Reviewed by Elizabetta
TITLE: Prince of Faith
SERIES: An Uncommon Whore, book 3
AUTHOR: Belinda McBride
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: 224 pages
BLURB:
Held captive in a whorehouse, Markus Dayspring wakes every morning with a thirst for revenge, and collapses every night with a prayer for strength. He lives on in spite of deadly addictions and a crippling, shameful secret. When he’s rescued by a man from his past, his reawakened love threatens to crush his damaged soul.
Caius also has a secret, one that could ultimately kill him. But his vow to rescue Markus is stronger than guilt, fear and even his loyalty to King Helios. Too many have died because of Caius and rescuing the missing prince might allow him to sleep without nightmares.
Old habits are hard to break and new pain threatens their growing love. Yet one gleaming ray of hope continues to guide them to safety, even in the face of an unexpected violation of trust. With the stakes growing higher by the hour, Markus and Caius must learn to have faith before they can heal and face the future together.
REVIEW:
Ok, I’m kinda conflicted about this one.
For the sci-fi factor: I liked the continuing world building, but I wanted way more of it.
For the romance: The guys have a lot of issues and I didn’t really feel the electricity.
I love a good sci-fi romance and I know they are hard to do well and so often one aspect is weaker than the other. The two previous books in this series were so good– I liked how the author combined a sizzling erotic relationship (Helios and Griffin) with an intriguing alien world. I liked the whole damaged men who eke out comfort in each other thing. Because, face it, it was a bumpy road for them.
But Prince of Faith is Caius and Markus’ story. They were secondary characters in the previous books, now they’re front and center. Caius, a deposed prince, works security for Helios. Markus is Helios’ cousin and has a rep as a ‘disreputable spy’. They have some kind of past history with each other. You’ll remember in book two that Markus was believed to be a traitor and he’s left on Warlan in sex-slave hell as punishment. But when Helios realizes that Markus was framed, he sends Cauis to the rescue. And that’s where this book starts.
So, Markus is a sex slave, much like Helios was, and his captor/owners keep him hooked on a cocktail of sedatives and aphrodisiacs to keep him compliant, easy to handle… and very horny. Caius helps him with that, ahem. One of the story’s puzzles is that Caius wears a holo-device that disguises his appearance by hooking into his neural network and he has become addicted to the device; he can’t survive without it. It’s not clear just why he has to wear the device.
These are some interesting twists… but…
Issue number one: At first, this feels very much like Griffin and Helio’s story: it’s another sex slave rescued from an abusive hell by dashing military man and would-be lover plot. Been there, done that.
Issue number two: In the first two books we had some great world building: the warring factions, the court intrigue, the spying, all the different alien races… it’s a rich backdrop to Helios and Griffin’s romance. But here, we just get snippets. I really want more of how Helios is building his new world for his people. I really want to know more about all those interesting alien races… the Vashtan (healers) and the Zomoran (telepaths). But none of it is explored in any great depth. The aliens play a part in the story but it is secondary. In fact, most of this is around Markus and Caius issues, their addictions and all the abuses they’ve suffered.
Issue number three: I really didn’t feel the connection between Markus and Caius. Especially when compared to Helios’ and Griffin’s electric, sizzling romance. Yeah, there are some hot spots, some gentle moments for Caius and Markus. But mostly this is more about two very physically and mentally damaged guys trying to heal themselves. And, yeah, they had a kind of crush-thing back in the day, never acted upon, but we get their backstory with a lot of piecemeal re-telling. Their romance ends up feeling lukewarm and… distant.
I like Markus and Caius, I do, but I just didn’t feel that special spark.
For me, the most interesting dynamic is that both these guys are hooked on some artificial thing that they have to overcome– for Markus it’s all those drugs and for Caius, it’s that holo-device. There is also another very interesting plot about genetic manipulation and reproduction that is really cool. I would read more in this series just for this development. If you liked the first two books I’d say go ahead and give this one a try, it may work for you, there are some fun parts. But, imo, Markus and Caius don’t hold a candle to Helios and Griffin.
RATING: 
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