Review - Dearly Despised by Alessandra Hazard

Samir was raised to take the throne after his ‘cousins’ were presumably killed by rebels. But the eldest prince, Warrehn, wasn't killed by the rebels; he was protected by them. The real villain was Samir's mother, who it seems will stop at nothing to see Warrehn dead and her son on the throne. When Warrehn reappears to claim his birthright, he knows but can't prove that Samir's mother was responsible for the death of his parents. He rightfully hates both mother and son, yet Warrehn finds himself strangely drawn to the beautiful Samir. As for Samir, he sees the king as cold and unsuited to the intricacies of life at court, yet he can't deny being attracted to Warrehn.

This fifth and final installment of the Calluvia's Royalty series follows a now familiar enemies-to-lovers plot line. However, the fun is in seeing how the author manages to get two people who should rightfully hate each other together. There's a bit of literary brute force involved in making this happen, but it works within the plot well enough.

While the rocky courtship of Samir and Warrehn is definitely the main story, Samir's mother often steals the show with her many schemes. As her various plots start to unravel, we get some surprising insight into someone that was, and still is, involved in a very toxic relationship.

There's a “beauty and the beast” aspect to most of the couples in this series. One of the men is always a pretty little boy, while the other is invariably a big brute with the manners of a caveman. It's usually up to the boy to tame the beast. It's a common trope in "MM" stories that's getting a little old. Still, the relationship between Samir and Warrehn is described well enough to be believable.

“Dearly Despised” is available from < Amazon (commissionable link).