The Night Prince: a masterclass in how NOT to write a love triangle
Hey guys, a few months ago I posted a review of The Wolf King that got a surprising amount of traction, and the comments turned into a really fun discussion.
I know I said I wouldn’t read book two before book three came out, but it got translated into my native language and my self-control simply evaporated.
Like I said back then, despite all its flaws, this series is ridiculously addictive, and the same goes for this sequel… at least partially.
I don’t even want to spend too much time talking about the actual plot because:
- nothing happens for like 80% of the book,
- the story is insanely messy,
- the writing still feels very immature,
- and overall it’s honestly much weaker than the first book.
But let’s be real: nobody is picking this series up expecting peak literary fiction.
What really left me baffled, though, is the supposed love triangle between Aurora, Callum, and Blake — which should literally be the core of the romance.
The first book already left me a bit unsatisfied on that front. I’ve never been a huge Callum fan, but I assumed the amount of focus he got was necessary to make the triangle believable and stretch out the slow burn with Blake.
After this second book, though, I’m even more confused than Aurora during those endless dream/vision/memory sequences the author tortured us with for 400 pages.
Like… are we even sure this is a love triangle anymore?
Because for 90% of the book we get Callum shoved down our throats constantly. Aurora’s internal monologue revolves around him 24/7, and the amount of intimate scenes between them genuinely started feeling like a Squid Game challenge for readers. At some point I expected someone to jump out of the pages and tell me that if I survived the 120th sex scene, I’d win a cash prize.
The romance is still completely centered around Callum.
And don’t get me wrong — he’s not a bad guy. He just has the personality of wet cardboard. He’s genuinely the least alpha alpha I’ve ever seen. I studied Ancient Greek in high school and still remember the alphabet, but honestly someone needs to invent a whole new letter after omega just to categorize this man.
And yet we STILL get explicit scenes between him and Aurora literally right after she discovers the bond. Like… girl, WHAT?
Now, Blake isn’t exactly the most fascinating character ever either, but at least he has a tiny bit more spark to him. The problem is that his relationship with Aurora develops so painfully slowly that you start wondering if you’re the crazy one and he’s not actually a love interest at all.
Aurora barely seems attracted to him. She’s not genuinely interested in knowing him better, she never really struggles with her feelings, and she has basically zero doubt about who she wants.
And that’s what I don’t understand.
If Callum is the endgame and Blake is just there to create drama, then okay, fine. But honestly it doesn’t feel like that’s where the author wants to go.
The relationship between Aurora and Blake lacks passion, tension, guilt, yearning — literally anything that would make a love triangle emotionally compelling. It just feels flat.
This is honestly the perfect example of how not to write a love triangle.
If you’re going to give your protagonist two love interests, then either:
- both relationships need equal emotional weight and development so the reader actually feels torn too, OR
- you ditch the first love interest quickly enough to properly build the second one.
What you don’t do is drag the same relationship out for 800 pages while pretending there’s still romantic tension.
Overall, I’m pretty conflicted after finishing this book. I’ll still read book three because, at the end of the day, this series is incredibly bingeable and entertaining.
But I can definitely say this sequel completely killed most of my interest in the Blake/Aurora ship.