Reviews
I read this book because it was making noise on Tumblr and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. 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. Content warning for slavery, rape, graphic sexual assault, pedophilia and many adult/minor relationships. This trilogy is enemies-to-lovers done right, but new readers should know that there is no romance in the first book. This book is mostly world-building through Damen’s eyes. Damen is sold into slavery and this book is told from his perspective as he navigates and survives the foreign Veretian court. Many people who are opposed to this trilogy often cite the graphic pedophilia in the first book, but this book never glorifies it, and Damen is visibly disgusted by what he sees and experiences in this book. However, if storylines with sexual abuse against children triggers you or puts you off this book, I would not read it. I loved seeing the intense relationship between Damen and Laurent, and I was curious to see how they would eventually become lovers in future books considering their intense disdain for one another in this book. While this book can definitely be read as the first book in the trilogy, it should be said that it definitely feels like the first third of a whole book. I highly recommend this book for people who love enemies-to-lovers storylines and wants to see it done right.
DNF 18%
Well, this was one book I proudly shouldn't have gone into blind. That said, it was a very powerful book. Pacat gave a very strong description of a horrible system, and Damen has a lot of strength.
I was pleasantly surprised by the first book in this trilogy, but that was nothing compared to how much I loved the second installment. Everything that I enjoyed in Captive Prince was magnified in Prince's Gambit, plus the character development was everything I wanted and more. After the first book, I thought I'd never like Laurent! But I was wrong. Lighter shades of his moral greyness come to light in Prince's Gambit. There is so much more to Laurent than meets the eye: he is wickedly intelligent, always a step ahead of his foes, and puts so much more on the line than anyone realizes. There is a motive behind every move he makes, and watching these things come out in the open, as well as seeing Damen's reactions to learning that this man he travels with isn't only a cruel snake, is so incredibly captivating.
3.5*
3.5 is the actual rating! TW: rape, sex slave, violence, abuse. Please do not read further if these topics are triggering to you! Stay safe, my friends. Captive Prince is a story of the betrayal or Prince Damon by his bastard brother Prince Kastor. In order to obtain the throne, Kastor convinced the kingdom that his brother had died, but in reality he had shipped Damon off to a rival kingdom as a gift to Prince Laurent. It does not take Damon long to realize that his brother intended for him to be a sex slave for the prince. He knows his only way to survive is to keep who he really is a secret until he can figure out a way to win back his throne. Admittedly the beginning of his book is...kind of intense. You are thrown into this world without knowing their customs or values, so a few things that take place made me almost stop reading. However, I continued on and started to understand how the kingdoms were ran and the profession of a "pet." It then made reading the rest of the book easier and entertaining. I loved the character of Damon. He is smart and strong. He refuses to be used as a pet, but also knows how to play the game in order for his safe travels back to his kingdom. His owner, Prince Laurent is awful though. He is a typical privileged prince who is used to being in control and having people take commands from him. However, I do believe there is a tragic backstory that we are yet to uncover and I think that will center around his uncle, the Regent. Despite the trigger warning, there really was not a lot of steamy/romance scenes. This book mostly is centered around feuding kingdoms and I'm not mad about that. I enjoyed the story and I really don't have anything negative to say about it. It just did not wow me. I am expecting better things in book two though!
