#briar niran

Book review!

The Squire and His Prince by Briar Niran (M/M Romantasy)

Prequel to The Sun King and his Knight quartet

“You did not yield,” Richard said, standing far too close. “And I know that you would not have.”

The pining in this prequel is absolutely delicious. 18-year-old squire Kaelen’s childhood crush on the prince he’s sworn to serve has developed into love. But Prince Richard is next in line for the crown, and his parents are pressuring him to make a political marriage. The problem is, the prince experiences no romantic or sexual desire.

Kaelen seems to be one of the few who has realized this, and he genuinely wants his prince to be treated with the respect he deserves. In fact, Kaelen will go to extraordinary lengths to be the best squire he can be. I’m very much looking forward to the next book!

Check out The Squire and His Prince for magic, royalty, adorable siblings, fast friendships, high stakes, drama, intrigue, so much pining, and amazing ace rep.

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King Richard of Ardenia knows fear well. The veil is his kingdom's only defence against Gloamvarn—a neighbouring realm of monsters—and it is crumbling. In a bid to gather allies for the coming war, Richard throws open his court for a grand Summer Ball. As he navigates political wiles and new threats, it becomes hard to hold steady. Harder still, when bitter arguments erupt between him and his devoted knight. Meanwhile, a long-buried secret threatens to shatter his family and court, and through it all, the Gloam King waits with a smile.

​Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Briar Niran's The Sun King's Noon is the excellent sequel to The Sun King's Dawn (HERE you can read my review). This second book in the quadrilogy doesn't hold back its punches, continuing the tale of asexual king Richard and his struggles both as monarch of a realm in peril and as a man who finds love for the first time and needs to navigate his feelings. As in the first book, his sex-repulsion features heavily and it's handled deftly, detailling the strong feelings of alienation and the first fluttering beats of a romance that he feels he can't have, duty-bound and unwilling to deny affection to his knight. This is done beautifully and delicately, and it's lovely to see such a nuanced exploration of achillean asexuality in a fantasy novel.

For his part, the knight Kaelen also has some maturing to do, and his journey is worth reading. This continues to be a series about strong relationships, both familial and friendship. Richard learns to open up a bit, to seek counsel more, to heed advice; but he's still strong-willed and used to load everything up on his shoulders, with mixed results. He's a flawed character, but they all are: flawed and incredibly human. The complex web of human relationships is further entangled by the introduction of many new characters as Richard reaches for allies against the threat to his kingdom.

The worldbuilding expands with new kingdoms and people, showing complex traditions and still drawing from our own folklore in a way that is fresh and interesting. The looming threat gives urgency to everything, but there are still some lulls of introspection, quiet moments that are very poignant. One particular moment in the second half of the book, a conversation between Richard and a thief, is especially beautiful and brought tears to my eyes.

The villain gets something of a backseat in this book, still appearing in all his menacing self, but not so overtly present as in the first book. This allows for a tighter focus, and for some really spectacular moments towards the end, a much-needed conversation, and a nail-biting finale.The Sun King's Noon is a great sequel.

This is the best book I read this year & truly deserves a 5 stars rating 👌

Everything about it is perfect, the Asexual representation, the writing, the slow-burn and yearning, the world building, the characterization and the the plot especially. The are still so many unanswered questions and plenty of plot-lines to untackle in the sequel.

As for the prequel from Kaelen's POV, it's not mandatory to read prior to this but it surely gives much context and helps you connect more with the characters.

My favorite character, aside from Richard, has got to be the main villain. It's been a while since I read about such an intriguing character.

Burdened with an inability to desire others, King Richard of Ardenia still finds peace in his unruly siblings, his loyal circle, and even in his young knight, Sir Kaelen, whose yearning stares he has spent years ignoring. But when Richard rides to a borderland village to investigate eerie happenings, all peace shatters. The veil containing Gloamvarn, a neighbouring realm filled with fell beasts and unimaginable horrors, is cracking. Sooner or later, it will fall. As Richard hunts for a way to safeguard his kingdom, Kaelen stays close, a constant, protective presence that stirs a strange tenderness Richard doesn’t dare name. For the monsters have a new ruler. And the tyrant hungers not only for Ardenia. But its king, too.

Thank you to the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Briar Niran's The Sun King's Dawn is a gorgeous achillean romantasy with the slowest of burns, first volume of a quartet, featuring an asexual king and his loyal knight. Told exclusively from the point of view of the king, the novel is a deft exploration of sex-repulsed asexuality and of how alienating it feels to live in a world where everyone expresses their love through carnality. At the same time, it's a novel about finding out one's own way to express love.

