Samuel DenHartog's Blog: The Road to 1,440 - Posts Tagged "apple"

When I first began shaping this story, I knew it wouldn’t be about crowns or cleverness alone. It would be about what someone gives up without knowing what they will get in return, and how real love rarely arrives with trumpets. I set it in a world brushed with the wonder of old stories, vanishing cities, rose-lit towers, sea-bound palaces, but gave it a heart that beats through silence and sacrifice. There are echoes of "One Thousand and One Nights" here, but this tale travels its own path.

At its center stands Princess Nouronnihar, raised in silk and ceremony within the Jasmine Court, yet quietly restless beneath it all. When three foreign princes come from distant lands, Persia, Arabia, and the Maghreb, the Sultan refuses to choose among them by lineage or wealth. Instead, he sends them outward, each to find something truly rare. Their quests stretch across kingdoms and beliefs, each prince tested not just by what he finds, but by who he becomes in the finding.

The magic in this story is unmistakable: a carpet that can fly, a telescope that peers across continents, an apple whose breath can heal. But those are not what linger. What matters more is the way each gift reflects its bearer, and the moment when these rivals must act together, not to win, but to save. When a vengeful genie steals the princess away, everything shifts. The rescue depends not on power, but on trust and loss and timing that cannot be undone.

At its heart, this book is about love with choice at its core. Not a contest to be won, but a gift to be offered. I hope readers will find wonder in the journey and perhaps see a little of themselves in the characters who travel so far, not just to earn love, but to understand it. That is the soul of "Three Princes, One Heart."