Reviewed by Carissa

 

TITLE:  With Pride

SERIES:  Princes of the Blood #2

AUTHOR:  Megan Derr

PUBLISHER:  Less Than Three Press

LENGTH:  65,000 words

BLURB:  

When his sister falls ill, Kristof is ordered to assume a duty never meant for him: become the Duke of Stehlmore and marry a notorious Prince of the Blood. It is one of the oldest honors and duties undertaken by his family, but Kristof feels only resentment that he must leave behind all he knows to serve an arrogant half-demon.

 

His resentment must be set aside, however, when evil is found lurking far too close to the castle—an evil that has many pieces, controlled by someone they cannot find and who always seems one step ahead of them. Someone who seems to think that demons are little more than toys …

 

REVIEW:  

 

If his brother Bene had not died of illness when Kristof was a boy, he would be Priest instead of a Paladin. If Éva had not fallen sick, he would not have been made Duke of Stehlmore. He had never really been meant to be anyone important, had been forced into vital roles because circumstances left no other options.

Always he was second or third choice. Just once he wanted to be someone’s first choice. He wanted to be offered, accepted, with pride. Not from obligation or with resignation. He wanted to be a preference, not simply the least disappointing of limited options.

 

Kristof never planned on being made husband to one of the Princes of the Blood.  But when his sister takes ill Kristof is left with no choice.  He is of pure blood, he is the Duke of Stehlmore, and the king has ordered him bound to the most infuriating, most hateful, most annoying pain in the ass in the entire Legion–if not the entire world.  There is no way out of it.  Even if the touch of the half-demon burns him like fire, and his bite is like the molten metal and sharp glass crashing through his.  Kristof will do his duty.  Even if he wants nothing more than to run and hide.

 

But there are scarier things than the threat of marriage…and certainly more deadly.  Someone is raising demons, and seems intent on unleashing them on the people that Kristof is bound to protect.  Unfortunately to protect them he will have to work his unwanted fiancé, and hope that they don’t kill each other before the demons, warlocks, and necromancers take their turn.

 

Look on the brightside, if they survive all that (and a pissed of squid) they might just have the pleasure of wedded bliss to look forward to.

 

Technically I think this book counts as a type of prequel to the first book in the series, Of Last Resort, seeing as it takes place before that book has even begun.  So if you have yet to read book one, you shouldn’t have any problem reading this one.  Several things that were hinted at in Of Last Resort happen in this book and it was really nice to see them play out.  And I really loved to get a little more about the various members of the Legion.

 

Kristof is a Paladin, one of the holier soldiers in the Legion.  He is also, unfortunately, one of those blessed with blood pure enough to feed the Princes of the Blood–meaning he gets the dubious honor of marriage to a Prince.  Kristof is not some cookie-cutter white-knight.  And I like that.  He has fears and doubts–and sometimes he is not able to cover them up.  I really liked that even in the midst of all his problems he forces himself to go on, to confront all the things that make him shake.  He has no desire to be faced anymore demons, no desire to be bound to a half-demon (let alone be his meal-ticket) but he sees his duty and he does it.  And the insight into the Paladins was really great–even if I kept having D&D flashbacks.

 

And I have no idea how Megan Derr did it again but the antagonism between Kristof and Håkon tugged on like all of my heartstrings.  While this book wasn’t as angsty as the Of Last Resort, the characters here are done really well.  You can feel their hate, their desire, their anger, and their longing, all in equal and devastating measure.  I was totally tearing up.  I don’t know why I was sprawled out on my bed leaking tears all over my Kindle, but there you go.  Maybe I just really got Kristof.  I understood what it was like to want once, just once, to be someone’s first choice.  Not a last choice forced upon someone with tyrannical threats to their balls.

 

For most of the book I was pretty much on the feed-Håkon-to-the-squid side of thing.  Even when everyone what all “he is having a bad day, month, year…” I can’t help but feel that dude was more than a little bit of a douche.  But over the course of the book–and when we finally get things from his perspective–there starts to be some understanding between us and Håkon.  Yeah, what he was acting like was pretty horrible, but there is something there worth redemption, love, and pride.  You just have to look deep, deeeep, down.  Though his portion of the book had a few more ‘daydream’ sequences than I would have liked, it was fun, and it was good to see that the whole messed up relationship that he and Kristof have going on might actually work.  If he doesn’t get shanked by a necromancer with one nasty-ass diet.

 

I really liked Erzsébet and her contribution to the lets-kill-evil-dudes-ass section of the book.  I do love a good kick-ass heroine.  And József, Kristof’s squire was a nice, if somewhat brief, addition.  In fact I just really enjoyed the secondary characters here.  Especially what we got to see of Telmé and Korin (who will be getting their own book in In Despair, the next book in the series).

 

This was a great book. I loved the characters, and the slow buildup (and blowups) between Kristof and Håkon were great.  There was, of course, massive loss of life, some not so pretty meals on order, and a few nasties running around, but it only made the book more entertaining.  I never knew who was going to bite it next, so I was never sure where the book was going.  And there was a giant squid.  I am always in favor of giant, ship-crushing, squids of nefarious purpose.

 

If I was to have one complaint it would be that by the time Kristof and Håkon finally got even remotely close to doing anything nakedly-horizontal, the book was coming to an end.  I didn’t miss it all that much since I loved the tension these two had going, but still…it would have nice to have seen a little bit more bedroom action between the two.  Oh well.  I shall live to read smut on another day–here I’ll just have to settle for a lovely romance and some killer, well…killers.

 

Highly recommended for all lovers and fantasy and enemies that have no desire to fall in love…and do anyways.

 

RATING:  

 

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