The Royal Curse

Twilight Mages, Book 1

By: Eliot Grayson

Narrated by: Kirt Graves

Dawn mage. Twilight mage. Cursed, useless, damaged, dangerous…

His birth magic leaves Prince Nikola with nothing but bad choices: live as another man's possession, subject to his whims and his desires, or remain dependent on a potion that stunts his powers and prevents him from knowing love.

Andreas vows to protect the prince with his life—whether Nikola wants him to or not. After all, the queen pays his soldier's wage. Nikola's nothing but a job to do.

But when they find themselves stranded, with Nikola's potion running out, Andreas has to… improvise. Because what Prince Nikola needs to survive is the opposite of a lowly guard's respectful protection.

It should've been only one night. Just until the potion's refilled. But since Nikola had Andreas's touch, he craves Andreas again and again. He shouldn't. But he—and his magic—can't live without it…

©2023 Eliot Grayson (P)2024 Podium Audio

love kirt and Eliot

this is literally my favorite series and kirt always does wonderful things with the written word

Unputdownable.

This was everything I needed it to be and more. And HOT. Gah, I can’t wait for more of this world! Eliot never fails to make me empathize with her characters and swoon for others, and this was no exception. I was so sad to finish it…

One Spicy Story

If you're looking for a story that takes spice to a whole new level, look no further. There is plenty of story and plot, and it takes the subject matter seriously, delving into how difficult living with such a condition would truly be, which was unexpected. There is a lot of depth to the characters, brought alive beautifully with Graves' excellent narration. Be ready for the spice! Once it shows up, it stays. There is a bit of a trigger warning for later in the book, but for those who worry, nothing truly bad happens to our beloved Nikola and Andreas, although their journey is far from easy. The story was fantastic, but the epilogue really sealed it. Wonderfully well written, beautifully performed, and well worth a relisten!

Succulent

I came here from another Eliot Grayson series and while Kirt Graves does a wonderful job, his voice is a bit nasally for my liking. That being said, I love being able to piece apart voices without the voices being too, eh, cartoony.

This book is also in 1st person and I specifically went to another book from this author because the last book was in 3rd person and wonderfully vivid and flowery. Fortunately, that is not lost in 1st person! Even with a single POV the whole book!

I was easily sucked into the premise and story. Yes I came for the sexy times, which there are plenty. More sex and emotionally dramatic than plot heavy, but that is what I'm looking for these days! Nico and Andreas (sorry if I misspelled anything. The review section glitches out if I leave and come back) are an adorable couple and I'm kind of living for these insecure bois.

Phenomenal

I’m absolutely in love with this series and squealed when it came out on audio.
But Kirt?!
SIR?!
I didn’t think I could love it anymore but holy I so do. His absolute emotion while reading this wrecked me. I’m going to now shove this in peoples faces because HOLY he’s amazing. Now I’m going to go and relisten to it.

The story was extraordinary & Kirt Graves has a wonderful intensity for building up desire

I read this years ago and just now listened to the audiobook. I had forgotten much of the plot, which helped listening again.

I think the details of sex in the book would help inspire male sexual virgins learn how to please their male lovers.

The story was well written and beautifully shows how to structure a plot to make it appear to be inevitable that the happily ever after is achieved. The conflicts were soundly constructed and advanced the plot and demanded sacrifices to achieve that allowed each character to better express what they feared would trap themselves or the other. I loved the narrator describing the sex scenes which were richly detailed.

Go on quest, sexy times every quarter mile, quest forgotten

Let's be honest, this is purely fan service. There's no world building, no character development, barely even a plot line. But there is plenty of sex. So much so that I was honestly done with this book 5 hours in, but told myself to finish it before I left a review. Two characters, woe-as-me mage prince, and buff body guard with a beer can for a package, go off on an adventure through the woods with a horse named Fluffy. Along the way they manage to stumble into each other's bed at every mile marker. Just when you think the story is going to move along with the adventuring, their pants disappear again. It honestly became so monotonous that I zoned out during each scene. But wait, there's a twist! Betrayal! While this was never a 2 party adventure, they are talked about less that NPCs. They fight, cry over dead love, narrowly avoid rape, love comes back, love almost dies again, prince sacrifices self for love interest, love interest pissed, quest forgotten. It felt like a very forced plot line towards the end of the book after hours of them screwing around. Honestly this book is like AU Omega-verse, where instead of omegas in heat with a knotty need, it's mage princes begging to be filled and only mans magic juice can quench the fire inside him. The narrator is great, but the book wasn't worth a credit.

That's... not how consent works

The first sex scene basically reads like magic and pain incentivized rape to me, and that being the starting point badly soured my experience of the narrative.

*partial spoiler*

The social vs. physical power imbalances in the relationship is intentional kink. However, something about the first sex scene went beyond that IMO. And the MC's low seld-estem puts things on especially shakey grounds.

The sudden-onset "compulsion" as the MC puts it, to have it sex with whoever happens to be in the room, doesn't translate to implied-consent. Not even/especially not because it's such a wonderful shock to the MC in that moment that someone/anyone might be willing...

All sex no story

I prefer books that have at least a semblance of plot, after a certain point this was basically nothing but one sex scene after another.