reviews_and_ramblings | Slave to the Crown by Katica Locke

Mair doesn’t particular like the goblins, the people from his mother side, but they are the only family he has always known. Born from a rape his mother was subjected, she managed to escape and come back to her home, but then she discovered she was with a child. All her people told her to kill the baby, the bastard son of a fairy, but he was also her son, and she was the king’s sister, so her blood was enough to save him, almost. Many times goblins tried to kill Mair, once even his uncle, the king, but more or less he arrived to 23 years old unscathed but deeply alone. He is the spitting image of his father and so, where goblins are little, curved and with long horns, he is tall, lean, with a creamy complexion and two little wings he always hides. No one wants to be near him, other than his mother, and so he is not only alone, he also misses the human touch. And he hates his body, that is so different from what he is used to see around, and he hates sex, that he links to what happened to his mother.

When a turn of fate makes him the new king, Mair has to face many problem: first of all, everyone around him wants to kill him again, and second, has an healthy and young goblin, he is expected to have a sex slave to relieve him of his “needs”, and slaves are usually fairies. The one they brought to him is Zak, a music fairy that his now mute due to a bad wound. For any parameter Zak is a beautiful man, but for Mair he’s also a constant remember that he is not like the others. He is more like Zak.

There is a strange contraposition between Mair and Zak. It’s clear that Zak is stronger, not only in body but also in inner strength, but sometime I had the feeling that he didn’t want to fight back. It’s not clear if Zak was a warrior caught in battle, or if he was a slave even before, for sure at first he is scared by the situation but then maybe he realizes that Mair is not exactly the ugly and dangerous goblin king he was expecting. In that moment I had the clear idea that Zak chose to be with Mair, as a slave, not since he was forced but since he wanted.

The novel didn’t show us how Mair will manage to be the king of a bunch of people that want to kill him, but I don’t think it will be easy. Mair, truth be told, has not the streak to be a leader, he is too gentle and troubled. He has too inner fears, true they are more psychological than real, but in any case I think he is not even interested in being a king. Maybe the relationship with Zak will help him, being the master even of only a man, it could be a first step to strengthen him to a bigger task.

The master slave relationship is only hinted, also since Mair as I said is not exactly a real master, and so also the sex is more “simple” and basic than in a BDSM relationship. Mair is too scared of sex to do something really wicked to Zak, and Zak, I think, is way more experienced than Mair, to be able to lead the younger man, at least in bed.

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