Man, gotta say, this series reminds me very strongly of Kushiel's Dart:

• Elegantly written
• Packed with court intrigue
• In a high fantasy setting that
• is at least partially modeled on Renaissance Venice

And also:

• Packed with sexualized violence and sexual violence
• That often rides the line of what I, personally, am willing to tolerate in fiction
• And for sure is over line for many readers
• Though I don't get the impression either writer is being prurient or provocative for its own sake. 

Weirdly, it was when the main relationship -- one between the titular captive prince and his captor -- shifted to a dynamic of more equitable standing that I kind of freaked out and had to stop reading at about 90% of the way through the middle book in the series. Still not sure what that was about, though I suspect that I freaked because their previous relationship -- one that was, in a word, abusive -- had been so normalized in the text that the shift made that abuse obvious. I'd been Stockholm syndrome'd along with the captive prince.

This isn't maybe the most interesting thing to do -- just observe how many people treat Humbert Humbert like some kind of romantic hero, and his relationship with Lolita as a grand love story, and you can see how easily readers will dupe themselves into siding with abusers. What's interesting is unmasking it for what it was, and then trying to move on from there.

So. Onto book three, I guess. 

I have been trying desperately to like this, but it's just not engaging. We aren't told enough about Damen and Laurent to actually care about either of them. We are just thrown into the mix, which would usually be okay. But we aren't given enough background to feel sorry for Damen. And Laurent is so unlikable at this point that I'm over it. Too much rape and random sex scenes. I get that this is a lot like ancient civilizations, but there's something gross about this to me. Sorry if any if you really liked this, but I'm not. Pass.

At Last I finished the Captive Prince Series.

Even though I was disappointed with book one it got better with book two and three, Laurent and Damen were likeable and the story was a lovely read with interesting plotlines.

Overall this series was a nice read and I am glad I read it, I hoped that it would be a great read for me too from everyone else review but I guess at the end everyone has their own opinion and it is a matter of it's me not you.

This book was much better than the first one and I started to see what everyone is talking about.

For the first few chapters I was dragging myself from chapter to chapter just to finish this book and get on with it, but as I got more into the story it started to get better and I finally felt something a connection between the Mcs at last, it wasn't palpable but it was there and as the story grew it grew with it and I even started to like laurent a little more.

The writing was better in this one also, it was deeper and more informative, and this time I am actually looking forward to read the last book.

At last I delve into the world of Damen and Laurent, I bought these books as soon as they came out and has been setting in my e-reader for a while now but O never got around to reading them.

According to the summary of this book and everyone's review I thought I am going to love this but sadly I was mistaken.

This book was a disappointment to me, there was absolutely no connection between the Mcs, and there was too many secondary characters that added an annoying mystery to the book, the writing wasn't bad but I didn't like it either at times I felt lost.

However I kinda liked Damen a little which made me continue with the book and curious to know what is going to happen next.

I will read the rest of the series and hopefully the other books will be better and I will find what everybody is talking about.