Jainan is a tougher nut to crack but it’s lovely to see him start to come out of his shell and begin to trust Kiem. Overall, this is a very sweet romance. (And bonus points for the snowy trek right out of The Left Hand of Darkness, except they do have tent sex in Winter’s Orbit!)

Sci-fi space opera: I’d give this aspect of the book 3 stars at best, mostly because the world-building feels fairly cursory except for the bits that are immediately relevant, and even the immediately relevant bits are not explored or explained to an extent that would have satisfied me. We barely know anything beyond the bare minimum about the remnants or the Resolution or the world beyond their link, despite how important these things are to the plot. On a purely personal note that doesn’t affect my rating, there are so many terms and fake technologies that make my eyes gloss over, and at this point I think I have to accept that this aspect of sci fi is a challenge for me.

Murder mystery: the mystery has a great deal to do with the military and mining operations, both of which are pretty uninteresting to me, but YMMV on this front, of course. My favorite mysteries are the ones where you can look back to earlier parts of the book and see how everything you missed intertwines together to tell you the answer, but that didn’t really happen here. It’s a perfectly solid mystery, but nothing about it stands out to me as particularly gripping or compelling.

I think most readers will be in it for the romance, and I think most of them will be quite happy with what they find.