King Richard is a beautiful protagonist, complex in his grief and in his belief to be defective. He fiercely loves his siblings, and puts their well-being over his own more than a few times. His loyal knight shines bright with fealty and honor and with the kind of all-encompassing love that the bards sing about, but to the king it's anathema, and source of endless embarrassment and disgust, despite holding deep affection and trust for the knight. This creates a very interesting dynamic that promises to become much more intricate as the series goes on, without the need to somehow "fix" the King.

The worldbuilding and writing might be deemed simple, but they hold up very well, creating the perfect backdrop for the story. This is a secondary world with many creatures from our legends and a basic magical system, but the way it all blends is quite nicely done; the kingdom of the vampire-like creatures especially comes to mind, and there's some really horrifying moments linked to the overall threat of the book, a coming corruption of the flesh. In that regard, threat of sexual violence is also present, but handled expertly in a sensitive manner.

The main villain is perfectly villainous and quite disgusting in his pursuit, while his motivations may at first feel at least partly justified. We feel Richard's despair and horror as the book goes on and the villain's leery overtures become more and more explicit and terrifying. The rest of the cast holds up very well; Richard's three siblings are all well developed, and especially his kid sister is a delight.

The Sun King's Dawn is a perfect first installment.

Official Summary:

For eighteen-year-old squire Kaelen, the crown prince is everything—ruthlessly clever, disciplined, devoted to his siblings, and a man Kaelen has hopelessly loved since childhood. Richard, however, barely notices his existence. When the king invites the Estaran royal family for marriage talks, the court rejoices. Richard's refusal to share his bed with any man or woman has, to them, long been a strange defect—one that a political marriage would solve. But Kaelen is left heartbroken. Worse, when the Estaran prince—Richard’s intended consort—boasts his crude intentions, Kaelen retaliates with his fist. The single punch explodes into a diplomatic crisis. Caught in the middle, Kaelen soon realises that worse than losing his life— He may lose his prince.

My Thoughts:

The Squire and His Prince is a queer romantasy novella that serves as a prologue to an upcoming series. As someone who loves a good, queer romantasy, I knew I had to give this a try!

Kaelen is a squire and is desperately in love with the Crown Prince. Prince Richard is 28, and his parents have been trying to find him a marriage match with no success; Richard doesn't seem interested in anyone they try to pair him with.

Running out of patience, the King and Queen bring the Prince and Princess of a neighboring land and instruct Richard to pick one to marry. They are getting older and want their son to be wed as soon as possible. However, complications arise when Kaelen punches Richard's male suitor for being crass about his beloved prince. Outraged that a mere squire would punch their prince, the neighboring kingdom demands punishment for Kaelen.

In just over 100 pages, I fell so hard for these characters. Kaelen, in particular, is so well-written. He's honorable, stubborn, devoted, and impulsive. I adore him so much. All the characters, even the minor ones, felt like fully realized and complex people.

The plot is riveting, with one scene in particular being so exciting that literally nothing could have torn me away from it. It also has a lot of heart, with several scenes that made me cry, laugh, or swoon. The hints of the future plot were intriguing and left me desperate to know if all my favorite characters will be okay.

The romance is clearly set up to be a very, very slow burn. I sincerely can not wait to see how their romance plays out in future books. There's so much delicious yearning; future books seem certain to be a buffet for those of us who love serious amounts of longing in our romantasy!

I truly enjoyed this so much that I could not put it down; I read it all in one sitting! I loved the writing, the queernormative world, the characters, and I thought this was an excellent setup for a series. I'm 100% hooked and, if future books are as good as this, I think this could easily become a new favorite series!

My Rating: 🌕🌕🌕 🌕🌘 (4.75/5 stars)

Pages: 136 (Kindle Edition)

Tropes/Tags: Queer, Achillean, Romantasy, Age Gap, Arranged Marriage, Asexual Character, Bisexual Character

Contains Depictions Of: Some Violence, Mentions of Sexual Assault (not between the main characters), Acephobia

Other Notes: The Sun King’s Dawn, the next in this series, is coming in April!

Links: Storygraph | GoodReads | Pagebound | Author's Website

The Squire and His Prince was released on February 16, 2026, and is available for purchase!

I received an advanced copy of this book for free, thanks to Book Sirens. The above are my honest feelings about the provided book.