Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

65 reviews

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

read this bc my coworker lent me the books. i liked it! super excited for the second one! living for the slow burn so far. i’m hoping for some dual pov action in the next one bc i love laurent’s character and i think his pov could be fun and interesting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Alcohol, and War

ahoyitsjoy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This reminded me of reading fanfic back in the real wild west days, in both the good and the bad ways. This is a real "dead dove do not eat" so look up the cws for sure. If you didn't understand that sentence then you should not read this book probably!

Aside from the often gratuitously horrific SA happening in this book, the political intrigue is really quite well done. The reader has enough info to generally figure things out ahead of the protagonist if they're paying attention. I'm hoping the next book has the shock value dialed back several notches and more of the good stuff, because I think there's potential here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

briannafenty's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Injury/Injury detail

divine529's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

I don't even know where to begin talking about this book. I really didn't love it, but it was very engaging and intriguing, so that kept me reading. It's essentially a specific kind of "book candy" (it's not a good book, but it's compelling in a way I'm not sure I fully understand and makes me want to keep reading).  

This follows our main protagonist, Damen, a prince from Akielos whose father was killed and his half-brother sent him off to be a slave in a neighboring kingdom. His master is the cruel and cold prince of Vere, Laurent. What follows is a story of cruelty, survival, pain, political intrigue and cultural clashes. 

As I said above, I wasn't a huge fan of this book. I really enjoyed my time with it because of the plot and the politics. The characters aren't that loveable and I feel like we really don't know much about them by the end of the book. Plus the things Laurent put Damen through? That's a kind of trauma that doesn't sit right with me for any kind of relationship they form, even if it were to be resolved later. 

The amount of rape, CSA and torture is a lot and was really rough for me to read. 

Some people have said this is a sort of gay GoT and I can sort of see what they mean. 

All in all, I didn't love this, but it's intriguing enough for me to want to continue on. Definitely "book candy" for me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

shrikebait's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I checked this title out from my local library as it seems to be a right of passage for lovers of queer fantasy. 

I went in expecting a MM dark fantasy erotic thriller based on the blurb. While this is absolutely a fantasy book, I don't find it romantic or particularly erotic, even in a taboo sense. There are quite a bit of NC erotic tropes in the first half, but they never really pay off and aren't a consistent theme later in the book. 

Speaking of taboo...A particular ick comes in the form of a child character who is groomed as a s*x sl*ve. Rather than recognizing the horror this concept SHOULD evoke, the story portrays him as a spoiled brat, older than his years. No, thank you. 

While I enjoy the attention to detail in the clothing and customs of this world, I feel this aspect falls flat without a cohesive plot. Initially, I thought the plot was supposed to take a backseat to the erotic elements...but when the eroticism didn't pay off, I was left with characters who lacked consistent motivations and a less-than-compelling plot. 

With all this in mind, I'm not particularly interested in the next book. I might change my mind if y'all think it's a move in the right direction for the series.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Violence

Minor: Blood

nikki_saulnier's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Slavery

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mint_frog's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Rereading after many years and having forgot pretty much all of the plot. It's uncomfortable in many places, because sex slavery, duh, and also corporal punishment. The romance part is gonna come much later, but it is funny how Damen makes sure to mention in his internal narration how Laurent is totally his type with the blond hair and blue eyes and fair skin and all that. The political intrigue is written incredibly well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

icfasntw's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

QUICK PITCH: A prince is deposed by his brother. Adding insult to injury, he is secretly sent to serve as a slave for his royal counterpart in an enemy court. Intrigue and feelings ensue. 

VERDICT: Damen is a great fish out of water, Laurent is a perfect snake in tall grass, and the intrigue is twisty enough to keep me interested without being too complicated to follow. A perfect book to read in a hammock. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Slavery, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Rape and Death of parent

megmei's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

God I wish I had read the content warnings for this.
And yet, even with all of that, this managed to be a very boring 300 pages. If I wasn’t stuck at home with Covid, I probably would have DNF’d this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

m4ximus_pr1m3's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail