I really enjoyed this! It's a quiet novel, and I mean that in a good way. It's not really an action packed novel, it's really a book that focuses on the relationship and the characters. I think given the subject matter of ED/diet culture that was the right choice. It really lets you into the head of Fierre. His and Aiven's relationship was just so cute and swoon worthy. Honestly it had the right amount of jealousy and pining in the background, as well as a subplot about Fierre learning about his kingdom and how to improve the conditions of his people. It feels like a warm story. I think people will fall in love with this. I definitely want to read more from this author. I love when you can really tell an author cares deeply about the story they're telling.

3 stars
I enjoyed the romance between the two MC's, it was sweet and the writing was good which helped the story flow. I just wouldn't want to give this more than a 3 at the moment despite the cute moments.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Darcy Ash debuts with The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre, a novel marketed as a queer romantasy. Readers follow Fierre as he comes into his role as Prince Regent in a Scottish-inspired land where rulers are expected to be slim and also to bestow their bodies upon the nobility as a sign of favor. The secondary perspective is Aiven, a farmer's son elevated from his station by his friendship with the prince. Aiven recognizes the problems with the demands on Fierre's health and with the demands of the nobility on the working class.

The author includes a content warning at the beginning of the book. It is meant. Please take care of yourself when reading.

The publishers, I think, have done this book a disservice by marketing it as romantasy. Romantasy is the current buzzword, but that's horribly unfair as this is absolutely a dark fantasy romance. The driving factors of this book are a societally driven battle with an eating disorder that threatens the life of our main character. The scenes surrounding this illness are graphic and the little nagging negative thoughts pervade throughout the body of the text. Combined with multiple instances of extreme dubious consent sexual content to include non-negotiated object penetration and societal pressures to use one's body as a bargaining tool to secure alliances... well. This does not a cozy, hopeful romantasy make. I would not even argue that the romance is the core of the story. The story is Fierre learning to value himself.

I was buying into the story for a majority of this time. The content, while difficult, was well written. I was bordering 4 stars. But then the last third to quarter of the book happened. Fierre's transition to believing his eating habits are problematic is nearly instantaneous. His healing is completely tied up in his budding relationship. The depiction of the problems was reasonable. The depiction of the resolution was rushed to end the story and, as a result, did not have the proper care or time given for such a topic.

I would hesitate to recommend this one broadly since I feel pretty negatively about how Fierre's healing was handled combined with the graphic quality of his suffering. If there was someone who was aware of the content going in, I will say that Darcy Ash has great potential as a writer. I hope to tune in for the next one where, I hope, pacing has been a bit more sorted.

This book really bummed me out. Content warnings for disordered eating, sexual assault, and body and sexual history shaming.

I understand the author was trying to make a thematic point about society making your body not your own in controlling your size and sex life, but I don't think the assaults and disordered eating were the way to go about this in a seemingly lighthearted, relatively short book. To be fair, I did go into this book knowing the content warnings, but I don't think sufficient care and gravity were given. For example, I personally believe that there needs to be a compelling reason for a sexual assault to be depicted in a scene in a book or other media rather than being mentioned or referenced retrospectively. I had a hard time seeing why these scenes were necessary, especially with the details provided. I don't think the author intended to do this, but it felt like these scenes were trauma just to elicit an emotional response from the reader to associate as a connection to the character that otherwise would result from deeper characterization and storytelling.

The writing style itself is unobjectionable, especially for a debut, but the world building was weak. I don't typically expect intricate worlds for short fantasy romance books, but I feel it was necessary to justify the really tough scenes the reader was being put through. If you take the assault and ED scenes out of the book, you're not left with much. Moreover, the resolution of the conflicts of the book (the content warning topics) felt really flimsy. Again, if you're going to utilize these heavy topics as conflicts, more time and care are needed for their resolutions, in my opinion. At the end, I didn't feel uplifted or satisfied with the ending; it was just a sad tale with seemingly no point to the suffering of the prince MMC.

The main characters were also not well fleshed out, and the only connection I had with the prince MMC was pity that seemed really obligatory with what the character was being put through. The other MMC was just nice, and that's really all I can say. That's not to say I'm disappointed in the second MMC being nice and kind to the prince MMC, who is being put through so much, but 'nice' is not a distinguishing characterization. Their relationship isn't instalove, but the development of their friendship is off page before the book starts.

