The Solstice Prince

This was a trip to pure cotton-candy fluffland, and I loved it. It's incredibly sweet.

There's zero conflict between the main characters. They are both dealing with some difficult things: the PoV character is recovering from having been a slave (he isn't a slave at any point in this story), and his love interest is facing the death of a beloved parent. But they both help each other, and it's clear that their mutual support will continue.

I can never get enough of queertopia fantasy worlds, where no one has any problem with anyone's orientation. Jaime also comes from a country that's a little behind the one he's living in, in terms of social progress, so he's very happy that his romance can be out in the open. There isn't any mention of specific queer people other than the main pairing, and their relationship is a little more structured than I prefer in fiction (the love interest is much more dominant than the PoV character, although there is nothing like BDSM going on). But that's a minor reading preference. I really liked all the public courting scenes, as well as how completely Maxim's family accepted Jaime.

There are hints of worldbuilding that could be developed into an interesting plot, but there isn't much actual plot here, aside from the romance. I feel that the story is intended as a pure escape, and it succeeds really well, for me. I'll definitely be reading/listening to it again. I don't know if the next book will be about another couple in the same world, or about this pair, or something else, but I look forward to finding out.

Cute story, I guess. Literally felt nothing about any of the characters, whether they be main characters or side ones. If you're gonna write a romance novel you have to sell the idea of romance between your intimate characters to your readers. For me, I just didn't buy into their romance, it just sort of happened and wasn't rewarding in the slightest. There was functionally no conflict in either the development of their relationship nor in the broader scope of the world.