↭↭↭↭SUMMARY↭↭↭↭
Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos. But when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.
Beautiful, manipulative, and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.
For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else…
↭↭↭↭MY THOUGHTS↭↭↭↭
----MINOR SPOILERS ALERT( as this is a series review)-------
This series is probably one of the most polarizing series out there in book community and I came into this knowing all the positive and negative reviews of the series. Frankly, going into it I already knew which things are going to bother me and still I went into it as I wanted to form my own opinion. I finished all three books in the span of two days, and did not bother with first and second short stories except for the last one as it was kind of an epilogue and I wanted to know how things are going to end.
PLOT AND WORLD BUILDING
'Captive Prince- Volume One' was surprisingly okay and all the x-rated (----- warning for graphic scenes & Pedophilia----) things did bother me but not to the point of being an obstacle of my enjoying the rest part of the book. If we can ignore few unnecessary scenes, overall plot was good but this book did not give us much room for world building. We only know that there are two enemy nations on the verge of war with each other and rest is going to be explained in next book... so yeah... this book was mostly to show the dynamics of a slave and master in Vere and how cruel it is in comparison to other countries.
'Volume Two or The Prince's Gambit' gives us a promise that this is going to be a fantasy heavy book but along the line, it kind of lost its way and focuses more on all the elements of a typical erotica. It was more mm erotica than a fantasy with a promise of slow burn romance. I liked the whole premise or general idea where the story was taking us but all the unnecessary chapters and scenes included in between were painful and irritating. This kind of made me dislike almost 70% of the book due to its misguided sense of a FANTASY book. Only last few chapters gave me the feeling that I was reading a fantasy book not an mm erotica.
'Kings Rising' is the ultimate saving grace of this whole series for me. The more serious tone, in the sense you will get in a real war threatening situation, that's what I got in this book. Sure it was romance heavy and more focused on Damen and Laurent's relationship but atleast there were some elements of an actual fantasy driven plot. I liked the whole book but was little underwhelmed by the ending (which was not quite an ending as we get epilogue in next short story). I was also unsatisfied with the resolution in between both our male protagonists even after reading the epilogue.
CHARACTERS
Damen -
“Damen's understanding of Laurent rearranged itself, in order that he might despise him more accurately.”
I really liked him in the first book. He is our narrator in this whole series, so it is important that we as a reader can connect with him on some level and we did! As he is getting this horrible situation as a slave in a horrible nation, we are somewhat there with him, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings and experiencing all the horrific encounters.
But then in second book I found him very inconsistent. One moment he is making googly eyes to Laurent and in almost next scene we see him enjoying an orgy with women. Call me hopelessly romantic, but this made me really mad and kind of made the relationship between these two unbelievable. These kind of inconsistent things make me less believable and is such a cliche mostly in 'gay for you' or 'women to men' kind of romances. It is a kind of turn off trope for me.
As I said earlier third book was saving grace for this series in terms of plot and characters. I really liked the relationship between both the characters and I could see that Damen as a character also grew a lot.Whether in finally understanding the relationship with Laurent or coming in terms with the family betrayal and accepting it.
Laurent -
Now he was a hard one to like and understand most of the time. In the first book I hated him most of the time and was not able to connect with him at all. In second one I really appreciated him for his cleverness and wit. But it was the third book where we got to understand him and see why he is the way he is. The relationship and connection he had with his brother was heartbreaking and solid.
But I really liked his character development a lot more than Damen and I really wished we could see things from his perspective too.
I really liked few secondary characters too. There were few characters I love to hate and some losses which made my heart break.But overall I really liked these characters journey along with our protagonists ( did not care a bit about the secondary romance story though!)
RELATIONSHIP & ROMANCE
As expected, the favourite part of this whole series was evolution of Damen and Laurent's relationship from Enemies to Friends to Lovers (I am not going to include 80% of second book as many incidents in that one ruined this relationship's image for me).But apart from this I really liked the Laurent and his brother's relationship and how deeply his death actually affected him. Now Damen's dynamic with his father and his second in command friend was interesting to read regardless of however less that was.
The romance between our protagonists had full potential but it did not live up to my expectation. I was expecting deep love of their romance and making them my favourite power couple but that did not happen. Their relationship ended on a very unresolved way.
But then in second book I found him very inconsistent. One moment he is making googly eyes to Laurent and in almost next scene we see him enjoying an orgy with women. Call me hopelessly romantic, but this made me really mad and kind of made the relationship between these two unbelievable. These kind of inconsistent things make me less believable and is such a cliche mostly in 'gay for you' or 'women to men' kind of romances. It is a kind of turn off trope for me.
As I said earlier third book was saving grace for this series in terms of plot and characters. I really liked the relationship between both the characters and I could see that Damen as a character also grew a lot.Whether in finally understanding the relationship with Laurent or coming in terms with the family betrayal and accepting it.
Laurent -
“Laurent could inspire homicidal tendencies simply by breathing.”
Now he was a hard one to like and understand most of the time. In the first book I hated him most of the time and was not able to connect with him at all. In second one I really appreciated him for his cleverness and wit. But it was the third book where we got to understand him and see why he is the way he is. The relationship and connection he had with his brother was heartbreaking and solid.
But I really liked his character development a lot more than Damen and I really wished we could see things from his perspective too.
I really liked few secondary characters too. There were few characters I love to hate and some losses which made my heart break.But overall I really liked these characters journey along with our protagonists ( did not care a bit about the secondary romance story though!)
RELATIONSHIP & ROMANCE
“I think if I gave you my heart, you would treat it tenderly.”
As expected, the favourite part of this whole series was evolution of Damen and Laurent's relationship from Enemies to Friends to Lovers (I am not going to include 80% of second book as many incidents in that one ruined this relationship's image for me).But apart from this I really liked the Laurent and his brother's relationship and how deeply his death actually affected him. Now Damen's dynamic with his father and his second in command friend was interesting to read regardless of however less that was.
The romance between our protagonists had full potential but it did not live up to my expectation. I was expecting deep love of their romance and making them my favourite power couple but that did not happen. Their relationship ended on a very unresolved way.
It was not the most eloquent form of writing style but it was quick and easy to read. There were few descriptive scenes but that did not bother me and I flew through all three books plus one short story (The Summer Palace)
Overall this was a decent series for me. I can understand why many people love it and I can also understand why many people hate it. I was overall pleasantly surprised in some places and disappointed in some.
RATING (out of 5)
Captive Prince - 3.5 Stars
The Prince Gambit - 2.75 Stars
Kings Rising -4 Stars
Have read this series? If yes, what are your thoughts on this? What you really liked or did not like. Please comment below and do let me know, I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
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