Exquisite Captive (Dark Caravan Cycle #1)

Originally posted at: http://www.tween2teenbooks.com/2015/01/exquisite-captive-by-heather-demetrios.html

First Impressions

I binge bought this book at the beginning of the year, simply because I saw it on a shelf. The story looked interesting and it definitely didn't disappoint. I immediately dug into the book and couldn't put it down! Heck, I probably would have picked the book up for the cover alone.

Characters

The characters were nothing if not complex. I liked Nalia, though I figured out some of her secrets right off the bat. I love how the Jinni are from another world that's sorta parallel to ours. There's Malek, the crappy human that owns her who's obviously not fully human. Right off the bat, I knew something was off with Malek, besides his general creepiness. The one downside is it looks like he might be redeemed later in the story, and I really hate him. Then there's Raif, who I MAJORLY ship Nalia with. Raif is really cool, and it's nice to occasionally get in his head and see how he thinks.

Writing

This was definitely some good writing. It felt both elegant and succinct. The story got right to the point, and was never confusing, but felt beautiful at the same time. I loved how long the book was, and it really helped me get out of my book slump.

World Building

The world building was AWESOME!!!!! I mean, look at Arjinna, home of the Jinni.

Is that not beautiful? It was super cool seeing Nalia's memories of Arjinna, while being solely based in Los Angeles. Their world is obviously complex, and much like the real world, each action has very serious reactions.

So, yeah, read this book! It's super good and I can't wait for the next one!

Nalia is the only survivor after the massacre of her clan. She’s a powerful jinni, one of the most powerful, but that doesn’t save her from the dark caravan, who bring jinnis from Arjinna to earth and sell them. Nalia finds herself bought and owned by a human master, Malek, and forced to do his bidding. She would give anything to be free of her bindings to him but has little hope. Until she meets Raif, the leader of Arjinna’s revolution. He promises Nalia he can free her but his help comes with a high cost. With enemies closing in, and someone out to kill her, Nalia might have little choice but to agree.

I fell in love with this book almost immediately. The characters, the setting, the world-building, all of it worked for me and I found myself not wanting to finish because it was going to be a long wait for the next book.

Nalia was a character I really enjoyed. She was strong and massively stubborn. She also had a great sense of humour and could be very feisty, especially in regards to the men who always seemed to want someone from her. She harboured a lot of guilt for being the only survivor of her people and put so much pressure on herself to save her little brother. She seemed very lonely and the few times we saw her getting to positively interact with people who wanted nothing from her, I wanted to cry for her. They were so rare.

The two main men in her life, Malek and Raif, were such complete opposites. Malek could be cruel, though in his twisted way cared for Nalia. I liked the way his back story came into play but with how cruel he was, I could never root for him to end up with Nalia. The relationship between Raif and Nalia started off with a lot of tension and distrust, their castes hate each other, but they need each other. They sparked something in each other and the angry tension turned into something a lot steamier.

The descriptions of everything were amazing. The clothes, the club, Arjinna, the paintings Nalia’s friend Leilan did of Arjinna. It sounded like such a beautiful place that I wanted to visit. The world-building was in-depth and learning about Arjinna felt natural in the plot instead of forced in. The whole plot just flowed really well. Even when there was less action happening, there were other developments that kept my attention, we would get character development or some back story or we’d see through the eyes of the guy sent to murder Nalia.

I think the main thing I loved about the book was the nothing, not the characters or their relationships or the plot or the world, were simple. There were so many sides to everything and it gave the feeling that were will be even more to come.