ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Somewhere, underneath the startlingly saccharine book about eating disorders and agency, are the bones of a wonderful story. There must be, as once I started reading I couldn't stop. Unfortunately the book doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, and really struggles to make its point because of it. So yes, I couldn't put the book down, but the phrase, "What the hell?" was my mantra for the duration of the read.

At the center of the story are Prince Fierre and Aiven, his best friend and right hand man. Prince Fierre is the newly appointed ruler of the land of Eilean-oir, a pseudo-Scottish country that you'll never get a good grasp on, complete with a vaguely hand-wavy religion that you'll never be taught. As the Prince, Fierre is expected to be the epitome of beauty and excellence. Not a hair out of place, and not a single bit of body fat. Because of this, he's developed a doctor-approved eating disorder that has him absolutely terrified of overeating and not being good enough. He is also expected to give out sexual favours to the the The Three Stooges, a trio of one-note villains who snatch for power all while snatching at the hem of Fierre's dress (what the hell is an enserre? Google didn't help at all, seems like he's prancing around in togas. Is that Scottish?). Also, his clan tartan is pink because we're nothing if not incredibly on the nose in Eilean-oir. Meet our god-twink Fierre, saviour of the common man.

All the while Aiven, who seems to only now be realizing he's in love with Fierre despite VERY obviously being in love with Fierre, has been promoted to Fierre's advisor despite being raised a simple farm boy. This is where the biggest issue with the novel sets in; while Fierre is dealing with an eating disorder and his chapters are filled with restriction, purging, and sexual assault, Aiven's are all about their budding romance that the novel seems to think is slow burn despite happening over the course of, what, five chapters? It's absolutely jarring to read chapters about Fierre being so weak and hungry that he keeps losing consciousness and may DIE and then being swung into a loss of virginity scene where NO one gets prepped despite everyone's bits being absolutely monstrous. While the scenes of coercion paint a picture of the extremes Fierre has to go to in order to make his lairds happy, the ones with his actual lover seem thrown in because...I don't know, that's how we sell romance novels now, I guess.

The book really, really wants to be read as high fantasy with lofty worldbuilding, but fails to tell you what everything actually is. It constantly slips in made up phrases, plants, trees, foods, etc, but never explains what these things are or why they matter. It's kind of like ordering a bowl of soup just to find a wood screw on your spoon: how the hell did this get here? Why is this happening? (This happened to me once). They mention their religion often, but never explain it--it seems like it's pseudo Christianity, but who knows? The prince is supposed to represent the image of god, but I don't remember Christ being a rockin' hot twenty-six year old in a miniskirt. And then there's the dilemma of how Fierre is cured if his eating disorder; some country doctors tell him he's being starved, Aiven tells him he's beautiful no matter his size, and BOOM scones for breakfast and a little revolution for lunch. It's too easy and makes everything feel anticlimactic. But hey, Fierre is healed now, and can go on to solve misogyny (which he does with a speech at the end despite there never being any real demonstrations of how women struggle other than a monologue about it towards the beginning).

I feel awful dunking on the book because I think there's something worth picking at here, a thread to follow to something really great. What this book needs is a strong beta reader to say, "I'm about to tear this apart because I love you and I think it can be truly amazing." I'd love to read more of the author's works, I just...feel like this needed a bit more time in the oven before being turned over to the public.

4.5 stars rounded down.

Aptly named, this book focuses heavily on hunger and eating disorders. One of the main characters, Fierre, is heir to a kingdom who's rulers are meant to be the divine given flesh. For Fierre, this means looking the part of a delicate deer and near-starving himself to remain thin and elegant and holy. The other main character, Aivan, is his best friend and the only person close to Fierre who seems to notice and care how unhealthily thin Fierre really is. This is a book that really explores eating disorders and how difficult it can be to break out of them, especially when society (or in this case your whole kingdom) seem to be piling expectations upon you.

