Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Captive Prince

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

danteeeh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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goddess_of_mars's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely adore this book. I don't know how it's not super famous now, but it's got everything. It's slowburn enemies to lovers, the characters are interesting and you never know what they pull next. I love the world it's set into and the way the author is not afraid to show a different society than we are used to.

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nofys's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

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_ali__aiko777's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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amallard's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Sorry for reading this. I'm not proud of me either.

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lauwbinx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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stacyaj's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-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

4.0

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laraloops's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I went into this after reading Dark Rise and it is definitely very different but I can see the same writing style and story structure. This was definitely a book of it's time - the Pascat acknowledges that it was a fanfiction beforehand and I can feel the influences - the very interesting, no straight sex allowed reality of it, the racy premise. Out of the trilogy it's definitely the weakest and hardest to get through - the dark and triggering content is very present in this one - in a way reminiscent of the darker internet content of the early 2000's. I have seen some on tiktok and the like say they were put off by this as they were expecting a cute enemies to lovers book - do not let any fanart or person fool you into thinking this is a happy book - I think that would be a massive disservice to anyone trying this book series.

First, I would like to go into detail of what I did not like about the book. I can see why this is polarizing and why others would have difficulty stomaching this book - the slavery within it is not chatel slavery but it is still racial implications that are very very off-putting about a darker skin character (he is not black) being sold into slavery and owned by a blonde, blue eyed man. For that I completely understand someone not on board for this one. There is additionally a character who is a slave within this book that says some things that in the modern context incredibly problematic.

I am going to go into a bit of mid book spoilers on some of the triggering content.

There is also a scene where the character is assaulted that is difficult to get through - I have seen some say it's written to be titillating and others say that it's not written to be enjoyed but rather depict a terrible scene of assault. After reading I have the ~~contrarian~~ nuanced opinion that it's a bit of both - as someone who has delved into the darker spaces of the internet I believe that a scene can be written of a terrible event and come off as salacious as well. I don't think it's straight up p*rn*graphy - I think Pascat is a good writer and whether they have intended it or not - I think it comes off as slightly fetishistic. This is a very highly debated topic- and I am not going to put a moral judgment on it but have gone into such detail for any prospective readers might get a more nuanced take than "This is GARBAGE" or "This is the BEST ever ignore everything".

All that out of the way- I liked this novel well enough, but it really is just set up for the character development of the second and third book. The dark content is hard to stomach but I do believe it's worth it to press on for the more interesting conversations of power dynamics and reactions to abuse in the later books. The second and third books also go less into the darker content and the dynamics are less skewed. The good thing is that this is the shortest one of the three. Damen and Laurent are both very well written and interesting characters. Laurent is not written to be sympathized with and his actions are very much shown to be terrible which I appreciated. That said, there is enough hints to his background/issues in this book that I caught on even before getting into the second and third book. Additionally Damen is a very kind hearted, earnest man who is basically a jock trying to navigate this political drama.

I could list all of the triggers of this book, but it's best to just know just about everything is in this.

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