Exquisite Captive
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Average rating3.5
For fans of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy comes the first book in the Dark Caravan Cycle, a modern fantasy-adventure trilogy about a gorgeous, fierce eighteen-year-old jinni who is pitted against two magnetic adversaries, both of whom want her—and need her—to make their wishes come true. Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. 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 release Nalia from her master so she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother. 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.
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3.5 Stars
So the short part of this review is that I loved this book. Now you might be asking yourself, if you loved it why did it only get 3.5 Stars, so let me explain. This world and these characters are are so complex and flushed out and Demetrios's writing made the real to me. I was able to fully immerse myself in the world of the Jinni and the Dark Caravan. This book kept my full attention and I hated the times I had to put it down to study, sleep, or go to class. But I'm also glad I was able to take my time when reading this and have time to think about the world and characters outside of actively reading.
That being said I had a few issues with this book. The world is incredibly complex and while there was a glossary of sorts at the beginning that still was not enough to truly accustom myself to the world and the culture. The first 40-50 pages of this book were pure info dump, I love complex worlds with great world building and this world definitely needed that. Instead, I felt like all this information was being shoved down my throat and I did not retain half of it. I instead relied on the characters and the plot to help piece together what I missed in the info dump.
If I did not have such a problem with this first 50ish pages of this book, it would have been a 4.5-5 star read, but I really cannot overlook how much the beginning irritated me.
Another thing I want to mention is the whole slave/master thing that is going on with this. There are times were it is disturbing and I questioned where Demetrios was headed, but I was confident that everything would be handled correctly. It still was a little bothersome in some places, but overall I think we always knew that Nalia was in control and making her own decisions given her circumstances. I also am very intrigued to see how this whole working with Malek thing is going to go moving forward. Especially with Raif's presence clearly there.
I cannot wait until my copy of Blood Passages arrives so I can continue to follow these characters on their quest and see where it leads them. I'm expecting more surprising reveals and more connections being made and cannot wait to see where the story goes.
