Genre/Tags: Gay Alt-Historical Romance

Author: Cooper Davis

Story Rating: 5 Stars

Narrator: John Hartley

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

Length: 9 Hours & 38 Minutes

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible, Amazon

Sometimes you have to risk everything to follow your heart….

Noble Pleasures, book one: In a world where gentlemen openly court and marry fellow noblemen, the threat of scandal still lurks behind every velvet drape for kings and princes. Such has been the fate for King Arend Tollemach, forced to sacrifice his heart on the altar of regal duty.

Now that his wife is dead, and his royal obligations are at an end, he’s ready to take an unthinkable risk. King Arend seeks a concubine from Temple Sapphor, a secretive, gated world where he will finally shed his virginity – as least as it pertains to making love to a man.

Julian never thought he’d spend 10 years on the temple shelf, passed over again and again. Just when he despairs of ever finding placement in a nobleman’s bed, Arend walks into the temple. A lonely eyed, beautiful king who could easily steal his heart.

Arend discovers he has no problem opening his bed to the exquisite concubine. The problem lies in finding the key to his long-shuttered heart.

Warning: contains a beautiful, virgin king desperate to bed another man, a concubine who fantasizes about being claimed and revered by a strong monarch, and a sea of scandal set against a sensual, palatial backdrop.

Review: 

Gentle mutinies, these… until the year he reached the ripe age of eighteen and endeavoured the unthinkable. The risqué. Quite without his sire’s approval, Prince Arend dared to follow his heart and betrothed himself to the prince of a neighbouring realm. For that’s what young love always did: reached with both hands, audaciously grasping for honest happiness.

I have such a soft spot for this series of 2 books. I originally read A King Undone in 2014 with an ETA in 2020 for one of my many rereads. Anyway, the book was originally reviewed at length on our last blog that is no longer with us. So it was with great happiness I discovered this audiobook while cruising around Audible. I’ve reread King Arend and Jules’s story too many times to count, listening to it was a no-brainer. I have an absolute fondness for alt-historical fiction, especially in gay romance or MM. There is so much you can do within these worlds. 

Arend Tollemach is the King of the Western Provinces. He’s now forty-one, his wife died over a decade ago and he wishes to do what he always wanted to, be with another man. In his youth, he spent time in Agidir with the royal family and he and Prince Darian fell in love, becoming betrothed. Arend’s father, the then king, forbade it. He wrote a cruel letter on behalf of Arend to Darian which he forced Arend to sign, breaking off the betrothal. It broke his son’s and his youthful love’s heart. Prince Darian died and Arend lived in a loveless marriage, produced an heir and now, at last, believes he can do something to follow his true desire. To this end, he visits Temple Sapphor where they have the highest priced, most sensuous concubines. He meets a gorgeous man at the gate where they strike up a flirtation. Turns out he is one of the men on show for concubinage. Arend had dreamed of golden cat’s eyes not long before visiting Temple Sapphor and Julian has those exact eyes. Julian is also from Agidir, as was Prince Darian, so it’s no surprise that Arend’s magnetic pull to Julian is so swift and so strong.

And yet, if forced on the point, he’d concede that Julian was even lovelier than Prince Darian ever had been; a traitorous, confusing realization but true nonetheless.

While Arend is totally enamoured with Julian from the beginning he doesn’t act on it quickly. He may use beautiful words to Jules, have one moment of lust driven oral sex, but Arend puts the brakes on. He just can’t find it within himself to consummate their concubinage. It is the slowest of slow burns as Arend struggles with himself to allow them to be lovers. He’s nervous as to what it means if they are together. He’s never had sex with a man. He wants to guard his heart so he often sends mixed messages to Jules. He has moments of feeling that he’s unfair to his original love. This isn’t helped by the fact that the Lord’s Council is plotting in the background for Arend to remarry another woman and sire another heir. Arend’s only child, Prince Darius, is married to a man. The Council want Prince Darius’s husband to be sterilised so they know that any child Arend’s heir has with a princess consort is of the Tollemach line. All of which appalls Arend. 

To take a break, while also potentially shoring family matters up, Arend decides to visit his cousin, Samuel Tollemach, The Duke of Mardford. Arend loves his cousin and his cousin’s wife, Lucy. They have a discreet arrangement of their own, Samuel and Lucy. Samuel has men on the side but loves his wife dearly. Unfortunately, she’s recently had a miscarriage and Arend is not going to pressure them into another attempt right now. He’s certainly not going to allow the Council to pressure them about their duty to the Tollemach lineage either. His son is happily married, Arend won’t stand against that. He doesn’t want to remarry a woman. He’s served his country dutifully and done as his father wished but he looks to be locked into a position of checkmate. To make things worse, at Sam’s house party Viscount Colchester and his obnoxious brother, Lord Blaine, turn up. Colchester is wishy washy but fine, Blaine is out to start trouble as he’s heard gossip of King Arend’s beautiful male companion. And here is an unknown, gorgeous Lord, ‘Lord Julian’, conveniently at the Duke of Mardford’s at the same time as the King.     

I love Julian. He is so sweet and kind, he also wears his heart on his sleeve, but he knows his own mind and doesn’t baulk at verbally sparring with Arend when he needs to. His introduction to the palace is inauspicious because of Mallon, a contemptuous servant. Jules has a difficult backstory of how he came to be at Temple Sapphor. It’s terrible how he’s been treated. When I think of someone with so much gentleness and love being preyed on, also dealt a difficult hand, it feels unfair. He’s been left at Sapphor, languishing, while his peers have secured good placement. Then King Arend comes along – go big or go home, Jules. I’ve read both books. I know it takes Arend some time to fully open his heart, and not let out silly things he doesn’t mean. To not allow others to get in his head, like the Lords Council, or his lineage. 

  But Arend could not allow them to play the role of lovers, not without surety as to what the coming days would bring. So he slammed a door on his heart that all but echoed in the vast room.

The Narrator: I have never listened to anything narrated by John Hartley previously. He voices both characters and does a very good job. I imagine it was hard to capture Jules’ voice because he not only has an accent but a higher range, which forms part of the story. He’s been passed over for (absurd) reasons.  

What was it about him that had proved so perennially unappealing? Oh, by heavens, he knew the answer. Much like his voice, it was that faint ever-persistent touch of feminine softness to him. 

This book doesn’t have high ratings on Goodreads but I love the writing and the characters. Cooper Davis has a lovely turn of phrase. The writing fits the alt-historical setting perfectly. There is a degree of introspection, which I enjoy when well written. It is a v e r y  slow sexual burn. I have no problems with that. I prefer it. There is also clever, sometimes biting, or quietly witty banter between the two MCs. Arend can be infuriating at times. He has all the grandiosity of a king combined with all the fear of a man falling for someone that could mean hurting his heart and his family. Julian understands how difficult it can be for powerful men, he’s patient, but he doesn’t allow that to get in the way of making King Arend aware of just what he’ll miss out on if he dithers too long.  

I’m currently listening to the sequel to this, A King Awakened. I love that book as well so I’m enjoying staying in this world a bit longer.  5 Stars!