I will not lie, this is a difficult book. It tackles some very hard concepts and does not pull any punches.
It's rare that fantasy romance books push me so close to discomfort, but there were moments reading this that made me sick to my stomach. At the same time, I think there are subjects that if you portray them honestly will always be difficult to read and this felt distressingly honest. There are moments when Fierre will stop a train of thought to turn and hope that no one is looking at the fat on his stomach and it will hit me again how pervasive, how constant these thoughts are, and it hurts.

I personally thought that the extra layer of Fierre being alone in these expectations of extreme slimness added some interesting nuance. A lot of people place higher expectations on themselves than they do on others, for example finding your own body shape beautiful on someone else, but hating it on yourself. But for Fierre, he truly is the only one who must perform to these standards.

The ending was a relief, if perhaps a bit naive or simple feeling. Though truthfully, if it had been more difficult it might have made the book too much to bear. I know things are rarely that simple in real life, but that is also why books exist - sometimes we just want to know that there is a path where everyone wins.

I will say this is very much a book that tries to wrap everything up with a perfect little bow at the end. Again, I didn't particularly mind that though after how stressful it was to read the beginning.

An aspect that I know other reviews have had conflicted feelings on is the way that Fierre is expected to offer his body to the lords of the kingdom as a reward to them. I read this both as another heavy burden on Fierre and one of the ways that he took back a measure of control. While it is obviously a complicated situation consent wise, I do think that Fierre enjoyed/wanted these encounters (this is especially obvious later in the book because he acts identically with Aivan). While Fierre's sexual tastes are a bit different than you might expect from a typical fantasy romance, I don't think they detracted from the book. That said, if you don't like to read about rough sex, this is probably not the book for you.

Very minor things that bothered me disproportionately and aren't actually that big of problems
- I do not know if the author understands moons. Supposedly a sliver of moon "fattens" to a full moon over the course of a night
- This fantasy world has a large coal mine but no steam engines. Why are they mining coal? What are they doing with it in such large quantities? Also they understand that coal is bad for the environment but idk how because it took us a very long time to figure that out and their world has none of the normal coal problems (smog, acid rain, etc)

I'm not sure I can say that I enjoyed this book because the first half was very hard for me to read, but I can say that it is a very well-written book. And that said, I think I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so conflicting for me! I was taken in by the interesting world building and the pretty prose, and enthralled by the romance. As a person who has had an eating disorder in the past, I really related to a lot of Fierre’s experience with it. I felt like the main issue I had with this book was how quickly he recovered. It felt like as soon as he had the knowledge he needed, all the years’ worth of learned thoughts and behaviors disappeared. He didn’t seem to struggle once he found out that he should be eating and I felt like that wasn’t really truthful to many peoples’ experiences with restrictive eating disorders. I loved the characters, the world was intriguing and the romance was so cute! I was even okay with the slight excess of spicy scenes, until it seemed like these scenes were at the detriment of the story. I just would have preferred to see more inner growth from Fierre. Because he had a lot of growth but I felt like it went from 0-100 real fast. I would have liked to see some more inner turmoil leading up to his growth. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the eARC, but it did not affect my review in any way!

This was . . . a read. This might be understood by a select few who understand the chaos that is Tiktok, but the theme song that I would give this book is the Cupcake edit of Poker Face by Lady Gaga because my god there was so much 🍆

The story follows two POVs: the titular character, Prince Fierre; and his Master of Compliance and best friend, Aiven. This book is being described as a friends to lovers kind of romance, but it was more like lusty boys who happen to be friends (if you count having one of them literally being the boss of the other) to lovers who took way to long to get into bed with each other. 😬

