The Chancellor’s Bride by Kirsten Saell – Review

Rating:  

Title: The Chancellor’s Bride
Author: Kirsten Saell
Genre: Fantasy menage erotic romance
URL: Samhain
Price: US$5.50
Other Information/warnings: Explicit sex including m/m, m/f, and m/m/f, as well as BDSM; attempted rape; sadomasochistic scenes; sexual slavery
Summary:
Chancellor Collin sur-Gaerig is on the verge of political greatness, which means he should very soon take a wife. His reluctance has little to do with the women he meets, and more with the fact that he’s in love and totally devoted to his servant, Harral. When he discovers a woman, unconscious and half-dead, in the street on a rainy night, he takes her home so she might receive medical attention. But Aelis takes both him and Harral by quiet storm, burrowing into their lusts and affections in spite of the fact that her future isn’t exactly secure. Someone is determined to strike her down. The question remains, however, whether it will take all three of them at the same time…
My review:
Right away, the sensuality of the prose in this novel grabs the reader by the lapels and refuses to let go. The story starts with Collin returning home from a fete and another round of looking for a suitable wife, to crawl into bed with Harral, his manservant and lover for the past four years. The brief prologue immerses you in both erotic and intelligent imagery, establishing a high standard for the rest of the story to meet. It continues in that vein throughout the novel, and in actuality, is probably one of its strongest assets. Even when I had questions and doubts about motivations, I could always rely on the author’s voice to compensate for it.

Individually, all three of the principals are crisp and sympathetic. Collin’s dominance in the bedroom is an excellent mirror to his public persona as a respected political figure. I especially liked the author’s choice to go against physical type and make Collin less physically imposing. It’s all a matter of attitude, and she conveys this wonderfully. Aelis is smart and passionate, with a surprising core of steel when the right thing needs to be done, while Harral is driven and devoted. On a case by case basis, I liked each and every one of them.

My problems start arising with the development of the romance. Harral and Collin are well-established at the start of the story, believable and loving from the beginning. I can even understand why Collin starts becoming enamored with Aelis. She’s an easy answer to a difficult situation, their personalities seem to mesh, and their backgrounds are complementary. It’s the other side of the triangle I have trouble with. Harral was a pleasure slave, but he hasn’t been interested in a woman in any way since then, not once in eighteen years. Yet, almost from the moment he sees Aelis, his desire for her is overwhelming, so much so that it frightens and frustrates him. It feels like he becomes utterly devoted to her – and the idea of her – almost instantaneously, and I ended the story wondering just why he loved her so much. Perhaps if Harral seemed more emotionally stable, it would’ve been easier to accept. He cries on five different occasions in the course of the book, and it always makes him seem far more fragile as a result. Aelis sheds her own share of tears, too, which didn’t help. I decided that he probably recognized a need to save her in the beginning, to protect and shield her from what she was running from, because he saw her in himself and his past. But that was entirely an intellectual decision/justification made after I had completed the story. I didn’t feel it for a moment during the course of it, and as such, the ménage never truly felt balanced enough to succeed emotionally for me.

The world building is finely tuned, though with the exception of the political environment and some of the terminology, the atmosphere never felt very far from a historical. This probably helped some in the story’s favor, because it made it easier to adjust to the setting, but when other fantasy elements were introduced – like a healer at one point – it ended up jarring me out of the story.

Not all of the sex is fun and games, however. There are darker elements introduced in the latter half, including an attempted rape and severe sadomasochistic events. The acts between the three principals are never less than loving and consensual, but for readers more sensitive to violence, be aware that this does contain more than one scene.

This is my first time reading this author, but I don’t think it’ll be my last. The sensuality of her prose entices me to try other works, and even if this romance didn’t quite have the impact that it could have, it was still a lush, seductive read.