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Prince Allen has trained his entire life to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious mother, who has made their kingdom one of the wealthiest and most influential in the empire. For the past few years he has trained to become the new consort of the High King. The only thing no one prepared him for was the stubborn, arrogant High King himself, who declares Allen useless and throws him out of court.
I left my family and tiny Texas hometown 15 years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I'm shocked out of the steady life I've built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco. The thing is: I don't do babies. And I don't do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don't do family.
Once upon a time, in an alleyway in the slums of the City of Lockes, a young and somewhat lonely boy named Sam Haversford turns a group of teenage douchebags into stone completely by accident. Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam's pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the king's wizard, Morgan of Shadows.
Self-proclaimed playboy, Aiden Vale, has it all - good looks, successful career, plenty of cash in the bank, and an endless supply of men who know the score...that one night is just that. So the last thing he wants, or needs, is to forge a connection that might mean revealing more of himself than he's ready to. But when fate intervenes, putting Aiden in the path of someone who threatens to knock down his carefully constructed walls, he's quick to realize the young man he's become infatuated with is hiding a painful secret.
PI Jackson Rivers grew up on the mean streets of Del Paso Heights and he doesn't trust cops, even though he was one. When the man he thinks of as his brother is accused of killing a police officer in an obviously doctored crime, Jackson will move heaven and earth to keep Kaden and his family safe.
Six years ago, Noah Wheeler went to meet his boyfriend, Dante Cerreto, at the airport, and his world ended. Dante was kissing someone else and claimed to be in love. So Noah took his heartbreak and closed the door on the big picture of what he thought his life would be, focusing instead on the piece of the dream he got to keep, being a father. Six years later, Dante wants to make up for lost time, but he's going to have to take a crash course in communication and seduction. Noah's not going to fall in love just to be broken again.
Prince Allen has trained his entire life to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious mother, who has made their kingdom one of the wealthiest and most influential in the empire. For the past few years he has trained to become the new consort of the High King. The only thing no one prepared him for was the stubborn, arrogant High King himself, who declares Allen useless and throws him out of court.
I left my family and tiny Texas hometown 15 years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I'm shocked out of the steady life I've built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco. The thing is: I don't do babies. And I don't do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don't do family.
Once upon a time, in an alleyway in the slums of the City of Lockes, a young and somewhat lonely boy named Sam Haversford turns a group of teenage douchebags into stone completely by accident. Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam's pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the king's wizard, Morgan of Shadows.
Self-proclaimed playboy, Aiden Vale, has it all - good looks, successful career, plenty of cash in the bank, and an endless supply of men who know the score...that one night is just that. So the last thing he wants, or needs, is to forge a connection that might mean revealing more of himself than he's ready to. But when fate intervenes, putting Aiden in the path of someone who threatens to knock down his carefully constructed walls, he's quick to realize the young man he's become infatuated with is hiding a painful secret.
PI Jackson Rivers grew up on the mean streets of Del Paso Heights and he doesn't trust cops, even though he was one. When the man he thinks of as his brother is accused of killing a police officer in an obviously doctored crime, Jackson will move heaven and earth to keep Kaden and his family safe.
Six years ago, Noah Wheeler went to meet his boyfriend, Dante Cerreto, at the airport, and his world ended. Dante was kissing someone else and claimed to be in love. So Noah took his heartbreak and closed the door on the big picture of what he thought his life would be, focusing instead on the piece of the dream he got to keep, being a father. Six years later, Dante wants to make up for lost time, but he's going to have to take a crash course in communication and seduction. Noah's not going to fall in love just to be broken again.
Scoundrel by nature and master thief by trade, Mouse is the best there is. Sure, his methods may not make him many friends, but he works best alone anyway. And he has never failed a job. But that could change.
Do you believe in love at first sight? Paul Auster doesn't. Paul doesn't believe in much at all. He's thirty, slightly overweight, and his best features are his acerbic wit and the color commentary he provides as life passes him by. His closest friends are a two-legged dog named Wheels and a quasibipolar drag queen named Helena Handbasket. He works a dead-end job in a soul-sucking cubicle, and if his grandmother's homophobic parrot insults him one more time, Paul is going to wring its stupid neck.
Damen is a warrior hero to his people and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos, but when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave. Beautiful, manipulative and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent.
Ten years ago Sheriff's Deputy Aaron George lost his wife and moved to Colton, hoping growing up in a small town would be better for his children. He's gotten to know his community, including Mr. Larkin, the bouncy, funny science teacher. But when Larx is dragged unwillingly into administration, he stops coaching the track team and starts running alone. Aaron - who thought life began and ended with his kids - is distracted by a glistening chest and a principal running on a dangerous road.
In a world of demons, goblins, witches, sirens, werewolves, vampires, and so much more, it can be difficult to determine who is guilty of what and why. Chris White is a detective who fearlessly investigates this supernatural world, himself a unique product of it. He will take any case brought to him, but has a particular affinity for helping those who inhabit the poor districts of his city. From strange rituals and runaway vampires, to fighting sorcerers and confronting a demon lord, this paranormal detective will face any challenge-even a dance with the devil.
Blue: When my ex walks into the resort bar with his new husband on his arm, I want nothing more than to prove to him that I've moved on. Thankfully, the sexy stranger sitting next to me is more than willing to share a few kisses in the name of revenge. It gets even better when those scorching kisses turn into a night of fiery passion. The only problem? Turns out the stranger's brother is marrying my sister later this week.
In the small mountain town of Amorea, it's stretching toward autumn of 1954. The memories of a world at war are fading in the face of a prosperous future. Doors are left unlocked at night, and neighbors are always there to give each other a helping hand.
