King's Ex

Royal Powers II, Book 1

De: E.J. Russell

Narrado por: Kirt Graves

To escape an arranged marriage, the king needs a fake fiancé. Stat.

King Bastien’s father locked him into an ironclad betrothal contract with Lady Helena Rey when the two of them were only seven-years-old. Bas and Helena have never been friends—and not only because she marked their first meeting by dropping a frog down his shirt. He’s been unsuccessfully petitioning Parliament to annul the damn contract ever since he took the throne nine years ago. But with the deadline for officially confirming the engagement rapidly approaching, Bas is getting desperate.

Enter commoner Nico Pereira, manager of the Royal Crest Vineyards, who nurses a secret crush on the king. He’s at the New Palace to unveil a wine that’s the first joint venture between North and South Abarra. No problem, right? Except Nico has a secret: He has a superpower. Not a very strong superpower, but because powers are a privilege reserved for Royals, it still puts him at risk for arrest and prosecution. Nico can usually mask his limited foresight gift under the guise of being an incredibly efficient administrator. But when King Bastien asks him to be his fake fiancé?

Well. Nico never saw that coming.

Nothing if not loyal, Nico accepts the faux-posal, although close proximity to Bastien makes him more than a little…uncomfortable, and the increased scrutiny of government officials threatens to expose his illegal ability. Good thing this engagement is temporary, because being the king’s ex will be a lot less onerous than prison or exile.

Or, if the attacks from a shadowy conspiracy continue, with being dead.

King’s Ex is a superhero rom-com featuring a fake engagement, class differences, improbably pristine clothing, dueling secrets, a guaranteed HEA, and a kitten.

©2021 E.J. Russell (P)2023 E.J. Russell

Very fun romp, only brought down by poor performance.

Quick Review:
Better read than listened to. Definitely a sequel that needs the first to make sense of many major details.


This book is a sequel to Duking It Out, although Audible doesn't make that easy to discover as this book is listed under a separate series (with no other titles). It's also not terribly good as a stand-alone as it relies entirely on the listener's familiarity with the world-building, cast and magic system from the first book.

The world-building is there; unfortunately, in both books, there is very little in the way of explanation or description, but even less in this book than the first. We're told people have powers, but we generally don't get examples of what they are or how they work. We're told commonfolk aren't allowed to have them (except many do, which is apparently totally unknown to the nobility but the worst-kept secret in the kingdoms otherwise?), so it is a Very Big Deal if someone is caught with them.

How they're supposed to... not have them, as people are only born with them, I haven't the slightest. Or what actually happens to people who do. Or why in this modern-era setting that is still at all a thing, as everything else about the culture(s) involved are extremely progressive.

Plot and world-building aside, the characters are written with Russel's usual charm and quirkiness. And quirks. The usual phrases like "his cock twitched" to show someone is physically attractive are still present and prevalent, but that's both a personal ick and I know it's coming from this author.

After going back and reading (I tried listening to with the same results) the first book, which I quite recommend in written form, I enjoyed the story for what it was -- a lighthearted romp that takes its time and allows the listeners to get to know some of the friend and family connections and see that people are supported and loved (even if not always in the most helpful ways). There's a big emphasis on family apart from the Royal Family (although that is there too) and always the underlying message that everyone deserves love and acceptance, from our found families if not our biological ones.

I'm likely being more critical of the writing because the audio experience if the book was so unpleasant.

I've heard Graves before and he hasn't been a favourite, but he seems to really phone it in with both of these books, seeming to just read off the page more than have any feel for which characters are speaking apart from the main couple. Unfortunately, the main couple are both saddled with inventions of the performer, not author: Nico both has a nasal, whiny voice (created in the first book) but also now says everything like the Sassy Gay Friend on tv. The personality differences between what is being read and how is bizarre and jarred me out of the story constantly.

The kingdoms are set in what is modern-day and era France, except they have their own name. They share things like history and culture, which means a fair amount of both French language and phrasing is used... all of which is absolutely butchered by Graves. Even US-English phrases are massacred ("Mercy Buck oops" levels of carnage).

I'm bilingual, so it likely bothered me a lot more, but anyone with even a grade school class in French would manage phrases. It's not an effect of something being claimed by English (like "foy-err" vs "foy-ay" for foyer, or "Sands" vs "Sohn" for sans, which is a relatively new borrowing when trying to say "without", ie sans pants). It's just brute force pronunciation (that would be said as "pro-nun-ky-at-ion", for example) which leaves much of the writing incomphrehensible to English or French speakers alike.

Yes, I'm spoiled by Greg Boudreaux being a regular voice talent for EJ Russel's books. But to have such A-list talent for some books and then someone who actively makes listening painful at best, boring at worst... well. It's a heck of a jump.

But these are my difficulties with the book, and everyone has little things that add up to big ones -- you may not have the same issues I do!