Book Review: ‘My Dark Prince’ by Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen
It's here. It's finally here. I have waited (not so patiently) for book 3 in the Dark Prince Road series and at last I got my hands on ‘My Dark Prince’ by Parker S. Huntington and L. J. Shen.
If you want to see my reviews for the other books in the series, you can read them here:
And in the spirit of getting all the admin out of the way, here is the summary for ‘My Dark Prince':
“I'm marrying a beautiful monster.
A crooked fraud. America's wealthiest bachelor.
He claims we're in love, yet all I taste in our kisses is hate and lust.
I don't remember why or how.
But I do remember he's the enemy.
Now, I'm stuck inside a nightmare.
And Oliver will do anything to keep me in the dark.
Authors' Note: My Dark Prince is a standalone enemies-to-lovers Sleeping Beauty retelling, in which a damaged billionaire with a dark past and his childhood sweetheart fall in love-literally. It is set in the decadent Dark Prince Road universe.”
I was so intrigued by how they were going to develop Oliver's character, and I ended up being very surprised! If you've read ‘My Dark Romeo’ and ‘My Dark Desire’ you'll know that Oliver is a somewhat unsavoury character. He's like if you took all of the bad qualities from Gossip Girl's Chuck Bass and Gilmore Girls’ Logan Huntzberger. If you take into consideration the somewhat unhealthy obsession I have previously had with both of those characters you'll then understand why I found myself so invested with Oliver von Bismark.
Is book 3 my favourite of this series? I'll be honest. No. But what I did really enjoy about it was the very clear arc of character development Oliver has. It was also fun to have the gang all back together again.
It doesn't take a super sleuth to clock that this is a loose retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The female protagonist is called Briar Rose, but I feel like of all the books, this one leans more heavily into the “fairytale” trope. It alludes to many different familiary stories, making it more of an amalgamated narrative of all your favourite Disney films.
Briar is an interesting character, and I liked that for each book in the series each female main character has had very different backgrounds.
All in all it tied the series together really well, I think there's a good balance, as ever, between the romance/spicy scenes and the overall plot and intrigue. It wasn't what I expected from Oliver's story, and looking at it now I'm actually thankful for that. It certainly surprised me!
If you enjoyed ‘My Dark Romeo' and ‘My Dark Desire' you will defitinitely enjoy ‘My Dark Prince'. So if you're hesitating, rest assured it holds up against the others. I would like to think that there could be another book in this series? After all, there is still Dallas's sister to learn more about. It's ok. I can wait… Impatiently.
Written by Sarah