As far as what ought to be done to better this book before publication, I suppose choosing one of the content warning topics and removing the others to give more time and attention to that singular heavy topic. Or, if all of these pieces are needed to tell this story, a longer book with more development to suitably address these issues.

Thank you, Solaris, for the arc!

Darcy Ash’s “The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre” is an enthralling and emotionally charged fantasy novel that takes you on a thrilling adventure through the political and personal struggles of its protagonist, Prince Fierre. Set in a vividly imagined world, Ash masterfully weaves intricate world-building with deep character exploration, creating a story that feels both intimate and epic.

The title itself hints at the central conflict: Prince Fierre is torn between two opposing desires, or “hungers.” One is the hunger for power and control in a world filled with political intrigue, and the other is a deeper, more primal hunger for personal connection and meaning, especially in his relationships with those closest to him. Ash skillfully navigates these dual conflicts, making Prince Fierre a complex and relatable character.

What I loved most about this book was its depth. Prince Fierre is no typical brooding prince figure—he’s layered, human, and struggles with both external expectations and internal desires. The relationships in the novel, particularly with Fierre’s family and his love interests, add an emotional richness that makes the stakes feel very real. You’re not just reading about kingdoms at war; you’re reading about people torn between duty and their own inner needs.

The world-building is another standout feature. Ash doesn’t just present a fantastical setting for the sake of it; the politics, cultures, and social structures are all intricately connected to the characters’ personal journeys. The pacing is steady, with enough twists and turns to keep you engaged, but it never rushes through the emotional beats that give the story its heart.

That said, there are a few moments where the plot slows down a bit, particularly in the middle of the book. Some of the political machinations feel a bit repetitive, and the story does lean into some familiar fantasy tropes. But these are minor flaws in what is otherwise a well-crafted and immersive read.

Overall, “The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre” is an impressive debut that will appeal to fans of character-driven fantasy with plenty of emotional depth. If you’re a fan of novels where the stakes are high, but the emotional stakes are even higher, this one’s definitely worth checking out.

I really wanted to like this and at first I did find it compulsively readable, but I DNF’d at 55% because I just grew tired of the relentless angst.

This book felt like fanfiction to me. The writing was great but the characters lacked any sort of depth or backstory for me. It felt like the king of whumpy angst story I’d seek out for established characters, and I think if it WAS fanfiction for characters I loved, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But as it was, the characters and plot lacked enough substance to keep me engaged even if the writing quality on a word basis was good.

Well, I'm a bit disappointed.
I requested this from Netgalley because it sounded very, very unusual and the premise sounded pretty cool; but yeah, maybe I underestimated how much disordered eating on page could have an effect on me (yep, that's one of my only triggers; I usually DON'T mind it, especially if the ED rep is well-done, but sometimes it makes me feel rubbish about myself and I have to give into the urge to skim). Also, I'm pretty sure I wasn't precisely in the mood for fantasy, especially of the complex variety, and I should have listened to myself. Oh well.

There were a couple of very positive things: I loved the dynamic between the two MCs, and I really liked both Fierre and Aiven as MCs. Their slow-burn relationship was my favourite thing of the novel: I decided to read through to the end (okay, yes; I also skimmed a lot) just because I needed to see them reach their HEA.
On the other hand, the world-building and the whole complex, political landscape left me VERY very confused. Again, maybe it was my brain's fault; maybe it was just a smidge too messy for my liking.

And yeah. Like I said; I enjoyed bits of this novel, and I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for a queer high fantasy romance (and unlike me, if you have the bandwidth for a complicated, and quite fascinating in some ways, world-building); especially considering it's a debut.

All in all, definitely not for me, but who knows, I'm sure there are readers out there that will love it more than me.

TWs/CWs: eating disorder (starvation, induced vomiting), body shaming (internalized and by others), abusive parent, sexual assault and aggressive language, sex used as a means of self-harm, violence, slut-shaming.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Prince Fierre has to look like a delicate, other-worldly creature to be good enough to be this books version of effectively a king. This sums up 90% of this book.

I don’t think this book was for me. I didn’t particularly enjoy the portrayal of an eating disorder, and I don’t think it approached it with enough nuance to be meaningful.

