Prince of Persuasion (The Novi Navarro Chronicles: Book 1) by Emigh Cannaday

4.5 Stars

Publisher: Silver Popular Press

Date of publication: March 5th, 2019

Series: The Novi Navarro Chronicles

Prince of Persuasion—Book 1

Crown of Contempt—Book 2 (expected publication date: June 3rd, 2019)

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

Where you can find Prince of Persuasion: Amazon | BookBub

Book Synopsis:

A dying king…
A dynasty in danger…
A prince with one duty: secure the succession!

Created when they intermingled with demons, the dark elves of Sinaryos have come to rely on humans to keep their race alive. The royal family is no exception, with a king on the verge of death, a court riddled with spies, and a broken line of succession. Despite everything working against him, Prince Fallon Blackwood has met all the demands of the crown for nearly a hundred years… except for one!

After avoiding this obligation for too long, the time has come for him to take a harem and prove that he’s capable of continuing his family’s bloodline and ensuring their control of the throne. But underneath his cool and calm exterior, Fallon secretly yearns for a much different life than the one he was born into…

Novi Navarro is a working-class barmaid who’s used to running her tavern and running her mouth. When she gets assigned to Prince Fallon’s harem by mistake, she thinks it’s a complete joke. She makes a deal with Fallon for them to both get what they want from this administrative oversight. But when members of the Blackwood Court discover her true identity, she quickly learns that she must beat them at their game… or die…

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Can I tell you all how excited I was to read this book. I love fantasy. I love romance. When there is a book that brings the two genres’ together, I almost always pick it up to read. When I was approached to review Prince of Persuasion, I accepted immediately. I am glad I did because this book was fantastic.

I loved Novi in this book. She took nothing from anyone. Well, except her boss/landlord and that was because she had to. She did try to fix the administrative mistake, but no one would listen to her. Novi had a bit of snark to her as well. I was dying when she made eye contact with Fallon while thinking about him. She didn’t know that he could read her mind, which made the dance that happened right afterward even more amusing. I also died laughing when she thought that Fallon and Cedric were “together.” Let’s not forget her helping Fallon by spreading the rumor that he finished fast. I. Was. Dying. At that point, she became one of my favorite heroines.

I felt terrible for Fallon. He had to deal with a scheming mother, a brother who was plotting against him, and a father who was dying. On top of that, he had his duties as Crown Prince. One of which was to produce an heir. So, when Fallon is introduced in the book, he is not happy about being forced to procreate and take a harem. At first, I thought Fallon was a jerk. But he became less jerklike as the book went on. By the end of the book, I loved him.

The sex scenes were hot. I did laugh, though, when Novi first saw Fallon’s member. Her reaction would be one of any woman seeing something that big. I liked that the author built up Novi and Fallon’s sexual relationship too. So when they did have sex, it was hot. The author was able to keep that going through the rest of the book.

It took me a while to figure out that Prince of Persuasion was set in the same universe as the Anika Brisby series. I am not giving anything away, but I made the connection to a particular character in The Darkest of Dreams (not Talvi!!).

I could not stand Queen Laena. For a race who depended on humans to keep their race going, she didn’t like humans. There was mention of her past, and that made me wonder what she was hiding.

Tristan was also on my list. I couldn’t decide if he was going along with Queen Laena because he wanted her approval or if he was concerned for Fallon. Still, after what he did to Callie and what happened at the end of the book, he ended up on my list.

The end of the book frustrated me. I can’t stand cliffhangers. But it did its job. I need to read the next book.

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I would give Prince of Persuasion an Adult rating. There is explicit sex. There is violence. There is language. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Prince of Persuasion. I would recommend this book to family and friends.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

I would like to thank the author for allowing me to read and review Prince of Persuasion.