The latest in Kerri Maniscalco’s Princes of Sin series, Throne of Nightmares, is a thrilling romantasy, but it is also a stunning love letter to the romance genre as a whole. For dedicated readers of the genre, those who live in stories like myself, it’s a remarkable adventure that speaks to the soul.
Prince Sloth and his court are fueled by a thirst for knowledge and a love of books, which brings Sloth on a quest to obtain the Liber Noctem, the Book of Nightmares, to add to his expansive library. It is not just knowledge that fuels Sloth to seek the book, but a desire to save his court from the corrupted Goddess of Night and the destruction she will cause if reunited with her book.
But even Sloth, who calculates for every possible scenario, could not have imagined where this journey would take him. When he meets Lore Brimstone, a romantic and eternal optimist who lives her life in stories, everything he thought he knew is called into question.
Together, they must survive Somnia, the land of Nightmares, and the Trials of the Unbinding, in an attempt to save the world. He has to convince this mortal librarian that she and her unknown powers are the key to surviving the trials made of nightmares ripped from books, and he must do so before their time runs out.
Throne of Nightmares unapologetically embraces almost every trope and cliché that romance readers love. From the grumpy/sunshine dynamic between Sloth and Lore to the mortal woman who is more than she seems, these tropes are fully celebrated in a way that undeniably works.
With definition like that, he would definitely be a villain in my romantic fantasy adventure stories. It was practically a criminal offense to look like a god and have the attitude of a sinner.
The characters feel familiar, and that is utterly intentional and plays into the story’s creative framework. There is a certain meta quality to this book, given that so much of Lore’s character and the quest she and Sloth are on are rooted in her readership, and she favors romances.
Every piece of this story is imbued with the spirit of adventure, with several rich legends layered into the plot. Each one is described with visceral imagery and gorgeous world-building to back it up. Oh, and there’s a sentient library that’s more than a little sassy. Reading Throne of Nightmares felt like home, like I wanted to move into the pages and live there with these characters.
“No one wants to read about normal, well-adjusted people. They want the misunderstood villain with the sassy pet dragon. Tell me you’re not more intrigued by the man who will torch the world for his true love rather than sacrifice himself for the greater good. The first creates glorious tension; the second makes you bawl until you’re a snotty, distraught wreck, lying catatonically on your bed, staring at the ceiling while wondering when you became such a masochist. No one wants to watch their true love die a horrible, slow death, even if it’s honorable.”
While this book is unquestionably, obviously sexy, it is a tantalizing slow burn. Don’t expect sex scenes sprinkled in every chapter, but the tantalizing slow burn with lots of building sexual tension makes every page we are made to wait utterly worth it.
I don’t know if I have the words to explain how much I loved Throne of Nightmares. I highlighted an obscene amount of quotes, and could not get this story out of my mind. This is a romantasy that truly honors the genre and its readers, and it’s perfection.
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