Series: The Orc Prince Trilogy by Lionel Hart
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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 Zorvut’s gentle soul makes it difficult to resist. Worse, their marriage bond, forged by ancient elven magic between their minds, proves to be a far deeper and stronger connection than anyone expected. Despite their trepidation, a genuine relationship blossoms from the political union.
But such a long war is not easily forgotten, and there are both elves and orcs who want to see them apart. When a dark secret comes to light, threatening to nullify the very peace treaty that brought them together, Taegan must decide if his feelings for Zorvut are worth fighting for.
PUBLISHER: Lionel Hart
NARRATOR: Jeremy Frazier
LENGTH: ~500 pages (~17 hours) across three books
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s).
TITLES DISCUSSED
- Claimed by the Orc Prince (2021)
- Blood of the Orc Prince (2021)
- Ascension of the Orc King (2021)
Minimal Spoiler Zone
Series Premise
Elves and Orcs have finally agreed to a peace treaty, one to be sealed by a marriage between a son of each leader. This is the setup for a lot of conversation and even more fucking as the newly-married pair get to know each other and explore the mystery of whether Taegan the elf will ever be ready to take Zorvut the orc's entire dick into himself during sex. This question is both literally important, because they are very interested in sex and fascinated by the idea of having sex with each other, given how they are built to different scales, and politically important if they want to having a lasting alliance between orcs and elves on the basis of this union.
Main Characters
In the first book there's the Zorvut (the orc prince), Taegan (the elf prince), their respective fathers, the elf prince's ex-lover who refuses to take no for an answer, and a smattering of other elves and orcs. Honestly, they spend so much time fucking that there wasn't a lot of time to meet many other characters, though I do like the innkeeper in the second book.
How Queer Is It?
Very queer, specifically gay/achillean. This is an M/M fantasy romance, after all. The trilogy revolves around Taegan and Zorvut who are both male. Elves are somewhat hermaphroditic, and Taegan was born of two fathers. While female elves do exist, none of them play a significant role in the trilogy.
This isn't quite a queer awakening, partly because what that looks like for elves would be very different than for real-world humans, given the way gender and procreation are detached for them. The main surprise is that an orc and an elf are together at all, regardless of gender. A large part of getting to know each other, especially early in the relationship, is whether Zorvut and Taegan are even physically compatible without the elf getting hurt by how massive the orc prince's dick is in comparison to the elf prince's orifices.
Here There Be Spoilers
Twists and Turns
Taegan has a former lover who is very upset about no longer getting to fuck the prince, and he brings upsetting information to the newlyweds at the end of the first book. The upsetting information was that Zorvut is actually a half-orc, and his father is a human bard. This is politically important because the alliance was formed on the basis that the orc is the heir of his father, Hrul Bonebreaker, leader of the orc tribes, and Zorvut's half-human heritage means that his mother was unfaithful. Whether or not Zorvut cares personally, Hrul Bonebreaker was waiting for an excuse to break the treaty and attack the elves. This was as good a reason as any, with the added bonus that Hrul isn't seen as the one who lied. This lets him appear to be the aggrieved party, rather than just an aggressor breaking a peace treaty. This news destabilizes the peace and Taegan's father temporarily dissolves the marriage bond, which has lingering repercussions for the fragile trust between Taegan and Zorvut, even after it is reinstated.
Flow and Later Series Developments
The tension in the main plot builds slowly over the course of the trilogy, with almost all of the first book focusing on the pair getting to know each other and figuring out the logistics of their sex life. Near the end, they are put in danger by the revelation that Zorvut is a half-orc, and Hrul Bonebreaker uses this knowledge as an excuse for breaking the peace treaty and declaring war on the elves.
The second book has tension but very little actual conflict. It follows Zorvut and Taegan on their journey to meet Zorvut's human father, to learn magic from him. Because it turned out that the elf could take in the half-orc's entire dick, they spend some time working on exploring those possibilities, mostly on the journey there, with some furtive sessions while staying at the bard's house. They have a bit of a rough patch when Zorvut is spending so much time training that he's not thinking about how Taegan doesn't have anything structured to do with the weeks they spend in an unfamiliar city. Zorvut is deeply engaged with learning to use his magic and getting to know his human father, but Taegan has nothing specific to occupy him. They are far from any immediate danger posed by the brewing conflict and random skirmishes, but Taegan's anxiety over possible fighting at home makes it impossible for him to just relax while Zorvut trains.
At the end, Taegan and Zorvut are tricked though some alarming news into leaving the city early, then are attacked on the road by Taegan's elven ex-boyfriend and some orcs who are helping him. Taegan is kidnapped, setting the stage for the third book where the war comes to a head in a story filled with more battles than sex (though plenty of both). Book three opens with Taegan and Zorvut separated. Taegan is still in captivity after the attack, and Zorvut heading to get him back after a brief diversion to let the elf king know what happened to his son.
Much of the third book is devoted to the Hrul Bonebreaker's interrogation of Taegan, alternated with Zorvut's preparations to rescue Taegan. The middle section is the fight itself, then the final part covers the aftermath and the messy decisions involved in suddenly being an Orc King with an elven husband, and figuring out what that means for the orcs and elves as peoples.
Current Status
The trilogy is complete, and received an omnibus edition soon after it was originally published. If there are future stories in this world they would need a new narrative hook. This could possibly revolve around new main characters or deal with Zorvut and Taegan's new lives as rulers and parents.
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed this! I didn't already know what "size play" was in an erotic context, but now I'm up to speed. I like the way that details about the political plot matter throughout the whole story and are ready to be leveraged in the third book. This is definitely a romance book with a kingdom politics frame, not a political book that happens to contain romance. I tend to prefer books which spend more time on the political machinations if they're featured at all. That makes this one of the least politically complicated books I've reviewed, with only a couple of schemers and pretty straightforward motives at play. Someone could easily enjoy this trilogy without caring about the orc/elf politics at all, but it would be very difficult to read this series for someone who doesn't at least appreciate size play, let alone anyone who isn't interested in erotica in their romance books.
If you like this you may like:
- The Prince's Dearest Guards (for even less political wrangling)
- A Suitable Consort by R. Cooper (when the political and romantic plot are the same thing)
- A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows (for a more equal balance of politics and romance)
Major Series CWs: sexual content, grief, kidnapping, violence, blood, gore, injury detail, war, animal death, death.
Miscellaneous CWs: pregnancy.
Bookshop Affiliate Buy Links:
- Claimed by the Orc Prince
- Blood of the Orc Prince
- Ascension of the Orc King
- The Orc Prince Trilogy Omnibus Edition
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