Kings and Captives ~ Review

Kings and Captives

The Journals of Voren #1

By Dana Pratola

Evangeline has been warned all her life to stay away from the lighthouse, but she is drawn there and the very fate her late mother feared is about to befall her. By venturing where a past kidnapping occurred Evangeline has placed both herself and Daniel, her best friend, almost-like a brother, in danger. Worse there is no way to stop the strangers who are about to pluck them from Earth and deposit them on a new and foreign world. Though those taking them are more than ready to inform Evangeline that it is she who is strange and foreign and not them.

Ryor must take a wife before he can become king, and his father has recommended (more like commanded) that Ryor's bride must be from Earth. Unfortunately Evangeline has become his woman of choice and refusal on her part is not really an option. Worse if she keeps resisting her life would be forfeit and Ryor is not above using his strength to force Evangeline to see things his way.  And if she wants to see Daniel live she may have to bow to his brutish will and become his bride and Princess of Voren.

This book is one of those love it - hate it books. The writing is good and the author draws you into the story from the first page but there are characters you just can't stand and you wish blights upon them. I want to know what comes next in book 2 as the author left the reader wondering what Evangeline was planning as payback. 

I do think that the main characters come off as brats who are too use to getting their own ways and as such are destined to forever be locked in an battle of temperament and wills. Ryor and Evangeline both seem unduly impressed with themselves and their superiority while failing to see their own flaws have gotten them into the situation they now find themselves in. 

Now for those seeking a clean, gentle read this book has a few scenes that knock it out of this category (and made me squirm as I read them I'd say PG-13+ in a few places). Voren is a planet that seems to feel any who are not of the blood of the royal family are nothing more than property - and the royal family can lay claim to anyone they want and just as easily discard them on a whim.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book with no expectations. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

About the Book:

Ryor’s father wishes him to marry an Earth. He agrees, though for different reasons. Not only does he need her to bear him a child, but wishes to use her as a negotiating tool. When he finds a woman wandering in the woods of Washington State, she’s disagreeable and resistant to being taken from her home world. How could she not want to be a princess?

Evangeline wants to live life on the edge, but she’s found more excitement than she knows what to do with when she and her best friend Daniel are kidnapped and dropped onto an alien planet in another dimension. Her captor is literally prince of this world. And doesn’t he know it? She doesn’t want to marry him, but becoming princess of this strange world may be her only hope of saving Daniel. Though, it might not be so easy if Ryor learns she found his mother’s secret journal.