Can I ask what exactly is the Captive Prince about (besides the obvious xD), and how it's written? I'm sometimes picky with the books I read but you make it sound interesting. I'm just afraid to look into it and be disappointed.
oh oh oh, you can most definitely ask and I will most definitely try to answer without rambling a ridiculous amount in hopes that it will make sense ♥
Captive Prince is about, in its general plot, political scandal, the affairs of royalty, familial disputes, abuse of power, and the inner-workings of relationships, good and bad. Captive Prince is about, at its core, love happening in a place, in a time, in a way it should never have had the chance to happen.
Your main characters are, as you may have guessed from my constant posting, Prince Laurent of Vere and Prince Damianos of Akielos (aka Damen). Vere, Laurent’s kingdom, is based off of France, specifically during the 14th century, and Akielos, Damen’s kingdom, is based off of ancient Greece. One of the big things to note is the cultural differences play into their characters and their interactions as much as the simple fact that their kingdoms are enemies does.
Without really spoiling anything (because if you choose to read it, most of this is said and loosely explained in the first little bit), Vere and Akielos went to war six years ago over a disputed land at their borders: Delpha/Delfeur – the Akielons call it Delpha, the Veretians call it Delfeur. Delpha/Delfeur is an important land to have for military and political reasons. During the battle (called the Battle of Marlas because Marlas is the name of the stronghold located in Delpha/Delfeur), Vere was slicing through the Akielon armies due to the strength and leadership of their crown prince, Auguste. Prince Damianos of Akielos, back in the royal tents to protect his father, Akielos’ king, told his father ‘I can defeat him,’ and his father said ‘Go. Bring us back a victory,’ and Damianos did so. He rode up to the front lines, fought Auguste in one-on-one battle, crown prince vs. crown prince, and killed him. From that point, Vere’s strength and momentum diminished and their king, Auguste’s father King Aleron, died after going into battle recklessly at the grief of losing his son.
All that was left of the Veretian royal family was Prince Laurent, only thirteen years of age, and the King’s brother, who surrendered to Akielos.
So, as you can see, Vere and Akielos have a very tumultuous relationship. The Veretians view the Akielons as brutes and uncultured and the Akielons view the Veretians as manipulative and cruel. And at the start of the book, Damianos’ father, King Themodes, has just died and instead of waking up as King, Damianos wakes up bound in chains, drugged, and sent on a ship to Vere as a slave to Prince Laurent, the now twenty-year-old prince who had to bury his brother because of Prince Damianos. And the big twist? No one knows it’s Prince Damianos, they think he’s just a random soldier-turned-slave.
As for how it’s written, it is written in a third-person limited POV. It focuses predominately on Damen and how Damen sees things. And, in an attempt to help you see the style, I’m going to type out an excerpt from the first book so you can see the style its written in because that will be better than me trying to explain it.