I realized that although this is my fourth time reading this book, I have never written a proper review for it, my previous attempts full of short, fangirl shenanigans. But since this is my favorite series and I’d love to compel you all to read it, I’m going to try and fix my wrongs this time, even though it’s going to be hard to remind myself to stick to Captive Prince alone for now. I think the secret of this series is that although it is pitched as a romance novel, it does not read like a romance novel one is used to seeing around. I would say that it reads more like an historical fantasy (in fact, Akielos and Vere are inspired by Ancient Greece and 14th century France), and what prevails in this first book is the political intrigue aspect of the story rather than a romance. I’ll immediately tell you the greatest strength of this book and this series in general: the characters, especially Damen and Laurent, our protagonists. These two young men couldn’t be more different, although they are both princes: Damen is a warrior; strong, impulsive, his mind works along simple lines, which makes him an interesting narrator in the scheming court of Vere. Laurent is beautiful and cold, deceptive and clever and capable of great violence. But secretly, he has heart. What makes their relationship so interesting in this first book is that there is no romance. Damen and Laurent are rivals, from start to finish. Damen struggles to survive in Vere especially because of Laurent’s adversity towards him. But at some point, the two are forced to work together. Despite the lack of romance, their relationship is addicting. You feel for Damen, you want to figure out Laurent because you know there’s something beneath the surface. You devour the pages to find their next exchange because these two feed off one another like no other characters I’ve read before. It’s the complexity of their relationship and the complexity of the characters themselves that make this book such a page turner. And the intrigue. Because the politics in this book are amazing. As I said before, this book has an historical inspiration. I think reading Captive Prince you immediately identify the countries and time periods that inspired it, not just for the settings but for the themes: in Akielos, there is slavery. The Court of Vere is elegant, and also filled with debauchery and vices. These themes are represented with historical accuracy, not through the lens of a human of the 21st century, which for me is a great strength of this book. This also means that you can expect to find sensible themes and adult content in this book, so be prepared when picking it up. There is slavery, rape (not explicit), sex (explicit), abuse, violence. Keeping that in mind, this is definitely a book I recommend to lovers of political intrigue, morally gray characters, slow burn and hate to love romance. - - 2017: You know that feeling when you're halfway through a book and you already know that it's going to change your life forever? That's how I felt reading Captive Prince. It's SO, SO, SO good! Even if there's little romanticism at this point of the story, the story is still so captivating and well written and already the relationship between Damen and Laurent is so very enchanting. Even when they're being complete dicks to one another, every interaction between the two leaves you BEGGING for more-literally. You wait and see, this saga is going to consume my soul. - 2018 update: This book still owns my soul.
This shows potential for a very intriguing trilogy. Intriguing enough to convince me to spend far too much on the next two ebooks than really common sense says they deserve. I loved the fact this book is all political intrigue and all about deception and double-crossing. Especially in Vere where nothing is as it seems. Laurent is the prince and not to be trusted yet he constantly seems to be a source of support for Damen. It's strange that he is the one you seem to can trust, even if trusting him to not be trusted. And the Regent seems to be sensible and reliable yet is he all that he appears? And then there is Damen himself who is a prince (a king, really) in disguise and in the heart of enemy territory. I loved all the power plays which went on between people and I am certain that the interaction between Damen and Laurent will progress and be brilliant. Much like everyone else I was concerned when I knew there was a slave/master relationship to be seen in this series but in this first book, there is no hint of it. This all about setting the scene, demonstrating the personality of the characters and demonstrating the shifting power struggles occurring at every level, and in every country. If there is more to develop it will occur in the next two books. I cannot wait to continue. As I said, I have spent a stupid amount purchasing the next two books as ebooks. That really says it all.
As I kind of expected, I really enjoyed this. I love moral conflict and differing cultures and having Damen as our narrator in this very interesting pov was so much fun for me. He has to pretend he's not a prince, which sucks for him, because that's what he is! He is a prince! And now he is expected to act as a willingly submissive slave for the spoilt brat of his enemy kingdom!?! Like...could it get any worse for him??? Well yes!! But it was this perfect bundle of political intrigue and him trying to figure out the going on in this totally different place. How almost every aspect of these people's lives was handled differently than he is used to. Anthropologically this was just super interesting. Besides that whole aspect I just really liked the set up. They are these kingdoms with complex insides but it's really only four kingdoms you hear about. It makes it very easy to wrap your hear around, unlike GoT and stuff like that where there