Review: Kings Rising by C. S. Pacat

King’s Rising

Title: Kings Rising (Captive Prince Trilogy, 3)
Author: C. S. Pacat
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Berkley (2nd February 2016)
Blurb:

THE WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON CONTINUES – FROM THE BOLDLY ORIGINAL AUTHOR OF CAPTIVE PRINCE AND PRINCE’S GAMBIT.

Damianos of Akielos has returned.

His identity now revealed, Damen must face his master, Prince Laurent, as Damianos of Akielos, the man Laurent has sworn to kill.

On the brink of a momentous battle, the future of both their countries hands in the balance. In the south, Kastor’s forces are massing. In the north, the Regent’s armies are mobiliding for war. Damen’s only hope of reclaiming his throne is to fight together with Laurent against their usurpers.

Forced into an uneasy alliance, the two princes journey deep into Akielos, where they face their most dangerous opposition yet. But even if the fragile trust they have built survives the revelation of Damen’s identity – can it stand against the Regent’s final, deadly play for the throne?

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
Review:

KINGS RISING by C. S. Pacat is the final book in her brilliant Captive Prince Trilogy. This book brings to a conclusion the stories of Prince Laurent and Damen, his slave. Damen’s real identity, that of Damianos of Akielos, has been revealed and now he has to deal with the consequences of that. Akielos and Vere stand on the brink of war, and the only chance to avoid that is for Damen and Laurent to forge an alliance. But can they trust one another? And the Regent still has some cards left up his sleeve.

I’ll be honest – I did not enjoy KINGS RISING as much as I enjoyed PRINCE’S GAMBIT (review), but it is still an enthralling and engaging read. Pacat does a fantastic job bringing this trilogy to its magnificent conclusion. In fact, my only real complaint about this book is that I wish there was more of it. There are a few surprises in store in this book, at least one I should have probably guessed but they all surprised me. Although I would have liked more of this series, I think Pacat ended the story at a very satisfactory point plot wise. If you have enjoyed the series so far, then you are in for a real treat!

As this is the concluding chapter of the Captive Prince Trilogy, Pacat obviously wraps up all the plot threads and I think manages to answer all the questions I had. As you can tell from the blurb, a lot of things come to a head in this book. In a lot of ways the romance aspect of the plot takes a backseat, and instead the plot focuses more on the political battle – who is going to be king of Vere and Akielos. For me this worked well because I wanted to know who was going to sit on the two thrones, but I also liked the fact that Pacat didn’t loose sight of the romance plot line.

As with the previous two books the narrative focuses mainly on Damen’s point of view, but both Laurent and Damen drive the plot forward. In some ways I would have liked to see more from Laurent’s point of view, to have had an idea about what was going on with him. Seeing things mainly through Damen’s point of view was interesting, and it did add a level of mystery to the narrative that I think it would have lacked if we got to see more of Laurent.

Overall I think KINGS RISING is a brilliant addition and conclusion to the Captive Prince Trilogy. It brings the events that started in CAPTIVE PRINCE (review) to their exciting conclusion, and whilst I’m sad to say goodbye to Damen and Laurent I have really enjoyed reading all three books. If you have read and enjoyed the previous two books then you will love this one too. I honestly think that KINGS RISING is one of the best conclusions to a series I have read this year.