Fierre just felt so naive the entire I was in his POV. He never questions why he has to starve in the first place other than that his father is making him do it, never questions his so called doctor, and never thinks about whether or not his lairds are plotting against him or to literally get into his pants. His “ah-ha” moment with his eating disorder felt a little easy and he was a bit too immediately accepting in my opinion. Given, I have never been through an eating disorder personally, but I can only imagine that having the strength and ability to accept your eating disorder should come with a bit more . . . I dunno, fight? Like most people don’t realize how bad they are until there is literally an intervention, so for Fierre to just kind of say “ah, okay that makes sense” feels a bit too much of a cop out for me. 🙁

Aiven was a bit more interesting for me. I liked that he was pining for his friend and literal boss, but I feel like the tension between the two could’ve been done a bit more to really sell the whole romance for me because the fact that these two just refuse to admit their tension and feelings for each other. He also just came across the as the stereotypical muscle man coming in to sweep the damsel (in this case, Fierre) off his feet into a happily-ever-after. 🤔

The other thing that I just didn’t understand is why the Prince and King of the land is called Sky and why the positions closest to him have special names. Like, is there a special relationship with the heavens about why it’s like this? Also why is their religion the way that it is? As much as I like being thrown into weird fantasies and made to work for the ending, this didn’t make me work for it so much as it just made me scratch my head more and more. It was also never really explained also why the King and Prince are expected to give out sexual favors in the first place. Like when did it get skewed in their history that they have to give their hole out to the laird who wants a favor from them? I feel like the idea was there and could’ve made this into an incredible book on eating disorders and a man coming into his own after being sexually preyed on his whole life, but instead it just completely missed the mark. 😖

Overall, while the relationship between the two was rather sweet at times, the lairds and their sexual preying on Fierre just gave me the biggest ick I’ve had in reading in a long time. I would like to thank Solaris Books and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review. I wish I could have more positive things to say about this, but it was just too many VIVID descriptions of @n@l sex and the moment with the dagger hilt? 😳

Publication date: January 30

Overall: 1.5/5 ⭐️

TRIGGER WARNING: depictions of disordered eating and purging, body dysmorphia, and parental emotional abuse.

In a Scottish inspired fantasy world, Prince Fierre ascends to the regency due to his father becoming too ill to rule. As he goes on a grand tour of his kingdom, he has to contend with ambitious lairds, being in love with his best friend and the strict fasting regimen required of the kingdom's ruler. As his health also begins to fail, Fierre begins to question his own self worth as well as what it means to be a prince.


This book at first shattered my heart into pieces and then made me smile. The core strengths of the book were our two main characters and the depiction of Fierre's healing process. Fierre and Aiven were both so loveable and their love story was just so sweet. I appreciated that they were unproblematic and there was no unnecessary drama with the development of their relationship. (And thank you Darcy Ash for not indulging in the miscommunication trope!) There are spicy scenes but they definitely serve to advance the romance without crossing into erotica territory. I personally thought they were well done. (and another thank you to Darcy Ash for the lack of cringy dirty talk).

I will not comment on whether or not the depiction of an eating disorder was well done. I have never struggled with an eating disorder so I do not feel qualified to have that discussion. However, I do think that Fierre recovered a little too quickly to be realistic. I will give Ash a pass on this since the book was intended to be a standalone.

As much as I liked this book, I do think that the world building, plot and side characters were lacking. The book could have been truly special if more effort has been put into providing more details of the world and its inhabitants. Outside of Fierre and AIven, everything else just fell a little too flat.

I do think this would make a satisfying quick read for readers who are comfortable with the subject material.

Reviews going live on Goodreads, Fable and Storygraph on 1/24 and tik tok on 1/25

i'd call this mixed. the themes of trying to take care of oneself, beauty standards, and society controlling you are interesting, but the characters are flat and some of the world building didn't really go over. 3 stars. tysm for the arc.

This book is very character-driven and does a good job of developing the main characters. However, I found it incredibly triggering in a way I don’t experience normally reading books with TWs and it was very hard for me to read.

