#tajmutthall

And I know that Bastian and Nik's bride are siblings, but I can't seem to pull up The relationship of any of the three of them to the king or Damen or whomever. And are Aleron, Auguste, and Laurent somewhere in the same family tree? What about Nicaise?

I simply adore royal family trees and whenever they are available perusal, I peruse them in great detail and imagine how all the complex interactions came to pass. So, just curiosity.

Hey hun!

So, it is based on the English system of titles because that is what I’m familiar with.

For Damen, he is the son and heir of the Duke of Ios. His aunt (Theomedes' sister) was the Queen consort as she married into the royal family.

The King is therefore Damen’s first cousin.

The others are probably all related if you go back far enough but generally speaking they’re not related. Aleron is a Duke, which in terms of title hierarchy it would go King > Prince > Duke. So he’s very rich and has a lot of land.

Historically large titles such as dukedoms have affiliated titles and historical connections to other titled lords in their region that are not “as powerful”

So Bastian’s family I believe I said was an Earl (I think Chastillon from memory) The title is tied to the land and to Bastian's family.

Titles are usually passed down from father to son. Nikandros’ title is Marquess, and his families region is in Delpha.

Nicaise I didn’t specify but as his mother married into a minor titled family Nicaise has no claim to the title and has no rights to the land because it's his step-dads. Aimeric and Ancel are both younger sons of titled families so they don’t have specific titles themselves but they're rich.

Powerful titled families (like Dukes) tend to have several subsidiary titles attached to the dukedom. So for example in England atm the Duke of Richmond is also the Earl of Kinara, and Baron Settrington etc. The next most powerful title the Duke holds, which in this case is "Earl of Kinara" is generally given to the eldest son/heir. So if you look up that title, it'll be held by the Duke's Eldest son.

For NMFY it makes both Damen and Auguste Earl’s in their own right now even before they have inherited the Dukedom.

Depends on what you mean by “well written”. I found the prose to be eminently readable, the humor quiet and mostly subtle (well – – the adventures of Charles aside), the careful development of important plot points that would not reveal themselves to the reader until later in the book in stages to be effective, particularly in that different readers could reach the important conclusions at different times in the books, rather than being hit over the head with them. I love her character Laurent and I’m also quite fond of Damen although he is closer t hi o a stereotype. Are their plot holes and inconsistencies? Yes. I did not expect Ursula K. LeGuin or JRR Tolkien or even Jane Austen here. But it is far above, say, Fifty Shades of Grey, which I couldn’t even get past the second chapter it was so poorly written, in character and phrasing and repetition. I also don’t generally read romances and have encountered m/m pairings only rarely. But I do have a lifetime of reading behind me, and of studying the art of writing, and I am a fan of this set of books and stories. I compare this to recently rereading the Lone Ranger novels—which I adored as a preteen and young teen—and realizing that they are in fact badly written in terms of ugly prose and that each follows virtually the same klutzy plot.