Other people tell Fierre to starve himself and he believes them blindly. He’s mysteriously ill and only seems to be getting worse. And when someone tells him to stop starving himself, he’s magically mostly fine. This drove me up a wall and I couldn’t get past it.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc! I rate this book 4.5 stars and 4 chili peppers for spice. This was a really fascinating read. Normally eating disorders are mini side plots but this whole book revolved around it. This story was full of interesting characters and fictional folklore. I also love a friends to lovers trope and Fierre and Aiven were the sweetest characters with each other. I honestly could have kept reading more stories with these two main characters!

It is very rare for me to DNF a book, but after pushing myself to get to 39% I had to throw in the towel. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The authors vision is very clear and I like the way that they wrote Fierre's experiences of abuse, disordered eating, and his lack of self confidence. These are topics that aren't explored to this kind of depth often, and especially not in the context of gay/queer characters. I imagine if I had continued the story, I would've seen more of Aiven helping Fierre recognize his disordered eating and help him gain self confidence. But dang, I am almost halfway through and this actually happening still seems far.

What I cannot get behind is the actual world building. This is a society where it appears the only purpose of the monarch is for them to starve themselves, which is baked into their religion apparently, as proof of their commitment to their role. No one, not even the royal physician, sees anything wrong with the Prince Reagent passing out due to a lack of energy and muscle tone. The Prince also appears to be expected to give sexual favors to the other Lairds and between that and the starving for beauty ideals, Fierre is not a Prince so much as he is a literal just sex doll in the world.

The execution just left a lot to be desired, but I think that if the story took place in a less repugnant society, but Fierre still had to deal with his disordered eating and unhealthy relationship to sex, I think this could have been a wonderful story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book has been on my radar for a while, and even though my rating is 3.5 stars, I feel that it has been misunderstood and underhyped. I devoured this book during my vacation, and I enjoyed it a lot! I thought it would be a fluffy read focused on the friends to lovers romance and bodyguard-Prince trope. It was like this, but it was certainly not a fluffy read. The themes of the book are serious, and Fierre's portrayal was very raw and emotionally devastating.

Fierre is the equivalent to Crown Prince, and I believe he holds the title of Prince Regent, which means he isn't the king yet, but it is he who rules. I really liked Fierre! It is clear that the author paid a lot of attention and some blood, sweat, tears on this character development and portrayal. He has an eating disorder and a lot of confidence issues. Whereas I don't have an eating disorder, I did relate to his obsession with his weight and how nothing he ever did would be enough. He doesn't believe he is worthy of much. Love from his subjects? He says they would love any Prince. Attention from his admirers? It wasn't enough to make him realize he is beautiful, and it wasn't them he needed attention from. Parental love? Ha, forget about that. His father is a major jerk who I wanted to throw in the sea and never look back. Since Fierre doesn't think he's deserving much, he made a lot of bad decisions to self-sabotage himself but also because he needed an escape. He just chose wrong kind of escape. But I loved how he stood up for himself and how he never lost sight of who he was including his title.

Aiven, the best friend, loyal bodyguard, and overall awesome. He is the person you want in your life. Someone who loves you unconditionally, someone who has your back, and someone who wants the best for you no matter what form it has. The only minus is that apart from his love for his family and Fierre, I cannot tell you much about him. It felt like his love for Fierre took most place of Aiven's character portrayal, and I just need my characters to be more than their feelings for one person. Sure, he is excellent at his job, moral, and smart. In fact, he is the only with braincells in the entire court, but I wanted more of him that did not center on Fierre.

Generally, this is my feedback, too. I wanted more of everything. Aiven's portrayal to be about Aiven. The court to be more interesting and deeper. I cannot believe how it was only Aiven who saw and reacted to the fact the King and Prince Regent have been starving themselves to match some vague description of divine elegance that royals are supposed to have. It felt like what the Lords of the court only wanted was to get into Fierre's pants...

However, I can also say that it was a refreshing read. With serious, personal themes and character portrayal that stands out in the saturated market, I feel like this could open the market to more "unconventional" and unusual storytelling and bend the genre and trope boxes. Not everything should be about war and rebellions...

This has been one of my hardest books to read this year. And not precisely because it relied in so many hard topics like anorexia or themmes of abuse (there´s a fair warning at the beginning of the story and I more or less knew what to expect).

This book was hard to read because... How do I put it bluntly? The worldbuilding is disgusting.

And let me clarify here something beforehand: I liked how this author narrated, I think that was solid. And I also loved both protagonists and their slow burn romance (probably those are my two main reasons why, for me, this book is approved... even though I would probably not recommend it to anyone lightly).