Jake Moore's world fits too tightly around him. Every penny he makes as a welder goes to care for his dying father, an abusive, controlling man who's the only family Jake has left. Because of a promise to his dead mother, Jake resists his desire for other men, but it leaves him consumed by darkness. It takes all of Dallas Yates's imagination to see the possibilities in the fatigued art deco building on WeHo's outskirts, but what seals the deal is a shy smile from the handsome metal worker across the street.
Gustavo Tiberius is not normal. He knows this. Everyone in his small town of Abby, Oregon, knows this. He reads encyclopedias every night before bed. He has a pet ferret called Harry S. Truman. He owns a video rental store that no one goes to. His closest friends are a lady named Lottie with drag queen hair and a trio of elderly Vespa riders known as the We Three Queens.
All Rath wants is a quiet, peaceful life. Unfortunately, his father brings him too much trouble - and too many debts to pay - for that to ever be possible. When the local crime lord drags Rath out of bed and tells him he has three days to pay his father's latest debt, Rath doesn't know what to do. There's no way to come up with so much money in so little time. Then a friend poses an idea just ridiculous enough to work: enter the Tournament of Losers, where every 75 years, peasants compete for the chance to marry into the noble and royal houses.
Daniel Mulligan is tough, snarky, and tattooed, hiding his self-consciousness behind sarcasm. Daniel has never fit in - not at home in Philadelphia with his auto mechanic father and brothers, and not at school where his Ivy League classmates looked down on him. Now, Daniel's relieved to have a job at a small college in Holiday, Northern Michigan, but he's a city boy through and through, and it's clear that this small town is one more place he won't fit in.
For paramedic Adam Carson, his world is lights and sirens and saving lives. Pressures at work keep him firmly in the closet, and life is too busy to contend with the complications that come with dating and relationships. When a familiar face from his past turns up where he least expects it, Adam starts to question whether or not there is room in his life for those complications. The last person forensic pathologist Sam McKenna expects to see at pub night is Adam, the guy who made his life hell in high school.
High Commander Lesto Arseni is the most feared man in the Harken Empire. None but the High King dares risk his wrath - and a pirate who once punched him in the middle of the imperial pavilion. A pirate who later snuck away with Lesto to an empty room, touched him in ways far more memorable. And then immediately bolted like a man who'd gotten what he wanted.
Shemal just wants to live a normal life, leave his pirating days behind him and prove that he's respectable now. The last thing he needs is the two idiots who show up wanting his help with the noble they've kidnapped - the very man Shemal had been hoping to prove himself to, the man he hasn't forgotten since Shemal punched him a year and a half ago.
This is my favourite series and this was an excellent second book.
I highly recommend this.
If you enjoyed the first book, you will not be disappointed in this sequel, the author has done a great job creating this world.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
I really like this series in audible looking forward to the next book to listen to
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Wow. I'm not even sure how to start this! This has been on my Netgalley TBR for about 2 years now (I KNOW IM TERRIBLE). It wasn't until recently where I decided to read it. I checked out The High King's Golden Tongue and LOVED that book. When I read the summary for this one, I realized we probably wouldn't be getting much of Allen and Sarrica, since this book focused on Lesto's romance. But I wasn't put off since Lesto was a character I really wanted to learn more about.
In comparison, this book wasn't as good as The High King's Golden Tongue but it did have it's own appeal. In this story it's been awhile since the events of THKGT (about a year I'd say) and we follow Lesto as he wakes up tied up and far away from home. Quickly realizing he's been kidnapped, he tries to find a way to escape except he's completely drugged and ready to be sick. Luckily for him, his kidnappers stop along the way to get the carriage fixed, where he's reunited with the pirate who punched him and who he had a one night stand with. Shemal ends up helping Lesto escape and the two try to get back to Harkenesten but end up mixed in with some political troubles.
I think the reason I didn't like this book as much as THKGT is because of the romance. While I liked Lesto and Shemal together, it just felt too random and instalove. I remember the whole being punched thing since I only just finished THKGT but then being told the two slept together and that Lesto had been pining for Shemal feels too convenient (though even if he had, we didn't see him A LOT or into his head in book 1 so maybe it's all good??). I felt like them pining for each other and then jumping to creating a future together was a bit fast.
Something else I found a bit off putting was how violent Lesto was in this book. We knew he had a temper in THKGT but it always came off as bantering. In this book I had to pause with how he acted with Sarrica, especially since we're now in his head and it felt like there was intent behind that anger sometimes. He was also rather violent as a commander but that I didn't mind as much. Though I do find it kind of funny how these guys who sound like they're #1s keep getting into such trouble.
It was definitely a more fiery and passionate type of couple this time around, which was nice, but also I just found it hard to connect to either character. I also felt like the story here was a tad less developed and things seemed to clear up rather quickly by the end of it.
Not as good as first book, but still entertaining. I loved the ending so much
This is the second book in The High Court series and it's as good as the first. This story is a little less adventure and intrigue (but still enough to add substance) and more about the developing relationship between Lesto and Shemal, which is simply beautiful and feels authentic and earned.
A great listen, with the narrators understated but effective narration. I loved it.
Really enjoyed book 2 of Tales of the High Court. Not as long as High King's Golden Tongue story but just as good. Loved to hear how the characters from book 1 are progressing. Great to get Lesto's story. Shemal is a side character from book one, I had forgotten his link to Lesto until I re listened to book one but was great to hear their background story and I loved this continuation. Can a strong, powerful, educated militry man love a rough ex pirate? Listen and find out! Can't wait to listen to book 3. I may read it first as usual but I feel for me Michael Stellman brings such depth and feeling to his naration I really enjoy listening to this series. I would reccomend but also would say book 1 needs to be listened to first to really enjoy it.to the full.