I can understand how this book would be triggering for a lot of people (TW: eating disorders, purging, graphic sexual scenes that border on assault), but I really thought that it was an incredibly deep and profound read. I connected with Fierre, especially around his feelings towards his body. The romance in this book was adorable and steamy. The writing was beautiful and intriguing. I think some may be turned off of this book because it is not your traditional queer romantasy book, it instead addresses complex social and political themes and does not shy away from them.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

I have to warn that I found my experience reading this to be pretty triggering. There are detailed descriptions of Fierre starving himself and purging, and the descriptions of his body dysmorphia hit me harder than I expected.

I spent legit hours writing and re-writing this review, because there are so many aspects that I struggled with, and I have finally pinpointed the main issue: The premise is ridiculous.

It wasn't until I read a blurb praising this book for (paraphrasing because I don't remember exactly) "exploring modern eating disorders in a fantasy setting" that I realised the problem. Fierre's ED is something uniquely modern, and the book in set in fantasy medieval pseudo-Scotland. I am not sure it is possible to merge the two in a way that makes sense. I won't go into depth as there are other reviews that discuss this, but the set up to explain the origins of Fierre'e ED is so absurdly convoluted and illogical. (It also bothers me that in the real world, women are far more likely to have an ED and body dysmorphia, but the premise makes it so that only this specific man struggles with unrealistic beauty standards. I appreciate shedding light on men's struggles with ED, but like, if your goal is to explore the causes and effects of eating disorders, deliberately writing women out of the discussion is not it.)

Ignoring the absurdity of the premise, (as much as I can ignore it) I found the depiction of Fierre's ED to be pretty realistic, specifically in his body dysmorphia and the way he feels about food/eating. That's all that I have to say about it that is positive.

The way Fierre's ED was addressed in the plot was completely stupid. There is a big mystery around Fierre's "illness". Aiven notices that Fierre doesn't eat a lot, is extremely thin, passes out after a period of fasting, and has a low body temperature to the point that he's always cold, and Aiven is like "What is this mystery disease? Did Fierre get poisoned?" Aiven is a farmer's son, so surely he knows that you need food for energy? "How would Fierre even get poisoned, he hasn't eaten all night??" Give me a break.

I was very disturbed by the way the author describes Fierre's body, specifically the way he is viewed by the other characters. I can understand the depiction of the nobles ogling him and making inappropriate remarks; they are depicted as antagonistic, so that makes sense. However, I don't understand how Aiven, Fierre's love interest, can look at his thin, malnourished body, and feel anything approaching arousal. Not that Fierre's love interest shouldn't be attracted to him, but I hated how Fierre's body is depicted as ideal and sexually desirable. Honestly, I found it lowkey triggering. By presenting his body this way, it gives the impression that Fierre is justified in starving himself because he succeeded in getting the perfect body.

I am not a prude by any means, but this book has wayyy too many sex scenes. There is this whole thing about how the prince/king is expected to give the noblemen "favours" and the book goes into detail about all the fuckin and suckin. And for some reason, even though this is a normal thing in this kingdom and has been done for generations, the narrative is super slutshame-y towards Fierre. Like, there's a ritual where Fierre has to "confess" his favours before he can be crowned, and his father orders him to "cleanse" himself before meeting him, and all the noblemen slutshame him behind his back (and to his face). (The consent behind Fierre doing these favours is also pretty dubious, but there are other reviews that address that.)
And for all that Fierre starves himself, he has a surprising amount of stamina. This guy can't get through an evening without fainting, but in the same night he can screw non-stop, with no problems getting it up multiple times. I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure malnutrition affects your libido.

