You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Scan barcode
20sidedbi's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
This book is sexual violence posing as plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
nolimalumsedheroa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Who doesn't like a slowburn enemies to lovers?
Side note: I'm currently lacking in sleep, so this review might be a hot mess
I'm not really a fan of some of the sexual interactions, but I really loved the characters. This book was great, because it got me out of one of my biggest reading slumps yet.
DEFINITELY NOT FOR EVERYONE
In contrast to the overall smuty/eroticay vibe, the book almost doesn't feature sexual content, HOWEVER when it does, it might be a little triggering to people.
Here are my personal TWs/tags: Master/slave kink, CNC, Rape, Pedophilia?(I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct tag here. On the one hand, one of the people involved in the relationship is a minor, however they're very much consenting to everything and if the story said they were 20 instead of 13, it wouldn't really change a thing since they don't act infantile at all... I guess a main question is if they're able to consent), also I found allusions to familial SA; Voyeurism could be also argued, Public play
As I said, I loved the characters. Himbo and 🐍 are so complimentary of each other when you truly observe them, it's fascinating.
If you're in the mood for a smuty and horny book low on sex displays which would make a Christian woman clutch her pearls and start crossing, I feel like this book fits the bill.
Also, it did better than FSoG with explaining the contract relationships, so there's that.
There were some... choices made here, which made me quote one of the most iconic lines Jenkins (from The Librarians) has ever said:
[image error]
Overall, I liked the book 4.25/5
Now off to the next one since the insomnia isn't going away 🙂
Side note: I'm currently lacking in sleep, so this review might be a hot mess
I'm not really a fan of some of the sexual interactions, but I really loved the characters. This book was great, because it got me out of one of my biggest reading slumps yet.
DEFINITELY NOT FOR EVERYONE
In contrast to the overall smuty/eroticay vibe, the book almost doesn't feature sexual content, HOWEVER when it does, it might be a little triggering to people.
Here are my personal TWs/tags: Master/slave kink, CNC, Rape, Pedophilia?(I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct tag here. On the one hand, one of the people involved in the relationship is a minor, however they're very much consenting to everything and if the story said they were 20 instead of 13, it wouldn't really change a thing since they don't act infantile at all... I guess a main question is if they're able to consent), also I found allusions to familial SA; Voyeurism could be also argued, Public play
As I said, I loved the characters. Himbo and 🐍 are so complimentary of each other when you truly observe them, it's fascinating.
If you're in the mood for a smuty and horny book low on sex displays which would make a Christian woman clutch her pearls and start crossing, I feel like this book fits the bill.
Also, it did better than FSoG with explaining the contract relationships, so there's that.
There were some... choices made here, which made me quote one of the most iconic lines Jenkins (from The Librarians) has ever said:
[image error]
Overall, I liked the book 4.25/5
Now off to the next one since the insomnia isn't going away 🙂
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual content, Trafficking, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Drug use, Incest, Fire/Fire injury, and War
louisa_pennyfeather2021's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Blood, and War
ara02's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and War
huckleberryrk's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.75
I'm gonna review this the way I would do for work, so let's bang this out.
I picked this book up because there was a lot of chatter around it. I'm always on the hunt for good gay rep and full disclosure: if you are an LGBTQ+ person looking for good representation... look elsewhere. You won't find it here. This book is disappointing at best and triggering at worst if you are here for that sort of thing. That said...
Trigger warning for: sexual assault, pedophilia, violence, corporal punishment.
Initial thoughts: Meh? Some good, some bad. Sorta boring. I don't really care for political intrigue, and I was promised a queer novel but this is really painfully obviously written by someone who lacks queer nuance. My main problems with the book lie in the hyper-focus on the slavery aspect. I'll definitely get to that, but I HAVE to mention it right upfront.
A note: I identify as a queer man (bisexual, to be specific) who is masculine. I am also white if that bears noting.
Logline: A prince is betrayed by his half-brother and sold as a slave to the prince of the kingdom they are at war with. He is forced to deal with this subjugation at the hand of his rival royal, who has no idea who he truly is.
