ARC Review: American Prince by Sierra Simone

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The very best thing for me, as a reader, is when I go into a book doubtful that I will love it because of something that I know isn't my usual taste, but then I end up gobsmacked and loving it. Sierra Simone has done that for me three times now, and I absolutely love her for it. 

 I read and loved the first in her American Queen trilogy last fall, which I told you about here. Because of the gasp-worthy cliffhanger I was eagerly awaiting the second installment, American Prince, and may or may not have squealed out loud when I was approved for an advance copy and it landed on my tablet. 

 Saucy Readers, I loved this book. It was unlike anything I've read before, was not the kind of thing I thought would capture me, but it did. It grabbed me from the beginning and never let go. Come with me through the jump and I'll tell you why you need to be sure and catch up before the final installment in the trilogy, American King, releases in August. I'll keep the Prince spoilers to a bare minimum, but will assume you've read Queen. If you haven't, check out my review, read the book and then come back for this review. 



Since you joined me past the jump, I know you've read American Queen and will recall that Ash, Greer, and Embry are in a love triangle, but not a conflicted one. While Ash and Greer have gotten married, they both love Embry as well, who loves both of them in return, so they've chosen to include Embry as a permanent part of their relationship. It's a complicated relationship with Ash a dominant, Greer a submissive, and Embry somewhere in the middle, compounded with Ash and Embry being bisexual, and having had an on-again off-again relationship for years before Greer came into the picture. To make things even more complicated Ash is the President of the United States and Embry is his Vice-President. The whole complex arrangement makes for fascinating reading, as the layers of each relationship are revealed. In Queen we saw events unfold from Greer's perspective while in Prince we're seeing mainly through Embry's eyes. 

 At the end of the first installment we're left with the cliffhanger in which Greer has been kidnapped, with the assistance of her cousin and best friend, presumably by President Maxen Colchester (Ash)'s Carpathian nemesis. American Prince opens with the guys discovering that their new bride has been kidnapped, and adventure, intrigue, and angst ensue. The rescue mission is a fast-paced adventure that serves as a complement to the much slower, more emotional, introspective rest of the book. 

 This book is a lot of Embry thinking about his life, his choices, the events that have led him to where he is, and I found that I loved that. I'm a sucker for learning what makes people tick, and we got a lot of that with Embry. He's such a deep, complicated character who has had to make difficult decisions, so seeing that unfold along with his thoughts and feelings made for compelling reading.

 In addition to Embry's eternal inner drama, American Prince was absolutely filthy in the best possible way, as befitting a Sierra Simone novel. Since our central relationship involves two men and a woman, you can imagine the possibilities, and Ms. Simone illustrates them all. But it's not all filth and drama! I'm still awed by the Arthurian theme flowing through this series, giving an already fabulous filthy drama an added literary layer. I admit that I don't know much about the Camelot tales, but I want to so that I can see how much those stories layer this very modern drama.

 I found Embry's journey absolutely riveting. Seeing Embry through Greer's eyes in the first book gave us an incomplete picture of one of the men she fell in love with, while witnessing his own thoughts and choices gives us a much deeper understanding of his motivations. I usually have a thin thread of patience for characters who wallow in self-loathing, but Embry's choices in putting the people he loves before his own wants got me, leaving me empathetic for his selflessness. His evolution through the book kept me turning pages, and his choices at the end were so surprising that I've been thinking about the possibilities ever since. Once again, I'm glad that we only have to wait about five months for the conclusion. 

American Prince is a thoroughly modern romance/drama/erotica/adventure/political intrigue with classic themes and twists, a stunning tale of love and sacrifice, political maneuvering and bare intimacy, and the pain that can be inflicted by the ones we love the most. I cannot wait to see how this saga wraps up in the final installment. Is it August yet? 

 Wench Rating:

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About the Author:

Sierra Simone is a former librarian who spent too much time reading romance novels at the information desk. She lives with her husband and family in Kansas City.

Connect with Sierra:

Twitter: @TheSierraSimone
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