Prince of Light by K C Rivers Review & Guest Blog Post (Young Adult, Fantasy, 10/10 E)

December 2012, Amazon Media

213 pages, Ebook, 

Review copy

Themes 

Being flung into another world with people different from you, lots of exploration, being kept a prisoner, having to need protecting from people you don't know, getting to wear different costumes, being terrified quite a bit, a lot of misunderstandings, having both little and lots to lose at different points in the story, befriending people who aren't quite human but who share the same thoughts/emotions that humans do, judging & not judging someone on how they look, playing a part in an ongoing conflict, loads of edge of the seat moments, several wow moments,

Content

light romance, you will definitely need a tissue 

Summary from Amazon UK (I don't benefit by mentioning them)

A rogue elven prince is determined to destroy the creatures who murdered his brother, but his plans are disrupted when a tribe of powerful shapeshifters join forces against him. Now a single human girl, Evanthe, is caught between the warring species, and both sides are searching for her.

After accidentally stumbling into their world, Evanthe is kept hidden in the prince's own dungeon by one of his servants, a young mage named Delanor. All she really wants is to find a way to return home, for she knows it is only a matter of time before her whereabouts are discovered. But what weighs heavily on her mind even more than fear are the growing feelings she has for Delanor--and her dangerous attraction to the elven prince.

When she receives a tantalizing offer from the enemy, she will have to choose sides not only in a war between nations, but between the allure of an immortal prince and the unconditional love of his servant.

Nayuleska's thoughts 

This is one of those special books which make want to squee to the world how fantastically awesome it is - I'm super eager for book 2 so I can return to Evanthe's life which I'd quite like to live (but probably wouldn't want to live it 'real time' for some scenes!)

You can find out more about K C Rivers on her website. 

Suggested read

If you enjoy a strong heroine who gets to change costumes check out the time-travel romance of Imprisoned In Time by Laura Gay 

It gives me great pleasure to present K C Rivers's guest post, which chats about the music she listens to while writing, what/who her Muse is like, where her inspiration comes from and the real lowdown on Delanor which will surprise you! Thank you K C Rivers for writing such an engaging book, and for coming here on NRC. Roll on book 2! In the mean time here's the blog post...

When it comes to writing, I always have to have music. I have various playlists created depending on the mood of the moment. For action/battle scenes, I have a playlist composed of instrumental Nightwish songs and multiple soundtracks from movies like Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, and the Batman series. For more romantic or even tragic moments, I have a list of Enya, David Lanz, Yanni or other piano/“new-age” music. NIghtwish also has some really beautiful tracks that usually make their way into those lists as well. The nice thing about writing from a laptop is that I can take it with me anywhere and plug my headphones right into it. That way no matter where I am, whether I’m traveling or in my own office, I can drown out all of the background noise and let the music carry me to where I need to be.

I don’t know that I can describe my muse in any specific terms, because I’m usually inspired by other characters more than anything. I’ve enjoyed fantasy for as long as I can remember, so it only felt natural to write it. I can probably attribute that to growing up as a “product of the 80’s/90’s” with plenty of My Little Pony, Care Bears and classic Disney movies to fuel my imagination. (Sleeping Beauty still remains my all-time favorite Disney movie, in case you were wondering.) Stories were always running through my mind, even as a child. My toys didn’t just play together; they had ongoing sagas filled with drama and plenty of chaos. All of this eventually made me the fangirl that I am today. I love manga/anime, video games and action movies, which is probably reflected it my writing style.

My three greatest inspirations for Prince of Light came from the elves of Lord of the Rings, naturally; Link, from The Legend of Zelda; and Prince Nuada, from Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I absolutely love all three, and they all came into play while I was writing Prince of Light. I was unemployed at the time that I wrote it, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it meant that I had enough time during the day to just sit and write for hours on end. The story started with Evanthe’s initial interactions with Prince Celestyn, and the rest of it just poured forth from there. 

It’s funny to look back and see how much it’s changed since I first starting writing it. Delanor was originally just a “filler” character. Yup, you heard me. I needed someone to show Evanthe the ropes, so to speak. A random person who could keep her out of harm’s way until she got to know more of the main characters. Then he could fade away into the background once the plot really got going. Low and behold, I fell in love with the gentle mage that I had created, and his friendship with Evanthe took on a whole new level as the story progressed.

Prince of Light was the first full book that I had completed, though I’d written short stories before. I felt confident in it, in a way that I hadn’t felt before about any other project. And honestly, I just flat-out loved my characters too much to not share them with the world. After nearly two years of rejections from agents and publishers, I finally started really researching the realm of self-publishing. Agents just weren’t looking for medieval fantasy at the time, so it was really hard to get them interested. (I’m convinced most of them just saw the word “elf” and thought it was just another Eragon. It’s hard to prove your story is different in just a couple of paragraphs, let me tell you.)

Overall, I’m actually glad that it turned out the way that it did, because I learned a lot in the process and met some really great people. Book two is in the works (no, really! I promise!), and I’m really excited to get it out there. The journey has been a long one, but it’s been worth every step, even the painful times. I’m looking forward to seeing where it will take me next!