Reviews tagging 'Death'

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

80 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

daem_ss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

Más que haber estado leyendo un libro sentí como que estaba viendo una serie épica de reinos y guerras. Me encantó la ambientación, la tensión entre los protagonistas y, sobre todo, el complot que se iba moldeando a través de las páginas. Aunque sí hubieron partes que encontraba algo innecesarias o donde me confundía, entiendo que todo formó parte de demostrar cómo funcionaban las sociedades de cada reino. Uf, estoy deseando que el segundo libro me encante aun más. 🫣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

littlewishling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

What a great book! I love Damien and Laurent’s dynamic and I can’t wait to see how it plays out. Pacat has done a phenomenal job of creating a believable and intriguing world that I can’t wait to read more about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Slavery

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, and Violence

eli_ross's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense 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

As interesting as I found the premise of this book, it's really let down by the writing, which I found was inconsistent and underdeveloped in places. It read more like a YA novel, which is what I expected after reading the first few pages, but some of the content was very graphic. I think that if it had been written in a more sophisticated style, it would have negated the brashness of some of the darker scenes. Check the trigger warnings before reading, as others have said.

However, I enjoyed seeing the relationship evolve between Laurent and Damon. I'll be reading the second book eventually, as I'm invested in where they end up. Overall a good book if you like a quick read, and a dramatic enemies-to-(I'm assuming) lovers story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Classism

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

booksthatburn's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Murder

ciuli's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.25

Look, I have to say that if you manage to ignore 90% of the story and the plot and only focus on the main characters, then I could probably say that this book was enjoyable. 

The whole first part of the book made me wish I could scrub my brain with soap just so I could forget everything that I had read so far. While I do understand that the whole plot of this book surrounds slavery and how they are the slaves are treated depending on the country's culture, I also believe that having people casually rape each other every now and then could have easily been avoided. 
I knew what kind of themes I would have encountered reading this book, I had read some reviews here and there, but it felt like reading glorified porn in some parts and that's just something I don't like, but that's my taste and my opinion. 

Regarding the characters, boy did I NOT like Damen, AT ALL! 
man had me wishing I could slap him irl, and a the time he was supposed to be the one I felt pity for! He is completely disconnected from the real world, thinks his country and people are so much better than everyone else just because they treat their slaves better, while completely missing the point considering how they do have slaves as well 😭 

I like Laurent, I like his scheming mind and how smart he is with everything, I like how he is always 10 steps ahead of you and you don't even know it. Is he a perfect character? Absolutely not, he almost had someone rapes in front of him and almost flogged Damen to death, but we know there's more to it and I'm curios to see what's to come! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Pedophilia

bookishstevie's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment

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