Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios
- Pub. Date: October 7, 2014
- Publisher:Balzer + Bray
- Pages: 480
- Series:Dark Caravan Cycle #1
- Rating:It was okay
- Goodreads/Amazon/Book Depository
Forced to obey her master.
Compelled to help her enemy.
Determined to free herself.
Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she’s now in hiding on the dark caravan, the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters’ every command. She’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her handsome, cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle.
Enter Raif, the enigmatic leader of Arjinna’s revolution and Nalia’s sworn enemy. He promises to free Nalia from her master so that she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother—all for an unbearably high price. Nalia’s not sure she can trust him, but Raif’s her only hope of escape. With her enemies on the hunt, Earth has become more perilous than ever for Nalia. There’s just one catch: for Raif’s unbinding magic to work, Nalia must gain possession of her bottle…and convince the dangerously persuasive Malek that she truly loves him. Battling a dark past and harboring a terrible secret, Nalia soon realizes her freedom may come at a price too terrible to pay: but how far is she willing to go for it?
Inspired by Arabian Nights, EXQUISITE CAPTIVE brings to life a deliciously seductive world where a wish can be a curse and shadows are sometimes safer than the light.
First Line: He'd buried her alive.
Review: I found myself mostly bored while reading the Exquisite Captive and if I wasn't bored I was pissed off at the love triangle that I couldn't stand.
Review: I found myself mostly bored while reading the Exquisite Captive and if I wasn't bored I was pissed off at the love triangle that I couldn't stand.
One of my biggest issues was the flashbacks. There was just way too many and usually I have no issues with flashbacks if it flows with the story but it felt like the flashback popped up at the most inconvenient times and pulled me out of the story to where I just felt like I was reading words and no where emotionally connected to the characters at all. Another issue I had was at times the writing was way to descriptive and I was bored which also caused me to pull out of the story.
Now the love triangle, we have Malek who is abusive and I mean in a physical and mental sense. I hated him and was disgusted by him, the author gave him an out on why he was so violent but sorry no I don't buy it, the relationship was unhealthy in every way imaginable and I hate the fact that he is going to even be in the next book. I hate the fact that he was romanticized...abusive guys are a hell no! No matter what. Moving on to the other guy, Raif. I actually liked him I just don't like how the relationship played out between him and Nalia. At first they hate each other and I was loving it. It made sense they are enemies and I was eager to see a slow blossoming relationship grow between the two as they worked through their differences and developed feelings for each other in a realistic fashion, but that wasn't the case one minute they hated each other and the next out of nowhere they were kissing each other and declaring their love for each other.I'm not a fan of insta-love and that is what that felt like.
As for Nalia I don't really know how I feel about her, there were times when I liked her mainly when she was being the bad-ass Jinni that we kept being told about but barely saw then there were times I couldn't stand her mainly when she was dealing Malek and Raif and how weak she was for most of the book. We kept being told how she is this all powerful Jinn but that is not what we saw from her for majority of the book.
Overall I had really high hopes for this one but it didn't really live up to the high expectations I had for it.
Memorable Quotes
~"Starbucks is this place where humans get coffee." Raif cocked his head to the side. "Which," she continued, "is this drink that makes you...happy? It gives you energy and-oh, never mind."
