I think people should mind the trigger warnings: there’s rape, there’s torture, there’s pedophilia. This isn’t an outright romance/erotica read right off the bat. And since it’s labeled “romance” and has the term “pleasure slave” thrown in there too, readers might come with these high expectations of something they won’t necessarily find here. I think my biggest pet peeve with this book specifically is that it’s classified under “romance”, and that’s not exactly what you get in this first installment of the Captive Prince trilogy. Fans of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series will eat this up with a spoon. The intricacy of the political entanglements gives depth to the novel's erotic turmoil, and readers who struggle with the extensive scenes of nonconsensual sex will still be drawn in by the subtle, powerful writing. Pacat's ubiquitous and varyingly grim depictions of sexual slavery play brutal counterpoint to Damen's optimistic attempts to regain agency, and the obvious ways Damen and Laurent could help each other are made plausibly difficult by old hatreds and deep cultural differences. In that war Damen killed Vere's crown prince now he is the property of Vere's new heir, Laurent, who does not, as yet, know who Damen is. The other prince, Damen, is betrayed, kidnapped, and taken to Vere, a country with which Akielos had a nasty war a few years before. When the king of Akielos dies, his son Kastor takes the throne. Pacat's powerful debut, a blend of intense erotica and political fantasy, is disturbing and intriguing in equal measure.
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