Palaces… bedrooms, sitting rooms, gymnasium, crown room; orphanages; Purple Crane Pillow House;

Xishi aka Buttercup: 1/4th human, ½ exiled royal, ½ royal (manipulations of mother and grandmother to seduce a prince); mom manipulated way into Midarri household, with hope/expectation of her daughter mating a prince, but when she was murdered, Xishi’s fate floated… she kept Corum quiet, and they were close childhood friends – until deemed he was too dependent on her, so she was sent to an orphanage; at 17 selected to train as a pillow girl (courtesan); kind hearted, warm chi, positive, looking for the best;

Corum Midarri: when unborn, mother and doctor knew he had a genetic imperfection that would make him more emotional; mom couldn’t abort, confident she’d be able to train him in control; Xishi kept him content and was his best friend, until….; he went into training with a zen master, and gained so much self control, called by others Ice Prince;

Xoushou Houn: Xishi’s ambitious mother; using drugs, and timing parlayed her maidship into seduction of the Prince when in rut and pregnancy; once daughter born, found position in Midarri household; when going to kill her cousin accomplice (provided drugs), she is killed instead;

Emperor Songyam: Xishi’s unknowing father;

Corynna and Poll Midarri: Cor’s parents;

Matreya: nanny

Violet Fagin: madame of the Purple Crane Pillow House; a business woman first and foremost, but an honest one… trains pillow girls and boys, to serve the sexual needs of the royals;

Prince Pahndir: his wife/mate died (suicide? I think there is more to her story), and he is in doldrums for 5 years, so family, ashamed, declare him dead and ‘sell’ him to Violet Fagin – to be a sexual lesson for her students – in royal anatomy (slightly different then other men) and in how to manipulate it; in end Xishi (who befriended him and in whom he was attracted to) gets him free;

Tea Rose / Lily / Chrysanthemum / Jehol: other students; ends up Jehol is her cousin twice removed… and he blames her for his mother’s death (Xishi’s grandmother killed her because she had Xoushou killed, to stop Xoushou from killing his mother -vicious circle there : )
Very sexually explicit story – wow… in an educational way – and with the royal demon’s altered anatomy.
Xishi and Cor are reunited when his parents decide he needs a pillow girl to stimulate his sexuality, and Xishi is there (he feels her as he approaches the building)… a bit of fumbling, but they get it together… then some political intrigue (arrests, trials)…and freedom – and they go to human/demon city to live their best lives…

Thanks to Nadine, I suppose I will add romance novels to my reading repertoire. : )

Very Very Explicit!!! If you don't like erotica this is not a book for you. If you do....HOT

This is the 1st Emma Holly book I have read and all I can say is WHOA!

I loved every page and could not put it down.

I love the way she writes and the plot was awesome..lots of twists and action packed in the sense that so much was going on all at once. The book was so detailed without being even remotely confusing!


Perhaps reading this book at work wasn't a good idea - it was so saucy at times I was getting annoyed when I was interupted!!!

Will deffinitly be reading more of her work.

This book is ok. It started really slow, but then I couldn't put it down. It is a fantasy book with the Yama people. It is part of a series. I think I read book 4 first. I might have to re-read 4. It's is a bit too long and think it could have been edited down a little.

Readable but not recommended. I wasn't excited about the plot or characters.

Nothing surprised or delighted me. This book was easy for me to put down and go do something else. The characters weren't interesting enough.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
Story brief: Orphan girl is part human and part yama. She is training to be a courtesan. She is bought by a Prince who is 100% yama. She is his genetic match, they fall in love and they are mates. They have a lot of hot sex. It would have been ok if she was just his courtesan, but they were having sex while he was in heat, which was against the law, somehow. Then they are put in jail for potential mixed race breeding. There is a happy ending after that.

DATA:
Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: thirteen, some were lengthy. Setting: 1800s The Forbidden City, in an undefined location on earth. Genre: erotic paranormal romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
To date, I’ve read the following Emma Holly books.

5 stars. The Countess’s Pleasure (in anthology Hot Spell). Copyrt 2005. Review Date 5/11/08.
4 stars. Menage. Copyrt 1998. Review Date 6/23/08.
2 stars. Prince of Ice: A Tale of the Demon World. Copyrt 2006. Review Date 6/23/08.

Meh... it served its purpose. I don't know why it needed to be sci-fi. There was so little sci-fi that when the author reminded us that the characters weren't human, it was distracting.

Gosh, I love Ms. Holly's writing. Prince of Ice was so good. A passionate love story, more about the Yama world, intrigue and political machinations, a hidden princess - this book has it all. I couldn't put it down, read it straight through. The first two books in the Demon World series were good, not great. This one was great.

Bought from kobo

I love Emma Holly, but I could not finish this book. Too much of tab A fits into slot B -- only these creatures aren't actually human, so it was more like, "stroke the fununga gland to produce uncontrollable quivering in his golupniks!"