Name: Captive Prince
Rating: 3.609011627906977 (344 reviews)
ISBN: 9781322723600

C. S. Pacat

When beloved warrior hero Damen's brother siezes the throne of Akielos unjustly, rightful heir Damen is sold as a pleasure slave to Prince Laurent of the enemy Vere Kingdom, and is soon caught up in court intrigue that threatens him and his new master.

Captive Prince

C.S. Pacat

Packed with intrigue, adventure and romance, Captive Prince is the first book in the brilliant and much-loved fantasy series by global phenomonon, C.S. Pacat.

𓆩 𓆪

tw / rape, slavery, killing

This is that book with some scary reviews and instead of not wanting to read it, I feel the strong urge to read it instead. I am curious, I want to know how 'scary' the book is.

Most reviews were right, though.

I mean, it was brutal for almost 60% of the book. I guess this book wants to focus on slavery first before dragging us into political drama. I swear, the book only talks about slavery at first, focusing on how it is the performance that entertains people there. It could really be traumatizing for some parts, the rape scenes, the detail of some events, the drug, the killing too. But the story is kinda nice.

I skipped some nude scenes, I only want to see Laurent speak fluent sarcasm to anybody and charm people with his words. It's sOOOOOOOOOOOO fun to see. I admit I cackle at his lines a lot. The sass and the confidence for this!! Prince!! Chef's!! Kiss!!

From global phenomenon C. S. Pacat comes the first novel in her critically acclaimed Captive Prince trilogy. Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos, but when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave. Beautiful, manipulative and deadly, his new master Prince Laurent epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country. For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else...

Book One of the Captive Prince Trilogy

TW //  Rape, Abuse, Pedophilias, Sexual Slavery

This is completely caught me off guard because I only saw people praising this book, but 1/2 through this book is actually horrifying, it was going nowhere and I didn't get a single idea what's actually happening, it just basically a repeated cycle of violent-rape-violent-rape. 

I know this kind of topic is actually not new both in literature and the world that we live in, and I also wouldn't want for authors to stop writing about sensitive or taboo topics but writing these things need to take so many things into consideration. The plot around this sexual slavery takes more than half of the book, but I don't see some of the point of those scene, so that's why.

At the very least it's taken from Damen's POV, and I personally like the development between Damen and Laurent wasn't rushed, because it NEED to be slow otherwise it will be absurd. So don't expect romance in this first book. But I can't ignore the fact although there's nothing going on between the two of them directly, forcing oral to someone is still rape, so I don't know what to feel about them become something?

The story is progressing for the better just at the end of the story although the twist and revelation are also already pretty much expected at this point, but I see some promising political-fantasy plot but I guess we'll see whether I will continue this series or not.

TW //  Rape, Abuse, Pedophilias, Sexual Slavery

This is completely caught me off guard because I only saw people praising this book, but 1/2 through this book is actually horrifying, it was going nowhere and I didn't get a single idea what's actually happening, it just basically a repeated cycle of violent-rape-violent-rape. 

I know this kind of topic is actually not new both in literature and the world that we live in, and I also wouldn't want for authors to stop writing about sensitive or taboo topics but writing these things need to take so many things into consideration. The plot around this sexual slavery takes more than half of the book, but I don't see some of the point of those scene, so that's why.

At the very least it's taken from Damen's POV, and I personally like the development between Damen and Laurent wasn't rushed, because it NEED to be slow otherwise it will be absurd. So don't expect romance in this first book. But I can't ignore the fact although there's nothing going on between the two of them directly, forcing oral to someone is still rape, so I don't know what to feel about them become something?

The story is progressing for the better just at the end of the story although the twist and revelation are also already pretty much expected at this point, but I see some promising political-fantasy plot but I guess we'll see whether I will continue this series or not.

Cici Pearson

rereading so i can continue the trilogy. loved it more than the first time.

i understand the love people have for lamen.

i love political plots and slow burn romance. i already want to start the second book.

rereading so i can continue the trilogy. loved it more than the first time.
i understand the love people have for lamen.
damen bisexual icon.
i love political plots and slow burn romance. i already want to start the second book.

Sunny

2.5 stars 
It's not that it's /bad/ it's just not for me. Don't think I'll carry on with this series

Julia Moran 

So I really liked this book, it's very interesting, really well written and the story is great; so in that front it's like 4.5 stars but I just have some issues with you know... the rape, the sex slaves, the pedophilia and so on. So that's why it gets 3 stars. I think I'm gonna marathon the series because I'm really curious in what will happen next!

Millie Roberts

yeh no i didnt like this, no plot, boring and made me uncomfortable

Alexa M

uhhhhhh yikes. i came into this book expecting to love it and got the exact opposite. this book had no significant plot until the end, I guess? it bored me and I ended up skimming the last half. how people can even think to ship Damen and Laurent is BEYOND ME. im really disappointed in this book and cant say if i will even finish the series...

Aishling

Edit: Okay I finished it. Call it morbid curiosity but I did. Also I’d been told that I was “past the worst of it” which was true. The second half of the book had no more rape, which begs me to ask why there was ever any in the first place? I understand authors adding uncomfortable things for plot but all the sexual abuse moments from the first half added nothing to this story. It could’ve been toned down a lot with no need for explicit details. 

Even tho the second half of the book had less sexual abuse, the story didn’t pick it. It was kind of boring to me and I started skipping bits waiting to see what would happen. Again I have a morbid curiosity to read the next book just because I want to get the hype. 

Original review:
*DNF @ 42%*

I wanna say first that I wouldn’t judge anyone for being able to get past the rape/sexual abuse and enjoy the book, but it’s just not something I can do.

I just can’t with this. I wanted to push through cause so many people seem to love this series and speak it’s praises but so far I’ve just been given disturbing images that I hope won’t plague my nightmares tonight. 

I’m not someone who shy’s away from dark themes in books but on-going sexual abuse scenes, where the perpetrator is never condemned, are just not something I can handle, especially when it is described in detail. And let me remind you that even if a person orgasm’s during rape, ITS STILL RAPE!! It doesn’t lessen what has happened to the person, and doesn’t mean they “enjoyed” it. 

I desperately need to go read a comfort book after that.

Inez

Jamieson

My thoughts on this are Extended and this is obviously a ~controversial~ book but here's the review in short form before I write the full review a bit later (im too tired to write something coherent right now smh)

- This is definitely Not Ya so I DONT KNOW WHY it so often gets pitched as YA??
- I went into this way over prepared because people speak about it being A Lot and yeah it's definitely potentially triggering and has some pretty graphic/explicit scenes but I think there's really only three scenes I'd say are kinda rough to read and one of them is really short
- while there is definitely sexual assault scenes & also pedophilia in this book they are Always condemned? I think POV is a very important part of this story. Because Damen also has a Big Problem with everything thats happening
- There was literally Nothing Romantic about Damen/Laurent either the fandom is whack or the next two books are gonna have some mad character development / redemption arc
- there is way more political intrigue and just court drama/politics than I was expecting and I REALLY liked the play out of the court politics
- Nicaise is the best character dont @ me
- honestly my main issue with this book is that I didn't Love the writing style (it felt disjointed at times and the prose didn't always flow, and I'd have to reread bits to walk out who was talking/what was happening a few times) and also that not that much actually happened until the last 100 pages
- I will continue this series because this ended in a GREAT moment and I really liked how the character dynamics played out. The politics of this was Great I'm here for it

- rtc

Captive Prince

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