Prince’s Gambit



Smutty Stuff:

Anal, Enthusiastic Consent, Gentle, and Oral

With their countries on the brink of war, Damen and his new master, Prince Laurent, must exchange the intrigues of the palace for the sweeping might of the battlefield as they travel to the border to avert a lethal plot.

Forced to hide his identity, Damen finds himself increasingly drawn to the dangerous, charismatic Laurent. But as the fledgling trust between the two men deepens, the truth of secrets from both their pasts is poised to deal them the crowning death blow . . .

Just look at that, bro. Wow.

Here, we get to the build of the relationship between Laurent and Damen. After Laurent putting himself on the front lines for Damen— literally, which is the premise of the second book— he earns Damen’s loyalty. Considering he almost had Damen whipped to death in book one, this is, uuuuh. Huge. It’s not exactly taken lightly, either, and it most certainly isn’t instantaneous.

Obviously in book 1, Damen has that hard-on for Laurent’s looks (everyone does in the series, to be fair), but he absolutely despises Laurent. Book 2 brings him and Laurent more in alignment as Damen realizes how the Regent is moving to basically murder the guy and decides… well, that isn’t fair. And he’ll do something about it.

Characters have time to blossom (or ferment, depending) and the reader has enough time to really get into the aspect of travel and warfare. Pacat keeps it from getting dull by having the reader actively engaging with hijinks and become invested in war training, all over a backsplash of unease and sexual tension that absolutely fuckin throbs in the series until it culminates in. Well. Fuckin’.

Yeah, we get fuckin’!

And then the twist!

Anyway, the last review will have my long-winded thoughts here.

Welcome to the Menagerie.

Here is where M logs their media activity. Partly because Goodreads is forgettable and keeping physical logs is harder. Sometimes M writes a lot. Sometimes M doesn’t write enough. It doesn’t matter. This is just a for-fun little blog so that M can remember what they thought about whatever they watched or read or played or. Whatever.


What is M?

I read. Voraciously. I have subscriptions to those book things on digital retailers. I consume books at nearly all hours. The hours I don’t spend reading? I’m writing. I’m drawing. I have a problem. I have a problem in that I love to read things that are in the same vein repeatedly. Book journals don’t work and as much as I text my friends screenshots of book passages, it doesn’t scratch the itch. Now I’m going to be doing… tiny… tiny book reports.


Truck-Kun Kill Count:


Books & Light Novels Read in 2025: 19/50
38%
Comics Read in 2026: 39/200
19%
Physical Owned Books Read: 477/830
58%


Menagerie Categories


Tagged in the Menagerie

Absolute Asshole NPC (86) A Fetish For Suffering (45) Can't Say No (67) Chekov's Gun (42) Childhood Friends (50) Curiosity Fucks You Up (76) Cursed (58) Damsel in Distress (57) Damsel in Distress (subverted) (85) Dangerous Reputation (85) Doting Husband (64) Double Identity (41) Everyone Loves MC (87) Evil Eyes & Big Heart (49) Fan Service (92) Grumpy x Sunshine (52) Hypercompetent MC (72) If You Love Them, Set Them Free (49) I Know a Guy (46) Last Minute Hero (97) Loss of Humanity (50) Main Character Coloring (69) MC's Skewed Metrics (71) Mean Boy (118) Mean Boy Love Interest (47) Modern Morals (45) Nat 20s (89) Not Actually Dead (74) Nuclear Revenge (68) OP Protag (91) Petty Revenge (44) Power of Friendship (73) Power of Love (68) Self-Sacrifice (67) Shock Value (44) Sympathetic Evil (63) The Moral is Community (60) Tragic Backstory (76) Twist! (55) Uniquely Skilled (87) Unreliable Narrator (53) Weird and Wacky On Purpose (74) Western-Style Fantasy (83) Wrong Place Wrong Time (64) Zero to Hero (77)


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