Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: The Troubadour and the Prince
AUTHOR: E.S. Wyverne
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 91 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2019
BLURB:
Prince Amaury is rude, spoiled, and shallow. When he viciously spurns Lady Rozenn, his father declares he’s had enough and vows to marry him to a beggar. The next day Yann, a traveling troubadour, arrives at the front gates—and the king is made to keep his vow.
Amaury soon finds himself living as a peasant, working as a servant in the home of the woman he spurned—and coming to care for his strange, mercurial husband. But Yann also seems to have endless secrets, and their marriage—and love—may not survive their revelations.
REVIEW:
After I finished this story, I found out that this is a gay retelling of a classic Grimm’s fairytale, King Thrushbeard, about a spoiled princess who gets taught a lesson and falls in love. In this case, the spoiled princess is a prince, and his husband is a mysterious troubadour who whisks him off to a life of hard work and poverty, but eventually, one of love. Not every element works perfectly, but this is a sweet retelling that teaches a lesson and includes a lovely little romance.
Amaury is the spoiled youngest son of a temperamental king who is trying to marry him off. But in their land, being gay is not valid, so Amaury cannot tell his father he is gay and does not want to marry a woman. So he acts the fool, insulting noblewomen and being an ass to everyone to put them off. When he insults the wrong woman, his father decides to marry Amaury off to a passing poor troubadour named Yann, who is actually the scorned lady’s brother looking to teach Amaury a lesson. Their marriage is filled with strife, but soon, they develop real feelings for one another, which causes complications when the truth comes out.
The story does read like a tale of morality, as any classic fairy tale does, but the morality is at times uneven. I think Prince Jannick got off pretty easy at the end, but Amaury’s lack of communication didn’t help. If Amaury just told Jannick why he didn’t want to marry a woman, Jannick seems like the type to understand, and the whole farce could come to a swifter close. Jannick’s cruelty seemed over to the top at times, especially since he saw how much Amaury changed. However, the book does a good job showing each characters’ flaws—their stubbornness, their pride, and their lack of understanding of other people and their ways. In the end, both characters learn a lesson.
Despite some stuff I didn’t like about the characters and their relationship, this ended up being a sweet story that showed a lot of growth and change in so few words. If you like queer fairytale retellings, this is a good one to pick up on a quiet afternoon!
Also, this is most likely one of the last books from Less Than Three Publishing that I will review here, as they are unfortunately shutting down this month. Thank you for years of excellent stories, LT3!
RATING: 
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