A prince and a villain incapable of love: it wasn’t supposed to be a love story…Separated from his family after an assassination attempt, Prince Eridan is rescued by the reclusive Order of monks who control High Hronthar, an isolated school for telepaths. Eridan believes he’s an ordinary orphan, one of hundreds of initiates of the Order trying to survive in a nest of intrigue, rivalry, and … rivalry, and corruption, but he’s more important than he knows.
When Castien Idhron, the most powerful man in the Order, claims Eridan as his apprentice, Eridan’s confused and wary. Corrupt, heartless, and calculating, Castien plays with the lives of those around him as if they’re just a game. Eridan’s just another pawn.
Eridan despises his Master, and yet he finds himself craving his attention and approval like a drug he can’t live without.
Castien has never understood the concepts of kindness and love, but to his displeasure, his insolent apprentice has a way of getting under his skin like nothing else.
Will the master manipulator win the game, or will he play himself?
Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit content, a teacher-student MM relationship, power imbalance, age difference (35/21).
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For quite a while, I really thought Hazard had blown it with this book.
The story didn’t sweep me away in the same way the first three books did.
But it’s worth hanging in there, it really is.
This read differs from the other ones in the series in that only one of the main characters get a voice. It’s a single POV all the way, except for the few chapters where a third party gets a say. Eridan is the main storyteller, and he’s exceedingly emotional and so very endearing.
His pairing with the unfeeling Castien is kind of hard to swallow.
Sure, you get to see some of Castiens feelings (shallow as they may be) through Eridan’s and Castien’s mind-link, but still, it’s not really enough to get to know him, never mind grow to like him. And yes, there’s a perfectly fine explanation for Castien’s limited emotional capacity, but in my eyes, he was no way near deserving of Eridan’s love. At first.
For the first 60% of the book or so, I just became more and more irritated over how cold an unfeeling Castien was.
A lovestory can be written in many different ways, but it does need love to work after all. And Castien was just this stone cold a-hole who never showed a softer side.
But then, at the time where Eridan and Castien started shagging, the tone shifted.
Sure, Castien was still a cold SoB, but now there was something more there. And from that point on I was enraptured by the story.
So hang in there. It’s worth it. So, so worth it!
https://reflectionsofaswedishgirl.blog.se/princes-master-calluvias-royalty-4-by-alessandra-hazard/
Crank the AC, it’s a scorching read.
5+++ Castien and Eridan
Oh, my freaking goodness, what a stunning story, I was floored by it.
In the beginning, I needed to pull out all the stops. A lot of names, ranks, orders to take in.
Eridan was handed over by his brother to a complete stranger. Castien Idhron took him because it seems fair, else the little three-year-old Prince would be killed.
He has to follow years of education before Eridan could return to Master Castien as his apprentice.
Eridan is special, a strong telepath, high sensitive, and has to learn to use his mind.
Castien seems to be the highest classified telepath with a closed-off, icy exterior, he’s a cold-hearted, manipulative bastard, eradicating any strong emotions.
“Our minds are very compatible,” Idhron said in distaste. “It is unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do about it.”
The high and mighty Castien is confused by Eridan’s attitude. He feels impossible emotions.
He fights against them. But they are so compatible!
Eridan only wants to be loved and cared for by his cold and distant Castien
My heart pummeled more than once for Eridan, he’s lonely, without friends and only with a cold-hearted master beside him. His master who can reach every detail in his mind. Still, he doesn’t give Eridan what he needs most, a full merge and consummate.
Offering himself to Castien and consistently denied hurts him deeply. And hurt let him make bad decisions. If Master doesn’t want him he’ll find someone else, maybe it will trigger Castien!
On the other side of Castien’s extremely cold exterior is the even more extreme, more intensity of Castien hunger, want, own, and yearn to possess Eridan.
An extremely beautiful written story. With high qualified telepaths, lost and found family, royalty, orders, lots of delicious encounters. This narrative had an amazingly good strong plot. The environments were breathtaking, absolutely breathtaking. The sexual and telepath encounters were utterly ecstatic!
The sky-high tensions and emotions were intensely palpable it made my lightheaded.
Impossible to describe the whole content but dear people: We got a winner!
Castien is hard to like and yet he sneaks his way into your heart. Eridan is sweet, passionate and sarcastic he is a perfect match to Castien. At times you wanted to shack Castien but he ends up winning you over.
This was an amazing addition to this series! It’s an enemies-to-lovers story that will keep you captivated from being to end. I definitely recommend this book!!!
I absolutely, ABSOLUTELY LOVE, LOVE every book of Alessandra Hazard. She’s such an amazing writer. The Calluvia’s Royalty series is one of my all-time favorite series. As soon as a book of the series is released, I drop everything to read it. I don’t sleep just so I can finish it. The Prince ‘s Master certainly fit that: As I was reading it, I hadn’t realized it was 3am in the morning! I hadn’t felt it at the time. I had enjoyed it so much; the story was so engrossing, the characters were interesting. It was after the story ended, that I felt tired and sleepy. But it was so worth it!
I love myself a great anti-hero and Alessandra Hazard wrote one of the best. Castien was so cold, manipulative and controlling, and I loved that even after Eridan got under his skin, he didn’t change like a lot of the bad guys do. He didn’t suddenly become “nicer”, for lack of a better word.
Castien and Eridan definitely had an interesting dynamic and I enjoyed watching it pan out. They’re both complex and authentic, with depths and traits that flow, transforming into genuinely unique, believable personalities. I revelled in their sensual steam as well as their slowly developing, tentative emotional relationship.
This wasn’t a sweet, fluffy story. It was deliciously twisted and intriguing, full of tension, sizzle, with an excellent writing that sucks me into the characters lives as well as the plot. AND, it’s a wonderful proof that everyone can find their perfect match.
LOVED IT!
I’ve been dying to read this book since Once Upon a Time came out last year, and it was somehow even better than I ever could have expected! I love how we got to see Castien’s stoic facade slowly chip and crumble away as he succumbs to Eridan’s charm. The lusty desire and potent emotions in these books are always so breathtakingly real, and this story was no exception. I was captivated, entranced, unable to put this book down. This author has such a unique way of weaving sex, lust, love, and need together into the headiest of romances. I’m thrilled to see that there will be more books in this series and a couple of spinoffs in the same universe!