Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Smoking Teacup Books

Genre: Gay Romance 

Tags: Fantasy, Mystery, Some Magic, Standalone Within Series

Length: 290 Pages

Reviewer: Kaz

Purchase At: amazon, Eliot Grayson

Blurb:

Betrayed, beset on all sides, and possibly bewitched…

Since the sudden, suspicious, and unlamented death of his father, only one man stands between Lucian and the grudging acceptance of his subjects: Benedict, a powerful dusk mage, a military hero, the favorite of the ducal council…and Lucian’s stepbrother.

Not that Benedict wants a shackle disguised as a crown. He’d rather start a new, anonymous life a thousand miles away and leave that beautiful, icy, sneering little cretin Lucian to whatever grim fate awaits him.

But when Lucian comes to him in the middle of the night, terrified and desperate but still as infuriatingly arrogant as ever, Benedict agrees to keep Lucian alive and on the throne. On one condition: Lucian must give in to Benedict’s long-hidden desires and allow Benedict to use him, in every possible way, to sate his cursed magic’s demands.

Lucian detests Benedict. He despises what he becomes when Benedict touches him. And it might be the death of him, if his father’s murderer doesn’t kill him first…

The Traitor’s Curse is the third book in the Twilight Mages series, but it can be read as a standalone. Contains family secrets, unbecoming behavior in a throne room, and a duke who protests far, far too much. HEA guaranteed!

Review: 

Lucian  is the Duke of Calatria. An unhappy one. His father is dead. He has no close friends in his life, although he does count Tavius, his cousin, as one. After his father’s original valet dies drinking some alcohol in Lucian’s chambers, it seems like someone wants the throne and he’s in the way, but who? He doesn’t trust his stepbrother, Benedict, because he could theoretically make a play for the throne, he’s popular and charismatic, everything Lucian feels he lacks. Benedict is also dashing, damn him to hell. Then there’s Chancellor Zettine who frustratingly likes to one-up Lucian by setting council meetings and their times. He’ll then send someone to tell Lucian he is required or rebuke him for being late when Lucian is the ruler of the country. It adds to Lucian’s feelings of being thwarted or alone in an untrustworthy court. 

Benedict’s departure had removed the most likely usurper of my throne. But that didn’t mean some other lord wouldn’t eventually grow more ambitious, more ruthless, and more daring. Someone, after all, had murdered my father. And I didn’t think that person had done it out of any great love for me.

That Benedict has recently returned and is able to step right back into his role of Lord General of Calatria is frustrating, but the people, the council, wouldn’t like it if he couldn’t. Perhaps he’s going to usurp Lucian after all. You know Lucian has a complex love-hate relationship with his stepbrother. It’s coloured by the fact that he thinks Benedict would make a more popular and powerful leader of Calatria. That maybe Benedict truly does want the throne. Mostly, it’s Lucian viewing himself in a poor light. He excels in the administrative side of keeping his country running and profitable. That includes overseeing diplomacy and looking after tariffs, and I think we all see how deftly tariffs need to be handled, but Lucian doesn’t believe what he does is worthy or endears him to many.

Well, he wasn’t the only one who could piss off more than one other person at the same time. In fact, that could be considered one of my greatest skills, right next to staying awake while reading about tariffs.

With both his father and Fabian being murdered, Lucian believes, quite reasonably, that someone is out to get him. Everything is doing his head in so he approaches Benedict to be his bodyguard. He does command the military after all. Benedict agrees. His ‘fee’ is being Lucian’s BWB, bodyguard with benefits. Benedict needs to fuck someone to help him with his dusk mage curse. Because Benedict is seen with the likes of the pretty Lord Clothurn and others around court, Lucian feels a degree of jealousy, not that he’ll admit it. Why would Benedict make a deal with Lucian for sex? He could have his pick of men to fuck. Surely *shock horror* it couldn’t be because Lucian is desirable to Benedict.  

It seemed so bloody unfair that Benedict could be the one to bear a curse that typically made twilight mages objects of fear and ridicule, and that he could be the one to know every whore in Calatria by name, but that I’d be the one mocked and despised for taking his cock. For submitting to this.

You know they both care for one another, even though we only get Lucian’s POV throughout. Won’t lie, I would have liked Benedict’s POV. It was hard to warm to Lucian at times because he is defensive in his words and manner. It’s because of his lack of self-belief. This is not new in Grayson’s books. One character can, at times, be frustratingly self-deprecating or insecure, and it can often be the narrator’s POV. Like it is here in The Traitor’s Curse. The other MC can be a touch dub-con-y as well. Benedict can be abrupt in his desires and needs. No issue for me. I’m here for morally greyish moments and characters. 

“Think whatever you want. But take your clothes off while you think about how much you hate me.” He grinned, with no humor at all in it. “Maybe that’ll make it more fun.”

So, Lucian wants Benedict, no matter how much he tries to convince himself he doesn’t. Lucian is a reminder that while your thoughts are real, they aren’t always factual. He sits in negativity that isn’t necessary. It drives a miscommunication arc throughout. It also drives the whole ‘I desire him but I believe I am unworthy so I’ll be crotchety’ vibe. The overarching theme of the entire series is one of the MCs has to fuck to exorcise their cursed twilight, dawn, or dusk magic or they’ll grow more and more unwell, and that road leads to madness. It’s the omegaverse you have without it being an actual omegaverse. It isn’t ever just about fucking for the curse’s fucking’s sake. The pair are always into one another but one of them just doesn’t buy a clue for a while.   

We get past the whirring cogs of Lucian’s brain convincing him that he’s being used and useless. That everyone will talk about him being railed by his stepbrother. That Benedict must be in it ‘in me’ for the throne. It’s good when Lucian allows himself to not only enjoy their sex, because he does, but also know Benedict needs more of Lucian too. And, you know, there’s this sass-    

A duke had to have some standards, even if he’d just climbed off of his stepbrother’s cock…

What keeps me coming back to Grayson’s books time and again is the overall package. She writes well. The prose is excellent. The humour on pointe. In spite of a sometimes annoying character, I end up cheering for them, which is not always the case with me. I’ve read and reviewed – Goodreads/Amazon – quite a few books, especially lately, where I can’t get past the (shitty) characterisations. They’re 1 or 2 stars for that reason. Also, Grayson’s books are always exceedingly well edited and this is appreciated. I also love the atmospheric covers of her series books too. They set the scene for the stories within. I know going into the Twilight Mages books, for example, that they are thematically erotic, and I mostly prefer less sex in my reading these days, yet here I am. Again. I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the snark. Within her worlds, Grayson is the Suzerain of Snark. I also enjoyed the overall mystery of who killed Lucian’s father and Fabian. Are they out for Lucian? His Ducal position? What’s the deal? How do this pair get their HEA? The answers were not exactly what I thought they would be and I was here for it. 4 Stars!