Publisher:
RHCP Digital
Release
Date: 9th
October 2014
Edition:
UK e-book,
purchased
Other
Titles by this Author: Something Real
A
jinni of tremendous ancient power and Empress to Arjinna, Nalia was sold into
slavery on the dark caravan, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey
their masters’ every command. She’d do 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 Arijinna’s revolution and Malia’s sworn enemy. He
promises to free Nalia so that she can return to her ravaged homeland and free
her imprisoned brother. But freedom comes at a heavy price and danger is
everywhere.
In
this gorgeous fantasy debut, Heather Demetrios brings to life a deliciously
seductive world where a wish can be a curse and shadows are sometimes safer
than light.
I sometimes find fantasy
difficult. It takes me a little longer to read and it occasionally feels too
foreign for me to fully connect with the characters and the world, but I
thoroughly enjoyed Exquisite Captive.
Heather Demetrios has created a
complex and intricate world of jinni. Even though we never set foot on
Arijinna, the hierarchies of the different jinni races and their histories are
vividly recalled and we get a picture of the beautiful, mysterious world that
Nalia calls her home. But this world has now been ravaged by war, rebellion and
the Ifrit jinnis and Nalia has no idea of the extent of the damage. I do hope
we get to see Arijinna in the next book.
A lot of problems on Arijinna
that led to the revolution and lots of jinnis on Earth stem from prejudices
between the jinni races. Each class has a different type of power and at a
different strength, and naturally, those at the top are the strongest. Nalia was
one of those jinni: the Ghan Aisouri, hated by the rest of the jinni, and the
first deaths in the uprising when the lowest class, the Ifrit, fight back. I didn’t
expect the politics of the jinni to be such a strong theme in the novel, but it
was really interesting. The Ghan Aisouri, Shaitan, Djan, Marid and Ifrit all
had they role to play in Arijinna, roles that fit their skills and powers, but
there was unrest and hatred. Even when marooned on Earth with their world in
tatters, it remained. It’s a deep rooted hatred that the relationship between
Nalia and Raif shows promise for.
But it was the relationship
between Nalia and Malek, slave and master, which drove the novel. Malek made my
skin crawl. His weird version of love for Nalia was obsessive, controlling and
abusive. It was the moments when Nalia’s affection-starved brain turned her
reaction to Malek into something she might have wanted. His actions made me so
angry and it made me feel sick. He couldn’t comprehend how Nalia couldn’t love
him; it was strange and unnerving, especially when Nalia showed signs of
Stockholm Syndrome in her responses to him. It is an interesting dynamic,
however, and propelled the story forward with urgency.
Exquisite
Captive is the
fantastic first book in what promises to be a dark, seductive and completely
compelling fantasy series. I’d really quite like to still be reading this, actually...
Sophie
This sounds ace!!
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