Exquisite Captive (Dark Caravan Cycle, #1)

by Heather Demetrios

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.

• ISBN10: 0062318578
• ISBN13: 9780062318572
• Publish Date: 2 February 2016 (first published 7 October 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 1.5 stars

Initial thoughts: Someone option the Dark Caravan Cycle for film, please! I want to know what happens next without reading the sequels. The prose was exceedingly trite. Nearly every single page referred to chiaan which apparently meant magic, though seemed to coincide with soul as well. I got tired of Nalia's inner chanting, "I am Ghan Aisouri." The romance was so poorly developed, it distracted from what could have been a stellar plot. Exquisite Captive minus the romance and the tiring prose would've made for a far less boring book.

What I did like were the djinn's centrality to the book while humans went on with their lives on the sidelines. I also liked the sinister undertones that the ghoul brought to various places across the world and the rich imagery of culture. On screen, I think these would make for lovely scenes. The special effects, if done well, would make Exquisite Captive a great viewing experience. Even little things like a djinn bartender mixing cocktails by swirling he liquids in the air instead of using a shaker would add to this other-worldly quality.

Alas, the core of books are words first, then the stories they convey. I don't have it in me to painfully plough through the rest of the series.

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

This is and is not, a love triangle. In one sense it is, because two men are after the same woman (Nalia). But it also isn't, because Nalia only loves one of them. And it isn't her abusive master. She's a little confused at first, because she was taken into slavery as a 15 year old who had never loved or had a relationship before. But mostly she hates Malek. And with good reason.

I liked how strong Nalia was. She lived years in captivity with an abusive owner, forced to grant wishes for his business contacts. Otherwise she was banished to her bottle which was lined in iron. And iron is poison to Jinni. But it didn't break her. She feels guilt for her part in what happened to her people (and yes, you do find out what she did, eventually...) but she's focused on getting back to her world to save her little brother. She's brave, and grows a lot as a character over the course of the book.

I liked Raif, he changes a lot through the book, just like Nalia does. There's a huge weight on his shoulders as the leader of the revolution. And he's young. His only living family being his sister and mother. He starts out hating Nalia for what she is, but that eventually changes once he see's what she's really like, not what he believes her to be.

Malek is the perfect villain. The kind you love to hate. He's abusive, and seems to have multiple personality disorder, as one moment he's evil and cruel. And the next moment he's almost sweet and loving. The reason is explained later in the book, and makes perfect sense. But even once you know why he's bad, you don't hate him any less.

There's a lot of world-building in this book. Lots of customs and lore, but not to the point where it ever seems too much. I really loved this book, and can hardly wait for the next one to be out!

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Exquisite Captive is a dark illustrious, smoldering, epic fantasy that is filled with danger, chaos, mysterious intrigue, and seductive elements that will captivate readers until the end. Heather Demetrios, pens the perfect fantasy woven around original mythology, jinni's, and dangerous magic. Every moment of this New Adult novel, is intensely charged and full of twists and turns that you won't see coming until they're upon you. I loved every single minute of this book, so much that I didn't want to put it down and was kept up until all hours of the night reading. Wonderfully original and so full of suspense, Exquisite Captive, is a fantastically written and a brilliantly developed compelling story that is sure to please any fan of fantasy and mythology.

Oh my, MALEK!

I love this character so hardcore, it's hard to even put into words how much love I have for him. I know that he's written to be an evil no-good-villain, but there are things about him that I personally don't feel make him one through and through especially when you find out the big revelation about him that he's parjinn, which is half jinni and half human. It helps to explain a lot about his character, how hard he has to work in order to tamper down the evil side of himself that he's dealing with, and all of the reasons why he's treated Nalia the way that he has. It doesn't give him an out for being an abusive asshole, but it does explain a great deal why he's such a dark, complicated, and twisted character with many facets and flaws that make him one of my favorite characters in the book. I genuinely do believe that Malek does love Nalia and he does have a soft spot for her, a weakness, if you will and it's not just about ownership and trade.

If it weren't for his dark background and the heavy baggage that he carries around with him, I really do think that he would be a pretty decent guy. He has pretty much all of the qualities that I like in a man, he's tall, dark, handsome, sexy in a dangerously alluring way, and a little bit deceptive with a dash of vulnerability. Let's just say that he's the reason that I enjoyed this book so much and I found myself missing him in scenes where he wasn't involved. I wanted more of him, more of his story, more about his father and his mother and more about how he came to be who he is. Plus, I wanted more of him and Nalia, I wish she would have truly given him a fighting chance although I can see why she wouldn't want to. He did purchase her off of the Dark Caravan, who sells jinni's on the black market and kept her as a slave for years.

Nalia is a feisty little vixen, who is an incredibly strong heroine that will stop at nothing to free herself, in order to get back to Arjinna to save her little brother from the prisoner camp that he's being held captive in. She has so much heart and determination, that it's hard not to fall in love with her. She's quite likable and very easy to connect with on an emotional basis, it's not hard to feel for a jinni who is one of the last of her kind that's been sold into slavery against her will and hunted down by the Ifrit, the dark jinn that defeated her kind and slaughtered her family in front of her. Filled with anger fueled by a desire to be free of her bonds to Malek, she will absolutely stop at nothing to protect the people that she cares about with a fierceness that commands respect. I'm just gonna say it, she's exquisitely kickass and a pretty phenomenally well developed character with shades of flaws and love coursing through her veins. It's heartbreaking, watching her take on the burden of the slaughter that took place in Arjinna. I wanted to take her in my arms and hug her tightly, because this is a war that was long brewing before she ever had any part in it.

Exquisite Captive, is brimming with politics and an intriguing caste-system, that you can't help but marvel at how well Demetrios developed it. Nalia is the princess, the heir to the throne, that was overturned by the dark jinn (the Ifrit), and Raif is Djan, another caste that is beneath her kind. Nalia's kind have withheld valuable elemental training that would benefit other caste's below her own and Raif vehemently hates her kind for that very thing. He's the leader of the Arginnian revolution that's been fighting against this kind of corruption for ages. He has the burden of an entire nation on his shoulders and it's hard not to feel for him, as he's introduced further into the story. On first impressions alone, he absolutely hates Nalia for everything she represents in Arjinna, and the feeling is quite mutual between the two. Raif knows that he needs Nalia, if he's going to accomplish what he's been fighting for all his life and Nalia can't deny that she needs his help in freeing her from the bonds of control that Malek holds over her, so the two of them make a deal even though neither really trusts the other.

Once I realized that Raif's purpose in the book didn't just solely revolve around a love triangle, I was able to really enjoy his character quite a bit. He's a wonderful hero and a great addition to the story, once he and Nalia were able to look past their differences and start understanding where one another came from, I started finding the time these two spent together endearing and a lot of fun to read. There's more to his character than what's on the outside and I found it quite interesting to see Demetrios delve into that and explore who he is a little more and the fact that he has the hopes and dreams of a new future for an entire nation weighing him down made it incredibly hard not to like him. He's strong, passionate about what he knows he has to do in order to protect the world he comes from and the people he loves, and determined to stop at nothing to carry out his role as leader of the Arjinnian revolution.

The world building is richly captivating and vibrantly imaginative, as the characters themselves. Heather Demetrois, really out did herself when creating a world set within another world and centering around jinni's. There were moments, where I found myself reading exqusitely beautiful passages that reminded me of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. So for anyone who enjoys fantasy and mythology of this proportion, you are sure to enjoy this book. I highly recommend it, as it was such a fantastically captivating read.