Rating: 4.5🌈
Westin’s Prince is the finale for Jocelynn Drake’s marvelous Shadow Elite series . It’s fitting it goes out on the story for Westin St James , the former marine, former CIA, now member of the mercenary Shadow Elite Unit. West’s been the one quietly in the background, the deadly sniper who can be counted on to have the team’s backs every dangerous moment of their outings. He’s a damaged man, and he’s been a mystery until now.
Who knew West could turn into such a favorite for me? A weird assassin contract that’s rejected by Justin and Gabriel is turned over to West by their joint handler because the target and terms are just too “off”. Something’s obviously wrong and the situation needs to be at least researched.
Drake creates a island kingdom that’s a supposedly combination of Chinese culture with Japanese influences. Honestly other than a mention that the language was a combination of Mandarin and Japanese languages there was little indication of anything Japanese to reference.
The other major characters are , and quite frankly, very engaging ones too:
🔷Jin Long Wei, Dianxia or Your Royal Highness , the target of the heart of the contract
🔷Prince Jin Ming Tao, younger brother to the heir.
🔷Qin, all around PA, to Long Wei
West lands into a kingdom who’s in love with its royal family, The Jins. Drake lays a good foundation for this, allowing the reader to see the people’s reactions to their Prince and interact with him as West and Long Wei themselves meet, discuss, and discover a deeper connection between them.
The island, it’s peace, and it’s Prince represents a powerful hope for West , if only that pesky contract is eliminated first.
The conflict is convincingly escalated, all the great team members and their new partners/husbands appear to help save the Kingdom, the Emperor, and the newly formed couple. Even the retired killer uncles are there, to back up West.
As it’s the last, there is betrayals, bloodshed, high suspense, and lots of action to take place along side the romance and relationship drama of acceptance and anxiety over the question of time.
The author’s able to work some of the readers own doubts about their relationship into the discussion process this way and it smoothly turns us into supporters of their romance and this book’s main theme.
The oddity for me remained that “forced melding” Asian influences when actually there were none. It was a mention and then used later in the story as a reference for the lack of aggressive behaviors in the island because as a nation long overrun by wars, only by cooperation can they succeed. So that’s all they do.
Nice thought for the faux Gaoxing, placed between China ,Japan, and Russia. But as I said I found little cultural aspects here other than Chinese seem to be represented.
The Chinese elements are:
🔷Chinese names for the characters, including grandfather, dad, etc.
🔷mah-jongg playing aunties
🔷The historically accurate headwear and manner in which the royal family should have their hair worn:
◦ Xiaoguan-(small guan) headwear worn around the topknot, typically held in place with a hairpin to help stabilize the topknot”
◦ Touji-topknot
🔷The mythology included, which is definitely Chinese (kitsune is Japanese):
“The huli jing is just a fox spirit, but after a thousand years of cultivation, it can become a juiwei hu. A nine-tailed fox, which is what the statue is in the old square.”
The Chinese elements gave Gaoxing a realistic impression and firm vision for its people. The idea of a mixture was immediately lost.
So I throughly enjoyed the romance, the plot, seeing the entire team form up against a common enemy to save one of its own, and finally a rewarding ending for them all.
There’s a free second epilogue that shouldn’t be missed showing the happy family six years down the road. It’s a heartwarming read and makes this even better.
So really, loved everything but had questions about the world building of Gaoxing.
Definitely recommending it, especially if you’re a fan of the series and author.
Don’t come at this cold. Read the series first in the order that they were written.
Shadow Elite series:
✓ Stephen’s Translator #0.5
✓ Charlie’s Doctor #1
✓ Kairo’s Billionaire #2
✓ Edison’s Professor #3
✓ Westin’s Prince #4 – finale
Buy Link:
Westin’s Prince (Shadow Elite Book 4)
Description:
The contract on the prince’s head was only the beginning…
This was supposed to be a quick job.
Pop in. Check out the prince. Alert his security that someone wanted him dead.
Easy.
But a chance meeting in a tea shop left West unable to walk away.
Crown Prince Jin was far too sweet and trusting to be left unattended.
(Not to mention devastatingly handsome and mind-blowingly sexy.)
However, Prince Jin has a dark secret that leads to even bigger problems. West is going to need the entire team for this one…and maybe even those crazy assassins.
Oh God, and a makeover as he goes undercover in the elite world of royalty.
Westin’s Prince is the fourth and final full-length novel in the Shadow Elite series and features mercenaries, assassins, royalty, a sassy assistant, conspiracies, danger, insta-swoon, yet another cinnamon roll, a fish out of water who will do anything for his prince, a “fake” boyfriend but nobody believes them, and love on the run in Asia.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 