Characterization: 2/5
I wasn't exactly spellbound by this cast. Some of the characters did stick out to me, but I don't think any of them are memorable enough for me to recall fondly years later. The names confused me a lot, I have a hard time with fantasy names in general, but some of them were kind of low-level ridiculous. How am I supposed to care about characters if I can't remember who the fuck they are?
I liked the protagonist, but I do wish that I knew more about him. He wasn't quite flat, nor fully developed. I always felt strangely disconnected from him. I never really knew what he was feeling, even if I did know what he was thinking. The character of Laurant was built up to be more than he was, in my opinion. He was a manipulative dick, but the protagonist talked about "the maze of his mind". It didn't strike me as all that complicated.
Dialogue: 4/5
Slapped pretty hard at points. The strongest times were the banter when the Damen was playfully rebellious against Laurent, as well as the conversations between Damen and the other slaves.
Technical proficiency with the language: 4.5/5
Very well written. Rich descriptions. Read fluidly and easily. Definitely a page-turner in that respect. Easy to get through in an afternoon if you hoof it, you can very much let the language wash over you and it's very nice. Some of the best parts were the action/fighting sequences. I'm docking my grade a half point because the ambience surrounding horrendous sex acts wasn't *romantic* exactly but it was still unpleasant to read.
Story structure: 1/5
Structure? What structure? Three acts? Five acts? Character arcs? The dark night of the soul? Growth and development? What are those? There is some, sure, but it felt like the characters were just wandering around doing whatever. Additionally, it feels like the writer got to the halfway point of the book and was like "huh, maybe I should talk about things that AREN'T slaves and/or sex" and decided to try and write real stakes into the story.
Romance: 1/5
Nil. None to speak of, despite me being informed otherwise (before I read warnings on here to set me straight).
Sexiness: 2/5
Nice descriptions for the scenes that were kinda sexy, but it didn't get me hot under the collar.
Additionally, the casual treatment of rape and sexual assault was offensive. I didn't like that. Hope you're okay with pedophilia, too. I'll be clear; the rape/assault/pedophilia was viewed through the lens of a character who was repulsed by it and it wasn't outwardly romanticized, but it was absolutely there and there was a veneer over it that made it seem less morally hideous. More on this on the "politic" section.
Storyline: 2/5
I'm sure there were events happening, but blow me if I could try and figure out the significance of any of them and how they connected to one another. The story did start to get interesting to me... at the 3/4 point. Too little, too late. Before that, I honestly didn't really enjoy what was happening story-wise. The ending was strong. I wish the book was half as long as it was.
Worldbuilding: 2/5
Names were dumb. I have no idea what the landscape of these places is like. Spent WAY WAY WAY too much time talking about the slave politics, which I really didn't love. Other than that, it had the same sorta crap high-fantasy politics that nobody cares about. Some of the aesthetics were interesting, but that's all I have to say.
Politic: 1/5
I can't get around the obvious. I touched on this in the beginning-- the amount of sexual assault, fetishization of slavery (with a healthy underscore of colonialist racism, hooray), and straight-up homophobia is... a lot. Even if we knew these acts were "bad" in the lore of this world, I didn't enjoy reading about them.
I felt creepy and gross reading about the way gay men were talked about in this book. It was pretty disgusting. It was very obviously written by a straight woman. As a bisexual man, I felt very much like this was what a straight woman would imagine us to be in an ideal sexy world (but not even that sexy tbh).
Final review: 2/5
Boring and offensive. Has its moments and it started to get good towards the end. It looked at things that should be looked at realistically with a strange rose-coloured tint. It was obviously a fetish project that took off and had more high-fantasy elements peppered in. As I noted earlier, if this book was half as long it would be pretty decent.
My conclusion is that everyone who is dragging this book through the mud is right and anyone praising it for being good fantasy is also right. It has both-- but the politics of it and the wandering plot aren't my taste.
