Exquisite Captive - Heather Demetrios

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios
Series: Dark Caravan Cycle #1 
Published on October 7, 2014 by Balzer + Bray

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.

Ever since it was released I've been hearing mixed things about this tittle, some love it and some found it confusing and slow paced, I've to say that both are right and that I fall into these two categories. Reading this book was a roller coast ride but so far we only reached the peak, it started slow and it seemed we only are going straight but them there was some curves and twists and we started gaining velocity and going up and them it ended and I've to wait centuries for book 2 ugh.

So let me try to explain myself. The start is slow, really slow and there is A LOT of information being trow at you about the jinn mythology, their culture, gods, political system and following revolution, how they fit (or don't) on our world, basically Demetrios had a lot to cover to create this world on our heads, so give this book more than a 100 pages to grow on you, but of course if you're not a fan of slow starts maybe this will never really be your thing. For me it worked amazingly well, I read the first 100 pages really slowly in three days and it wasn't a bother for me because I was having tests and stuff so I wanted to read something slow, and them on the forth day I read the other 380 pages in a high and it was awesome.

I really loved the way this world of jinn and human was build, it was created and showed to us in a way that seemed 100% believable, I never asked myself if this could be real or not, if it was unrealistic or saw any plot holes, actually it's one of my favorite fantasy settings like ever. A lot of this is because of Demetrios writing, which is amazing and has a way to waver things like magic and curses together with chaotic Los Angeles setting and make it work, make it seems like that is the only possible place on the world for this to happen.

Now, as always, I can't not speak about the romance on this one and god, this made me feel things. So we have a love triangle, sort of, I mean you know who she is going to end up and it's pretty clear for who she has feelings but there is some other character and they have a dynamic of hatred and attraction, so things get a bit confusing some times. Let's talk about this secondary love interest first, so on my principles I should hate him with all my strength because it's a clear abusive relationship and he's basically a terrible person on all fronts, seriously there is no redeeming him but oh my god if I don't like the scenes between him and Nalia, he is so twisted that is fascinating, seeing his completely wrong ways of searching for love and affection was great and Demetrios wrote each scene in such a compelling way. On the other hand there is the actual love interest, who I'm not totally aboard with yet, I mean I was totally gonna go for that since it was a hate to love kind of thing but them a thing happen and all of sundenlly all the hate is gone and they are super sure they love each other and want to be together forever and ever and even risk things for each other, I was just surprised by this sudden change and it was too much instalove for me.

Overall this was a pretty solid start for a series that left me wanting the sequel, it has a unique and creative world building, strong characters and very twisted and complicated relationships, if you can get past the slow starts I highly recommend trying this one since I've not read anything like it on the YA section.