Allow me to explain: This is the story about a prince named Fierre, who lives in a kingdom where the custom is that the king must be thin to be admired, and thus Fierre during the whole story is encouraged by side characters to starve himself. Not only that, but all people in palace (except for Aiven, the love interest) treat Fierre as a whore. So with this scenario, we end up having a story with several scenes of r4pe (on and off page), abuse in many levels and Fierre is introduced as a naive character who just... kinda goes with the flow because he wants to feel pretty and liked?

The book ends well, mind you, even if Fierre manages to surpass his illness in a very fast / very fairytale like manner. But it was a continued trauma to get there.

I HATED this worldbuilding. I understand the author wanted to write something to bring awareness about eating disorders, but for me this one was a complete and absolute miss. I think if the story would have been just about Fierre and his eating problems, with the love story as a subplot, and removing all this nonsensical fantasy world, the book would have been so much better. But, right as it is, I don´t think I´ll ever be rereading.

I knew by 15% that I wasn't going to be finishing the book, but wanted to give it a real shot, since I had an ARC. By 50% I was ready to throw in the towel and DNF.

For the most part, the prose itself was fine. Like, on a paragraph by paragraph basis, no issues. It was the whole structure, the world, that I couldn't deal with. I know that at least one of the POV characters saw the problems that I saw, and presumably by the end of the book there would be progress towards fixing the issues, but... I just could not deal with it anymore. So, here are my main issues (none of this is spoiler-y because it's all revealed within the first like 20%):

-I hated that the religion of this country depended upon the rulers being physically weak and anorexic. It's pretty clear that the plot is working to, like, end that, but as a whole concept it doesn't make sense, and reading it feels awful. I'm not, like, opposed to reading books dealing with eating disorders, but when it's an entire religious, political, and cultural structure pushing one single individual to be extremely unhealthy, it's too much for me.

-The prince is expected to fuck ("bestow favors upon") his ministers/lairds. Not one particular one, just whoever will be useful for their army or money or whatever. Doesn't matter if these men (because they're all men) are awful, despicable people. It'd be one thing if Fierre was having fun and enjoying himself, but he is NOT. The whole thing made my stomach turn (over and over). The story did establish that he doesn't have to do it anymore if he chooses a consort, so I'm assuming that's where this goes with Aiven. Great! I don't want to read any more in the meantime.

If you removed Fierre and Aiven from this story, I enjoy them as characters. But, like, literally everything around them was pretty repugnant.

This was not for me. Poorly executed and not very well written. Some may enjoy it however if the summary sounds intriguing to you but had to DNF at 15%

DNF after three chapters, unfortunately.

I can see what the author is trying to do here, in terms of trying to build a world that allows for a thematic exploration of eating disorders, but absolutely none of it makes any sense. The prince is expected to be waif-thin and super feminine in appearance, but apparently actual women are prohibited from holding any kind of positions of power? And all the other characters are buff, mainly lords with roles related to fighting a war - hardly the kind of place that’s likely to want a skinny, weakened ruler.

I’m usually reasonably tolerant of gaps in world-building, but if you’re going to hinge your entire thematic message on it, then you should probably make sure you’ve thought through the implications of how your world works.

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and romance in THE TWO HUNGERS OF PRINCE FIERRE. Inspired by medieval Scotland, the political landscape was intriguing and evocative, and I was very interested to see how Fierre grew in confidence both politically and personally. I loved the friends to lovers romance with Aiven, especially how tender and caring their relationship was. The eating disorder parts were quite hard to read personally, especially when it collided with Fierre’s tendency to punish himself sexually as well. I enjoyed how his time on the Isle with the clan of healers was worked into the plot, and how Fierre was making waves to right the wrongs of his father and grandfather before them. The pacing never felt slow or like it dragged, which I really appreciated.

Overall, this is a well written and emotional debut that will work well for fans of Alexandra Rowland and Laura Samotin.

Prince Fierre has a reputation of being a bit free with his body, something he believes is part of his duty. After his father, the king, has his health start failing, Fierre is taking on the role of leadership he was born for.

Fierre has a mystery illness which causes him to have spells, and he has another problem… his best friend, Aiven, a boy from below Fierre’s rank who he is in love with.

I really enjoyed this story. The setting and the characters were wonderful, and the deception keeps the reader engrossed in what happens next. The ending was satisfying, if a bit rushed.