For all the important topics addressed, none of them are resolved in a way that can be described as close to satisfying.
- Fierre is told by a bunch of doctors he has never met before that he is starving and he immediately believes them. He no longer worries about his figure and is almost immediately able to eat normally, and when he struggles to eat Aiven handfeeds him ✨sexily✨ and he's able to eat! It's a miracle!! There's also one part where Fierre feels guilt after eating, and thinks sexual thoughts about Aiven to distract himself. Fierre's easily overcoming his ED is one thing, but sexualising his recovery feels so insulting. I am sure there are people who do use sexuality as a coping mechanism for their EDs, but the way it's presented here is so tactless. Like, are we supposed to read these parts and find it romantic? I don't know if any eating disorder specialists were consulted but I highly doubt so.
- He proposes to Aiven and therefore doesn't have to give out sexual favours anymore. Having to give sexual favours is supposed to be a part of their culture that the kings have been doing for generations, but there are no consequences to Fierre deciding to stop this I guess. The weird slutshaming/purity culture thing isn't addressed either. Like, it's all done by the antagonists, but the characters who seem to be "good" aren't particularly outspoken against this.
- It is a significant plot point that this kingdom is hugely patriarchal, and Fierre has been struggling to figure out how to fix this. In the end, Fierre writes a new law to, like, ban misogyny. That's literally it.

I also have beef with how this book tries and fails to be queernorm. Like, I can tell that the setting is supposed to be queernorm, but there are so many contradictions. How is it that women are unable to hold positions of power and do not have equal rights in (straight) marriage, but gay marriage is a normal thing and women can marry women? The characters say "man, woman, and people/person of other nature" (meaning nonbinary people), but there are no nonbinary characters, or any characters who use gender neutral pronouns. It appears that being nonbinary is normal in this world, but in this strictly gendered society with assigned roles for men and women, what roles do nonbinary people occupy? And since being nonbinary is normal in this world, being trans ought to be normal too, right? But Fierre and Aiven meet a trans guy who tells them that he's recently transitioned, and there's a weird fraught silence (as my copy is an ARC, this may not be the same quote in the published copy: "A silence hung tautly above us all.") before Fierre responds and congratulates him. There is no transphobia in this book, but that reaction implies that being trans is definitely not normal or common. This isn't entirely related, but Fierre also later lectures the same guy on the way he talks about women, which I found hilarious. I'm pretty sure he of all men would understand how women are treated.

Anyway, I can't believe I put myself through this ordeal (triggering depiction of an eating disorder) just to experience this ordeal (terrible worldbuilding, unsatisfying resolutions, insulting depiction of recovery).

If you're just reading for some steamy scenes I guess you might like this. Although there is a ton of politics thrown in.

I don't really understand Fierre's position? He's a prince in waiting and then the crown prince but seems to be not in control of anything around him or indeed himself. I get that this is meant to be about him craving love and food, both things he seems to be denied, but I don't understand him hooking up with all the awful lairds when it seems like he can barely stand it or them.

The world just didn't make sense to me and most of the characters didn't either.

This is a very character-driven book, where the plot is more about the main character's growth than any of the external events that provide the backdrop. Despite this, the other characters all seemed fairly one-dimensional. While there are two point-of-view characters, the focus is definitely on Prince Fierre's struggles with self-worth, body image and disordered eating. I'd go as far as saying that Aiven's point of view wasn't needed, at least not in the amount that we got, and maybe slightly weakened the storytelling, as he did not have a lot of growth or development as a character, particularly compared to Fierre. The romance was very heartfelt and convincing, but at times it felt almost too easy; if a book is billed as romance (or romantasy) I expect there to be some meaty conflict around that central relationship.

The depiction of Fierre's disordered eating, body image and self-worth issues was heart-wrenchingly well-written, but the worldbuilding that underpinned it wasn't entirely convincing. I also felt that some of the narration and dialogue around it was a bit too on-the-nose, and again the ending felt rushed and too easy; there was some attempt by the author to show that Fierre's recovery was an ongoing process but for someone who had spent his whole life being brought up to believe one thing, the about turn seemed very sudden.

Overall, the book was enjoyable and a quick read, though suffered from trying to be too many things at once - as well as the romance and Fierre's growth, there are a number of side plots about the ethics of monarchy and taxation, reform of government and misogyny which don't have the time or space to be expanded on, and are tidied up with a neat 'all going to be fine now' bow at the end.