I picked this book up because there was a lot of chatter around it. I'm always on the hunt for good gay rep and full disclosure: if you are an LGBTQ+ person looking for good representation... look elsewhere. You won't find it here. This book is disappointing at best and triggering at worst if you are here for that sort of thing. That said...
Trigger warning for: sexual assault, pedophilia, violence, corporal punishment.
Initial thoughts: Meh? Some good, some bad. Sorta boring. I don't really care for political intrigue, and I was promised a queer novel but this is really painfully obviously written by someone who lacks queer nuance. My main problems with the book lie in the hyper-focus on the slavery aspect. I'll definitely get to that, but I HAVE to mention it right upfront.
A note: I identify as a queer man (bisexual, to be specific) who is masculine. I am also white if that bears noting.
Logline: A prince is betrayed by his half-brother and sold as a slave to the prince of the kingdom they are at war with. He is forced to deal with this subjugation at the hand of his rival royal, who has no idea who he truly is.
Characterization: 2/5
I wasn't exactly spellbound by this cast. Some of the characters did stick out to me, but I don't think any of them are memorable enough for me to recall fondly years later. The names confused me a lot, I have a hard time with fantasy names in general, but some of them were kind of low-level ridiculous. How am I supposed to care about characters if I can't remember who the fuck they are?
I liked the protagonist, but I do wish that I knew more about him. He wasn't quite flat, nor fully developed. I always felt strangely disconnected from him. I never really knew what he was feeling, even if I did know what he was thinking. The character of Laurant was built up to be more than he was, in my opinion. He was a manipulative dick, but the protagonist talked about "the maze of his mind". It didn't strike me as all that complicated.
Dialogue: 4/5
Slapped pretty hard at points. The strongest times were the banter when the Damen was playfully rebellious against Laurent, as well as the conversations between Damen and the other slaves.
Technical proficiency with the language: 4.5/5
Very well written. Rich descriptions. Read fluidly and easily. Definitely a page-turner in that respect. Easy to get through in an afternoon if you hoof it, you can very much let the language wash over you and it's very nice. Some of the best parts were the action/fighting sequences. I'm docking my grade a half point because the ambience surrounding horrendous sex acts wasn't *romantic* exactly but it was still unpleasant to read.
Story structure: 1/5
Structure? What structure? Three acts? Five acts? Character arcs? The dark night of the soul? Growth and development? What are those? There is some, sure, but it felt like the characters were just wandering around doing whatever. Additionally, it feels like the writer got to the halfway point of the book and was like "huh, maybe I should talk about things that AREN'T slaves and/or sex" and decided to try and write real stakes into the story.
Romance: 1/5
Nil. None to speak of, despite me being informed otherwise (before I read warnings on here to set me straight).
Sexiness: 2/5
Nice descriptions for the scenes that were kinda sexy, but it didn't get me hot under the collar.
Additionally, the casual treatment of rape and sexual assault was offensive. I didn't like that. Hope you're okay with pedophilia, too. I'll be clear; the rape/assault/pedophilia was viewed through the lens of a character who was repulsed by it and it wasn't outwardly romanticized, but it was absolutely there and there was a veneer over it that made it seem less morally hideous. More on this on the "politic" section.
Storyline: 2/5
I'm sure there were events happening, but blow me if I could try and figure out the significance of any of them and how they connected to one another. The story did start to get interesting to me... at the 3/4 point. Too little, too late. Before that, I honestly didn't really enjoy what was happening story-wise. The ending was strong. I wish the book was half as long as it was.
Worldbuilding: 2/5
Names were dumb. I have no idea what the landscape of these places is like. Spent WAY WAY WAY too much time talking about the slave politics, which I really didn't love. Other than that, it had the same sorta crap high-fantasy politics that nobody cares about. Some of the aesthetics were interesting, but that's all I have to say.
Politic: 1/5
I can't get around the obvious. I touched on this in the beginning-- the amount of sexual assault, fetishization of slavery (with a healthy underscore of colonialist racism, hooray), and straight-up homophobia is... a lot. Even if we knew these acts were "bad" in the lore of this world, I didn't enjoy reading about them.