This book tackles eating disorders, so be warned if that is a trigger for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher/author for this copy of the book.

The Two Hungers of Prince Fierre was a book with many deep themes, all of which I felt were well portrayed and sympathetically explored. However, in some ways, I felt those themes overrode other aspects of the story to too great an extent. The world building was okay, but at times I wanted more background information. Fierre was reasonably well fleshed out, but I would have liked to have gotten to know Aiven in more detail. Their relationship was okay, but the turn to romance felt a bit rushed. There is a lot of sexual content too. At first I did feel this helped expand the story and characters; however, later in the book the balance shifted and it took over from the plot too much, so I found myself skimming through some of the longer sex scenes near the end, waiting to get back to the story. I was glad to see Fierre's eating disorder resolved at the book's conclusion, since it sent a positive message; however, this too felt a little rushed and perhaps a bit too easy. In the end I am giving this book 3.5 stars. It had some nice elements and explored a very worthwhile topic, but there were also some elements within the book that I felt could have been improved.

DNF at 20%

My biggest problem with this book was the sheer amount of suspended disbelief if needed. Take the first few chapters, during the various coronation ceremonies: We’re doing divine right of kings, sure. I was prepared to go along with a religiously mandated eating disorder—the author clearly has something to say, and this is the vehicle they’ve constructed to do that. But during a ceremony, one of the lairds pulls a weapon on an unarmed dignitary which. No?? There’s no way that would fly, and yet it’s just laughed off. Then the Prince faints and, despite Aiven already making it clear how much he hates the lairds “encouraging their ruler to starve,” his first thought seems to be poison??? The fainting Prince has only drunk juice for two days but sure, go straight to poison. Then there is the women. More accurately, there ISN’T the women. Where are the women???? There is evidently minimal Fantasy SexismTM because a woman hold the highest priestly office, but she’s on page for like, thirty seconds. The other women we meet in the first few pages are the household manager and a servant. Just. Please. It’s 2024. (This will be released 2025!) Why is there a whole cast of powerful men and no women.

Neither the characters nor the worldbuilding were interesting enough for me to push through, so I’ve put it aside as not for me.

2.5⭐️

Before I go into my review I would like to point out the trigger warnings and the fact that it is important to check these before reading! If you struggle with food, I would definitely avoid this book as it is one of the main plot points. There is also aspects of non-consensual sexual acts/sexual assault and bullying/slut shaming. There is also quite a few sex scenes so if you don’t like that, I wouldn’t read.

Now, onto the review.

I will say, this was a hard read in terms of the topics explored and explained. Not in terms of the writing style being hard to read. I will say though, I found it difficult to connect with the story and at times found myself getting bored.

This was a quick read and the fantasy world was fun, I guess. It wasn’t too complicated to understand so I caught on to things quite quickly. However, I would have loved to have MORE. More world building, more fantasy aspects, more backstory, and I’d probably like it to be less character-heavy.

The whole Eating Disorder situation was a bit rough. Prince Fierre is basically forced to starve himself to make him “pretty” to everyone else, he is ENCOURAGED to starve himself, and it’s the norm for him to offer his body to these lords as a favour to them, yet they are just totally degrading to him in return? Like I get wanting to explore situations like that in writing, but it totally could’ve been handled a bit better.

I did not like how quickly his ED was “solved” or how quickly and easily he just stopped it? an ED is a mental disorder, you do not get over it easily or quickly so I felt that was very unrealistic. Because it takes months, even years, for the average person (who has an ED) to heal from that. Even when they have “healed” it sticks with you, and will continue to haunt people (think ptsd, sort of). I know it’s not the case for every person but it is for most individuals. It does just go away.

The romance between Fierre and Aiven is quite sweet and cute, actually. I was surprised by how much I liked their relationship, and I loved how supportive Aiven was. Although, I would have liked a bit more development of Aiven, as to me he seemed to just be there to support Fierre, and didn’t really have his own individualistic storyline, so he fell flat and seemed a little bland.

I felt quite torn about what to rate this book as for me, personally, there were a quite a few flaws, and a few things I did not enjoy, but then I really loved the writing style. It was easy to read but not in the childish way. It was understandable and easily digestible. And the ending was satisfactory.

Overall, this was a decent book that could’ve been great. It definitely had the potential to if certain aspects had been explored more.