More than one year ago, a friend of mine told me to check out an online series cause it was really good. At the time I did read an episode, but I have so little time to read that following a serial online was almost impossible. I did like it though. Then I forgot about it. When I saw this series on Amazon, Captive Prince, the first thing that caught my eyes was the simplicity of the cover, it reminded me of, I think, Coco Chanel’s motto: there is something you can remove, the less, the better. These two volumes of a Fantasy series were climbing the bestsellers list, and it was even more amazing considering they were self-published by the author. But again, I wasn’t so convinced, Fantasy is not really my cup of tea, and moreover, I’m not really a big fan of Master/slave plots. But, oh boy, was that cover so good, and the response from the readers so widely positive, that I decided to try test the first volume (bless Kindle and the easiness to buy a book, but I have to warn you, I have three devices, Kindle, Ipad and Laptop, and the Kindle app for Laptop doesn’t work for this file, I had to read it on my Ipad).
Anyway, I was immediately reminded of that online series, and I checked with my friend, and indeed it was the same. The author published it in two volumes and the third will come soon. I was really glad cause, where personally I wouldn’t have read it online, I’m more than willing to buy it as a three volumes series.
I was also immediately contradicted on my preconceptions on Master/slave plot: sure Damen is a former prince and warrior, who for the betrayal of his own brother, is now a slave in an enemy kingdom; not only, he is supposed to serve the prince, heir to the throne, who is, to Damen, a lazy and cruel man, not worthy of his respect. Damen wants only to find a way to escape, but in a few days he will realize that there are better way than running, and that an uneasy alliance can be the solution.
I appreciate a lot that violence, non-consensual sex, and all the similar “titillations” of a common Master/slave plot weren’t part of the deal here. So much that, at the end of the first volume, I’m not even sure there will be a relationship at all between Damen and Laurent, actually I think Damen doesn’t like much Laurent, and Laurent is probably interested to someone else and not Damen. Or maybe I’m wrong, and I would be glad of that, cause Damen and Laurent together would be a powerful pairing.
Also the care for details, good but not overwhelming was of my taste. I don’t really like those heave fantasy setting, where the reader is too much distracted from the characters due to all those lengthy descriptions. Here there was the essential, and then you had the plot, that was the center piece of the story.
Series: Captive Prince
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Gatto; 2 edition (February 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0987507397
ISBN-13: 978-0987507396
Amazon:
Captive Prince: Volume One (Volume 1)Amazon Kindle:
Captive Prince: Volume One (Volume 1) More Reviews by Author at my website:
http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Reviews
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