I felt creepy and gross reading about the way gay men were talked about in this book. It was pretty disgusting. It was very obviously written by a straight woman. As a bisexual man, I felt very much like this was what a straight woman would imagine us to be in an ideal sexy world (but not even that sexy tbh).
Final review: 2/5
Boring and offensive. Has its moments and it started to get good towards the end. It looked at things that should be looked at realistically with a strange rose-coloured tint. It was obviously a fetish project that took off and had more high-fantasy elements peppered in. As I noted earlier, if this book was half as long it would be pretty decent.
My conclusion is that everyone who is dragging this book through the mud is right and anyone praising it for being good fantasy is also right. It has both-- but the politics of it and the wandering plot aren't my taste.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Kidnapping
kostas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, and Kidnapping
kommatator's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War
jmross10's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book (and this series) get a bad wrap a lot of the time. The main reason for that is people don't read the synopsis or they do read it and completely disregard what it says. Then they act shocked when they find out there is sexual slavery at the center of the story. It is an understandably surprising premise but if you give the book a chance you will see there's more to it than what the surface suggests. A big part of the main character's journey is being forced to re-evaluate his view of the world now that he is seeing it from the other side.
There is a slow burn romance that develops over the duration of the series but don't go into this book expecting to see much of it. There are the tiniest hits of what could be. There is no actual suggestion as to what it is.
For that matter, don't go into this book expecting to know what's going to happen next either. While the world is interesting and the characters are messy, the most captivating part is easily the chaotic political maneuvering in Vere. Everyone seems to be twenty steps ahead of the reader. Some of them - Laurent - are thirty.
Captive Prince is not necessarily an easy read but there are real emotional stakes, consequences for character's actions, and an unraveling of political plots that makes it well worth the effort. Pacat is an excellent writer and worth giving a try!
There is a slow burn romance that develops over the duration of the series but don't go into this book expecting to see much of it. There are the tiniest hits of what could be. There is no actual suggestion as to what it is.
For that matter, don't go into this book expecting to know what's going to happen next either. While the world is interesting and the characters are messy, the most captivating part is easily the chaotic political maneuvering in Vere. Everyone seems to be twenty steps ahead of the reader. Some of them - Laurent - are thirty.
Captive Prince is not necessarily an easy read but there are real emotional stakes, consequences for character's actions, and an unraveling of political plots that makes it well worth the effort. Pacat is an excellent writer and worth giving a try!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It's hard to put into words my feelings for this book. It reads a bit like fanfiction in that there are a lot of aspects of the world that seemed underdeveloped. And for a first book, while it definitely felt intriguing, I felt needed more to be able to call it a book with a plot. So when I found online that the story had originally been posted on Livejournal as a serial it made a lot of sense. This doesn't feel like a book so much as the 1st part of a story.
The sexual content also weighs the book down, I was thinking "do these ppl do anything else?" And again that made the world building feel underdeveloped. But it mostly goes away in the second half and that's around when the actual plot of political intrigue begins. I wouldn't have planned on reading the next books in the series based on the first half, but the second does have me hooked. But this book for sure isn't like, high literature. It's pulp.
Big trigger warnings for sexual abuse.
The sexual content also weighs the book down, I was thinking "do these ppl do anything else?" And again that made the world building feel underdeveloped. But it mostly goes away in the second half and that's around when the actual plot of political intrigue begins. I wouldn't have planned on reading the next books in the series based on the first half, but the second does have me hooked. But this book for sure isn't like, high literature. It's pulp.
Big trigger warnings for sexual abuse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Pedophilia
dobbsthedog's review against another edition
4.0
CW: rape, torture, kidnapping
I had a hard time getting into this one, it didn't grab me right away, but then several folks convinced me to keep going, and once I got a few more chapters in, I was hooked!
Now I have to get the next ones in the series, because I NEED to know what happens!
I had a hard time getting into this one, it didn't grab me right away, but then several folks convinced me to keep going, and once I got a few more chapters in, I was hooked!
Now I have to get the next ones in the series, because I NEED to know what happens!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Kidnapping
Moderate: Rape