The Queen's Consorts - Kele Moon

There are some books you just don't want to cop to reading, and I admit, a "menage a trois" romance for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' 2017 challenge was going to be one of them for me, no matter what the specific book ended up being.  And yet here I am, admitting it to the internet at large.

I have to admit, finding a book for this category was a struggle.  Why?  Because most books involving a menage are not going to be romances, they're going to be kink erotica and probably not all three parties are equally invested in the relationship; hence were my findings as I trawled through Goodreads lists.  Why did I end on The Queen's Consorts?  Well, it was an actual novel, which meant there would likely be some semblance of plot beyond just sex, since shorter pieces in erotica subgenres tend to be "characters meet, characters fuck, end scene."  Also, it was a fantasy/sci-fi book, which made it more reader-friendly to me and I actually think helped integrate a three-member relationship better into the story.

Heroine Sari is a young woman living on the streets after escaping years of sexual slavery in which she managed to never actually have sex--because of course, the heroine's virginity is tantamount to her goodness.  *eyeroll*  While helping a little girl who's also on the streets, Sari is attacked and almost killed before being rescued by a royal guard, who recognizes that she's of higher birth because of the streaks in her hair.  (Basically, society here is the upper class, which all have streaks, and the lower class, which doesn't, and it's all very weird and kind of racist in its own way.)  He also recognizes a pendant that she has, that no one else has recognized in all her years even though it means she's the queen who went missing when she was a child!  Gasp!  Who would have thought!  So he brings her into the palace and turns her over to "the queen's consorts" so they can take care of her while the guard puts things to rights.  You can imagine how well this goes.  Of course there is scheming and a coup and lots of sex in a magical bath along the way.

Let's start with things that I think worked for this book.  As someone who is not big into "kink" erotica, I liked that Moon set up her world where it is the norm for people to be in triad relationships composed of two males and one female, though it does make one wonder where all the lesbians are.  This norm made it easier for me to slip into the story and also did away with a threesome being something that Sari herself had to get over.  There's also some interesting mixing of sci-fi and fantasy; magic abounds, from how Sari's emotions control the weather to how there are magical healing baths, but there are also "bolter" weapons that seem more like something out of a space opera.  And finally, there were some good supporting characters beyond Sari and consorts Calder and Taryen; Macro comes immediately to mind, as does a "sister" that Sari encounters in the palace.  The writing was okay overall, and I will say that Moon can write a pretty good sex scene.

And as for what didn't work?  Well...I mean, Taryen and Calder's entire purpose in life is basically to give Sari orgasms so it will be sunny, which really seems to diminish Sari's purpose.  The planet seems to have run completely fine without her except for the weather, and having role of "orgasm to bring the sun" kind of reduces her to a sex object more than I'd like.  Also, all of the "sisters," aka others of the streaked-hair upper class, are basically evil, with the exception of one.  There is rampant sexual abuse of Calder and Taryen throughout at the hands of the sisters, which was hard to read.  And, while the world has some cool elements to it, it never really felt complete because Moon speeds through the book from sex scene to action scene to sex scene again, back and forth with little space to actually develop any of the world or characters--as they come to us is basically as they leave us at the end of the book.  And, am I really supposed to believe that Sari managed to not be found for years and escaped sexual slavery without having sex?  Because I don't.

Overall, I think this was kind of trying to be a Luna book (a publishing imprint that focuses on romantic fantasy novels!) but it kind of missed the mark because it just wasn't fleshed-out enough to shine.  There were some strong elements to it, but they weren't really tied together and kind of fell apart when Moon moved from one to another.  Unfortunately for me, this is a category in next year's reading challenge for the Unapologetic Romance Readers, too, so maybe I'll pick up another of her books if they fit and see if they're any more polished.

2 stars out of 5.