Disclaimer: I won an ARC of this book in a giveaway before the finalized version was published.

Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Trigger Warnings: sex scenes, unprotected sex, fear of pregnancy and use of birth control, guilt surrounding potentially overstepping boundaries due to getting carried away during sex (no boundaries were actually crossed), anxiety, characters with really bad self esteem, homophobia, slight suicidal ideation

A short novella about a young prince and his journey to find love and hopefully protect his kingdom along the way.
This short erotic novella follows a very anxious trans guy, who wants nothing more than to find a boyfriend (or two) and finally overcome the anxiety that has hampered him all his life.
Hal is an interesting character and his massive anxiety really does impact his day to day life incredibly much. Thankfully his two guards help coax him out of his shell and start him along on his journey of overcoming his anxiety and internalized transphobia.
If you like steamy threesomes this is definitely a good book for that, because there's a bunch of sex scenes in this one. As it is just a novella, there are some parts of the story I would have liked to see more fleshed out character and story wise. Was there something about Hal's past attempts at courting that led to him being so anxious now? We know this is the first time it actually led to something more than just courting, but it would have been interesting to know more about his past. I also liked the world building, but I would have loved to find out more as it sounds really interesting. While there was a lot of discussion surrounding consent and power structures in this (which I loved) I would have also found some discussion surrounding acceptable terminology for body parts interesting (which is something that I personally always find most interesting in trans sex scenes). Obviously people have different boundaries, but I think it might have been interesting for Hal to show a bit more of his own desire there, especially since his first time is something he obviously spent a lot of time thinking about. His two guards do take very good care of him though and that was lovely to see, especially with how they reaffirm his identity as a man despite him liking to bottom.
As I already mentioned, consent and power dynamics play a huge role in this novella and it was definitely one of my favorite things about this story. Despite the difference in experience and the difference in social power all characters awknowledge that and tried to migitate the negative impact of that as much as possible, by checking in and reassuring their partners. That is always something I enjoy in stories. I also liked how while the dynamic in the sex scenes was very clear, it would shift back once they were in their guard/prince dynamic again and that's fun as well. I also loved that miscommunication did not play a role. While Hal can get stuck in his anxiety sometimes, especially Kaiser (as the brash bad boy) would always call him out on it and get him to communicate and that's great to see.
I also liked the way dysphoria was portrayed, especially that sometimes it can be fine and during other times it can hit you like a sack of bricks. I hope Hal will find a way to feel better with his two boyfriends in the second book.
The ending was surprising and interesting, even though it does end on a cliffhanger, which is a bit mean. But it definitely leaves me excited for the follow up novella where maybe some more of my questions will be answered.
All in all, a very interesting novella and if you like trans gay erotica check it out once it is released.