are so many different families you have to keep up with. These were very short and sweet. But the politics and the back story is where it gets more detailed. Obviously not too detailed as its only the first book. Over all there were a lot of aspects of this book I really enjoyed Not to mention Damen. He is...so perfect. Just very strong, but intelligent and could kill you but humble and cares for his people. You can tell he isn't as spoiled as Laurent and it was nice to see that, but also fun when he would pick out moments Laurent was acting like a brat. And I liked Laurent BECAUSE he'said a brat and too manipulative and good with words he's so untrustworthy but that's great. It makes the reading experience better that way in my opinion! Also obviously they are basically polar opposites and this helps their relationship to be the hate to love bullshit I am trash for. They both are attracted to the other (I'm assuming since we don't get Lauren's pov) but they hate eachother because enemies but allies?? Idk but it's such a unique concept. It me at least. And I really enjoyed it. And I want to read the other two installments now but I have to wait!! Ahhh
I’m torn... This is a controversial book by any standards and I’ve read a lot of reviews so I knew going into it that I was probably going to have a lot of mixed feelings. And for once I was right on the spot with that assumption. On one hand there was a lot of unique things about this book that made it an interesting read and kept me engaged. But on the other I was pretty disgusted and heart broken most of the time. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad book or tell anyone not to read it but I also won’t be going out of my way to recommend it. There are a lot of triggering subject matters including; rape, sexual abuse and harassment, slavery, torture, and more; and on top of that it is very graphic so please keep that in mind when thinking of picking this up. But the “romance” that is often talked about by many reviewers and fans of the series, how do I say this? ——— Is not at all a romance! And the fact that anyone could find any of this book romantic is very worrying to me. It’s not slow burn, it’s disgusting and abusive and I clearly grasped that. Which is the reason this isn’t a one star read for me. Thank goodness it was clear to me that this wasn’t been promoted as a good relationship or romantic. But as I said to start with, this is a controversial one so, yeah. The writing was very interesting however I found certain sections to be repetitive and the pace to be a little problematic. The end was rather anti climatic but I will be continuing with the series just to see what happens next. This was a good book but it wasn’t an enjoyable read for me, the content was so worrying and hard to grasp and there wasn’t much in terms of a resolution to the problematic things and I can’t support that. Even though it was clear to me that this book is based on problematic subject matter and it isn’t a representation of something good, there is a chance as with any type of media that it will be interpreted in so many different ways. All I can say is that I hope the next book differs from this and addresses some things in a more serious and clear manner.
Rating 2016: 4 stars Raring 2018: 5 stars This book is even more spectacular now than it was the first time I read it, perhaps because now I know what happens and I'm having fun finding all the little clues that I missed the first time around. Damen is my spirit animal, how can you not love him? And Laurent... The first time I read this book I spent half of it thinking he was a wee shit, but now I see things differently. Ah, the perks of a rereader! The reason why I gave this book 4 stars when I first read it was my discomfort while reading some scenes in the first part. The court of Vere is extravagant and the masters can get away with anything, seriously. But now I knew what to expect and those scenes weren't nearly as dreadful to read. It's like when Kevin McCallister goes back to the basement and realizes the furnace is not really a monster. So the rating was upped to 5 stars.
2.5 stars. CW: Pedophila, rape, abuse, slavery. +: - m/m relationship not often seen in fantasy - character driven story with a good character development. (view spoiler)[ -: - SLAVERY is treating with poor taste. In Captive Prince world’s, slavery is practiced in every nation (The pets of Vere being slaves in every way except the name) and the author does not question it. There is no aim to end slavery or change it, it’s good as it is and everyone is happy. Worse, slavery is romanticized. Most slaves are happy to be so because their masters are suppose to be nice with them and it is in the slaves nature to be submissive. No, slavery is wrong. It should not be accepted by everyone in this world. - World building. Saying that it’s inexistant is an understatement. This first book does not show us anything else than one royal court. We do not have any information about the different cultures (expect how they treat or fuck slaves). We do not know anything about the common people, trading, agriculture, habits (expect if they prefer to fuck people of the same sex or not). - Sexual preference. When I got this book, I was thrilled to finally read a m/m relationship (my only other book with m/m relations being The Foxhole Court 100% recommend). My problem is that the reason for everyone being gay in Vere is that they don’t want bastards. No, you are gay because this is your sexual orientation, not because a hole is a hole, and this one doesn’t bring babies out of it. In the same spirit, the main protagonist sexual preference is so unreliable, whatever has pale skin, he wants to fuck. I could go on and on. Still going to continue with the série, hope it improve. (hide spoiler)]
