Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay, Trans
Reviewer: Scott
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About The Book
He came to this human hotel to disappear. Instead, he found a barista who makes espresso taste like home—and glitches no one else can solve.
Adri Linari, overlooked tech mage and younger sibling of Niralen’s charismatic Crown Prince, is more comfortable with schematics than small talk. Overwhelmed by royal obligations, a sensory-frying engagement party, and the ache of always being the odd one out, he runs—straight to the Renversé Hotel in Princedelphia, Oregon. All he wants is quiet, a place to draw, and maybe fix a few circuits.
He doesn’t expect the barista whose espresso tastes like the calm he radiates.
Single trans dad Sam Walker thrives on structured chaos—managing Café Magnifique, co-parenting five incredible kids, and serving up caffeine and kindness to a revolving door of patrons. Falling for the mysterious, purple-skinned stranger who only ever orders espresso and somehow brightens his mornings? He doesn’t have time for that.
But something’s wrong in the hotel’s west wing, and now they’re tangled in logic-defying glitches that even mess with Sam’s precious machines—and an attraction that won’t stop buzzing.
“Tech Prince Troubles” is a spicy, slow-burn male/male urban fantasy romance full of mysterious glitches, coffee-fueled flirting, found family, single dad vibes, and an opinionated espresso machine named Gandalf. It’s book 6 in the Runaway Prince Hotel collab series, where magical royals find love over a cup of coffee. HEA guaranteed. Multi-Author series. All books can be read as standalone, but characters from other books do make appearances.
The Review
After finishing an alt history book about the French revolution, I was in the mood for something a little lighter. And Tech Prince Troubles, by Blaine D. Arden, fit the bill perfectly.
It’s a shared world book, the last one in a series by number of romance authors. In each one, a prince meets and falls in love with a barista in the fictional city of Princedelphia, Oregon, at or around the Renversé hotel.
In this particular book, the prince is Adri, a member of an alien race that came to Earth a little over 100 years earlier to settle on an island in the Pacific. The Niraleni have an affinity for electricity, and have established themselves as programmers and tech workers throughout the world. Adri’s older brother Frank has gotten engaged, and the engagement party is too much for Adri’s overwhelmed senses
On a whim, after being handed a mysterious business card, he goes across country to stay at the Renversé hotel, where he can get away from it all and recharge. Literally. The Niraleni are able to get a charge from an electrical current by putting their hand over a socket, and are also able to interact and pay for things with their fingertips instead of using a credit card.
In Princedelphia, he meets Sam, a trans barista, who has a chaotic family life that’s full of former partners and their kids living together as a family unit. Sam is everything that Adri is not, bright and outgoing, friendly and welcoming.
Adri takes a temporary job at the hotel, helping out with some technology issues in exchange for room, board and anonymity, and he and Sam began their dance.
It’s a beautifully told story, with low stakes and a cozy small-town feel. Watching these two destined souls navigate each other is the heart of the story, although there’s also the great separate plot about what’s going on at the hotel itself. Their romance is very touching and affirming, especially the moment when Sam comes out to Adri as a trans man. It was superbly handled, and made me cry.
There’s nothing particularly earthshattering here. Just a beautiful, well-crafted love story between two very different but well matched men, whom we are rooting for the whole time through.
I have a couple very minor gripes about the story. One is that I wish I got a little more detail about Adri’s race. Where they came from, what their life was like back on the island. Maybe in another book…?
And the other was a couple comments that were meant to link this book to others in the series, but caused me a bit of confusion.
Still, those are minor quibbles. This is a very enjoyable romance about found family and learning to open yourself up to things that scare you, but may be just what you need.
Highly recommend.
The Reviewer
Scott is the founder of Queer Sci Fi, Liminal Fiction, and QueeRomance Ink, and a fantasy and sci fi writer in his own right, with more than 30 published short stories, novellas and novels to his credit, including two trilogies.