The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre is a fantasy with beautiful natural imagery, and 2 childhood best friends who love each other.

Firstly, I loved the rich descriptions of the fantasy world. It helped shape the story, and make it come to life. I also love the unique traditions and culture.

I also adored the love that Aiven and Fierre held for each other, not even in their physical chemistry (which was amazing) but their care and support for one another.

My only critique would be that the characters didn't completely feel like real people. Perhaps they could have been more dynamic, but to me they felt a bit one-dimensional.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a romantasy with slight political intrigue, set in a luscious world.

My rating is a 3.75 stars but rounded up to 4 on this platform.

“Out of greed and entitlement over this beautiful thing, they ended up destroying it by accident.”

This book is difficult.
The depiction of disordered eating is effective and evocative. Prince Fierre's internal struggle with food, desire, how he is perceived and how it affects his worthiness is incredibly well written. Now, this amazing title is one of the main reasons I requested this book on netgalley – I've been obsessed with “want” and “hunger” and how it relates to queerness for years; and this is, in fact, Fierre's story in relation to his demanding hungers, but everything else, ensemble to external conflicts, fell flat. The characters felt one-sided, the romance had little to no obstacles, the resolve was unearned and unrewarding. The worldbuilding seemed to be on the verge of interesting, and maybe a couple more chapters could've rounded it up to something beautiful, maybe a couple more chapters could've added some actual friction, maybe focusing on a single POV would've added tension. And maybe I'm asking for too much from what is actually great for a debut novel.
As hard as it was to get through some of it, and I mean that in a positive manner, it was fun. Great tropes, queer utopia, happy ending, comforting, good fun. Glad I read it.

This was an interesting concept, but I don’t think it was executed super well. Being set in Scotland made the concept of a man being revered for being thin feel extra unbelievable. The first 75% of the book didn’t really seem to have much importance in terms of the actual plot, it was a ton of world building more than anything for a very simple world. The love story was sweet, it’s always nice to see someone want the good guy. The eating disorder recovery felt particularly unbelievable as well.

Prince Fierre is screwed six ways till Sunday. 4/6 of them are legit 🍆🍆🍆- but not the sexy kind. It’s the, oh-my-god-this-ish-is-gross kind. 😩

I love when political fantasy x romance… but this reads like an A03 fanfic that probably should have stayed buried. 🫣

In my family, food is a love language, but I know it’s important to see the other side of the food relationship spectrum. That being said, I just couldn’t believe this level of nonsense religion. The reasoning felt flippant and underdeveloped.

HEA, yes- but it was a dialogue-heavy struggle bus (and a lot of 🍆🍆🍆🍆 get in the way) to get there.

I appreciate this ARC via Netgalley, (even though it was not the escapism I was hoping for).

This is an honestly fantastic debut queer romance novel. It's booked as "romantasy" because it's in a fantasy setting and it's a romance, but it's a lot more than that. This focuses on a prince and his aide as the prince gets ready to ascend the throne, and all the fun politics therein, but also focuses on eating disorders (not something you see a lot for queer men) and what happens when those you think have only the best in mind for you maybe don't. This does go in for the happily ever after, and honestly, by the end of the book it's more than earned. Pick this up when it comes out this winter, and you'll have an amazing time.

The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre is Darcy Ash’s debut historical romantasy following a prince in unknowing crisis. Prince Fierre has just stepped into the mantle of the crown prince and must bear the weight of his birthright and all the claims it demands of his body. When he starts suffering from a mysterious illness, can he find a cure while also dealing with his secret attraction to his best friend and right-hand-man Aiven as well as all the noblemen vying for his attention and power?

I felt like this was a very misguided book. I have no idea who this book is for or who the ideal readership audience is who will actually appreciate it. The prose and writing itself is perfectly fine, but the story is what is raising eyebrows for me. There’s barely a plot and just a bunch of events or occurrences that happen to run together enough to make a storyline. Its subjectmatter is too heavy to be cute or cozy, and while queer with a HEA, it doesn’t particularly deliver queer joy.

