Captive Prince

Interesting story set in a Romanesque fantasy world from the POV of a disposed prince, sent as a slave to an enemy territory by a half-brother that took his throne by coup. Damen (Prince Damianos) is “given” to Prince Laurent of Vere who is seen by everyone as cold and calculating but the more Damen learns about him, the more complex Laurent seems to be.
In this first book, there isn't romance or sex between the main characters making this more a historical fantasy than in the romance genre. There are a lot of references to rape/sexual torture with one scene of two male slave characters having public sex after fighting in an arena as part of Vere's preferred brand entertainment. There is also some scenes of regular torture, such as Damen getting severely flogged. Obviously, this book isn't going to be for everyone because of the violence but I enjoyed it and it didn't feel romanticized at all (Damen himself criticizes and refuses to engage in rape and pedophilia more than once, despite it being more-or-less demanded of him by people of higher rank). Though this first book is very short, the world of Vere seems very complex and interesting and I look forward to continuing on to find out the fates of the characters.

Side note: Not sure if it was the copy I got but there were a lot of weird grammar and sentence structure “errors”. The author is Australian so maybe it's that, but some paragraphs were hard to read and I had to backtrack more than once to understand what was happening.

I'm having trouble writing this review because I have so many conflicting feelings about it. Though this book doesn't have a lot of hype surrounding it currently, I knew going in that lots of people love it but it also has it's fair share of haters. I also knew enough about the triggering content, so I went in with an open mind and I think that definitely helped.

This is a world where all kingdoms have slaves, the only difference being how they are treated by their masters. Pleasure slaves are the norm, with their ages being as young as thirteen. Rape is used as a performance for the entertainment of the nobility. Court intrigue is at it's finest. Every word has layers beneath it. There is no loyalty and betrayal seems to be lurking everywhere.

The best part of the book are the two main characters. Damen is very much out of his depth initially, a prince betrayed by his half-brother and gifted as a slave to the enemy. Being the personal pleasure slave of Prince Laurent is not easy, considering he hates the kingdom of Akielos and it's prince Damianos more than anything. Laurent is also very cunning, brutal, selfish, an expert at wordplay and always three steps ahead of everyone. Throughout his enslavement, Damen has to navigate this pit of vipers, keeping his identity a secret and figure out any possible opportunities for escape.

Both these characters are very captivating to read about. None of them are really good but Damen has some empathy towards his people and definitely displays some morals when forced to fight or violate others younger or weaker than him. Laurent frankly has no redeeming qualities but his scheming mind is just so fascinating. The development of their relationship from brutal enemies to reluctant partners who need to keep each other alive for the sake of their kingdoms is very engaging and I can't wait to read more of their interactions.

The writing throughout the book is very gripping. The plot is intriguing, very fast paced despite there being no action sequences. Sometimes, the author tries to use very obscure and complicated words which didn't really enhance the experience for me and I was able to enjoy the story better once I stopped googling them. I also feel guilty for liking this book which has so much violence, gore and inhumane treatment of people but I also can't deny the fact that I finished it in a single sitting, without once getting up from my couch. And I'm so looking forward to see how the romance angle will be established because currently, it's difficult to picture Damen and Laurent as anything other than possible friends.

I've heard so much about this book so I was super excited to finally get my hands on it (Thanks EJ!). And I have to say this book was not what I was expecting. It was very slow and methodical as we came to know the world and the characters. I am a huge fan of political intrigue and politics especially at court, so the majority of the plot was fascinating to me.

However, I feel like I did not get to know the characters as much as I would like. Laurent is still a huge mystery to me and there is so much more I want to know. The one thing we do know is that Laurent and Damen are both strong-headed guys who are beyond snarky. There interactions were spot on and constantly had me smiling to myself. We all know this is a romance and it is clearly a very slow-burning one. They still have so much to learn about one another and have only made a small dent in their relationship.

I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this trilogy, especially with how this one ended. I also have heard that Prince's Gambit is even better than this one which is exciting.