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Series: The Orc Prince Trilogy by Lionel Hart

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout. Full Audio Here   An elven prince. The son of an orc warlord. In two warring nations, their arranged marriage brings peace. They never expected to fall in love. Prince Taegan Glynzeiros has prepared since childhood to fight and lead armies against invading orc forces, the enemies of elves for hundreds of years. But after a successful peace treaty, the elven prince will not be fighting orcs, but marrying one. The first words he speaks to Zorvut are their wedding vows. Despite being considered the runt amongst the orc warlord’s children, Taegan finds him to be intelligent and thoughtful—everything the stereotypes about orcs say he shouldn’t be. He doesn’t want to fall in love, but Zorv...
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All or None by Aurora Lee Thornton (Star Stories, #1)

All or None is unafraid of portraying darkness and despair but also devoted to addressing the implications and aftereffects of that darkness. The interpersonal dynamics and relationships highlight characters in a way that continually shows them in new light.

I love how this book runs with the premise of literal soul-mates and makes something complex and nuanced out of it. The relationships are distinct and feel natural for whatever stage they’re in. For many of them I could get a sense of how those people would be right for each other. Language barriers played different roles in different relationships, and the reality of culture-shock was transformed into a world-building opportunity.

The world-building was handled in a casually familiar way, with very few info-dumps, and the few that occur are in the context of someone from one culture trying to adjust to a new one, so they feel natural. They tended to answer things where I’d had time to be curious first. The early world-building placed things in context and assumed I could pick up on what was happening, but by and large the story was coherent even if I misunderstood something.

The ratio between trauma and aftercare in this book was surprising, in a very good way. The first part of the story has some very dark stuff (refer to the CWs at the end of this review), and the rest of the book is spent getting out and starting to deal with everything that’s happened. It feels very grounded, the characters are far from perfect and they each have different things to work through, resulting in a well-balanced ensemble. 

I'm content with where it ended, but I'm hopeful that there will be a sequel, especially when so much of the book is devoted to getting to know the characters very well, individually and in various kinds of relationships.

Book CWs for harm to children, physical and psychological abuse, implied (off-page) rape, violence, mature language, minors in implied sexual situations (teenaged romance), implied sexual situations, bigotry towards fictional races, and suggestive language.


A person with red skin, horns, and a tail stands back to back with a pale-skinned shorter person.
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