I had no idea how literal the title actually is. It talks about the two things Fierre hingers for—Aiven and food. Because in his kingdom slenderness is beauty and beauty is divine, he as the prince is expected to be the personification of divinity where he must have the slim and frail figure to embody his nobility. Thus, Fierre suffers from disordered eating (which is largely the focus of the book) where he barely eats anything and purges himself to maintain his figure with the encouragement of his father and physician. While the book does not glorify this, I don’t think it handles it as deftly as it should have given how easy it was to get Fierre to see the error of this way of thinking and change. Yes, there is an in-book logic behind this distorted idea of divinity and the disordered eating, but the quick resolution does not match the gravity of the situation.

So there’s already this heavy focus on disordered eating, but the book also chooses to add on top of that the idea that as prince he must use his body as a reward to be given to noblemen he favors or needs favors from. With this mindset, the powerful lairds demand use of his body which while I don’t this it crosses the line to sexual assualt in the book, it may touch that line for some readers. And of course, Prince Fierre is someone who wants to be dominated in bed so that adds another conflict in himself. Then tacked on is the misogyny and their society’s treatment of women that goes completely unexplored but is also somehow resolved with the quick signing of a document at the end. The book should have stuck to the one issue (disordered eating) and gone without the others it could not take on adequately.

I did actually like the romance between Fierre and Aiven. These are two men pining for each other in silence while in close proximity, separated by station as noble and peasant. Not much development happens though as most of it occurs before the events of the book, and this was just the final culmination. Because this is a historical MM romantasy, it is being compared to Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light anf Foz Meadow’s A Strange and Stubborn Endurance (both 5-star reads for me), but I don’t really think that’s a fair comparison. This book is only a fantasy romance in the sense that it has a romance set in a historical but fictional (and non-magical) quasi-Scottish island.

Like the titular character, The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre has issues I’m not sure it adequately surmounts. I liked it well enough but can’t really recommend it.

*Thank you to Solaris for the eARC via NetGalley

DNF. I couldn't for the life of me get the motivation to finish this book. It started with high hopes, but the pacing, the dialogue got me off rithm and the characters couldn't bring me back to finish it.

This is a fantasy MM romance told in alternating first person POV. The setting is a secondary world inspired by medieval Scotland. The story is engaging and hums along nicely without getting bogged down in exposition or worldbuilding, which is no mean feat for a fictional world. Fierre is expected to be a physical representation of the divine, and for this culture that means an ethereal waifishness attained through starvation. His body doesn’t truly belong to him, and this manifests not just in the starvation but also the expectation that he be sexually available to the nobles.

There’s a bit to unpack here, and I think I see what the author is aiming for - his father’s criticisms of his appearance and the expectations of his role makes Fierre feel like his body doesn’t really belong to him. It has become something to be wrangled into submission, and these unsafe encounters with the lords connect him with physical sensations he’s otherwise detached from. In all the story was entertaining, with great character growth and an emotionally satisfying ending.

The fantasy realm this story takes place in values waifishness in their royalty, so it's no surprise that Prince Fierre has serious disordered eating. Heed the TWs on this one.

Newly annointed Prince Fierre surprises his lairds by naming his best friend (and farmers' son), Aivan, as his second in command. As Aivan and Fierre uncover plots and work to better the lives of the laborors over the elites, they also admit their love for one another.

I really enjoyed the unwavering trust and commitment they had for each other, right from the start. There was no 3rd act breakup, no misunderstanding due to lack of communication, which I really appreciated. And Aivan's "touch him and die" instincts, while also trusting Fierre completely was endearing, making him by far my favorite character.

I could see this debut novel becoming a series.

I received this ARC from @netgalley and publisher @solarisbooks. The opinions are my own.

The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre will be released on January 30, 2025.