Captive Prince

Starred review from February 23, 2015
Pacat’s powerful debut, a blend of intense erotica and political fantasy, is disturbing and intriguing in equal measure. When the king of Akielos dies, his son Kastor takes the throne. The other prince, Damen, is betrayed, kidnapped, and taken to Vere, a country with which Akielos had a nasty war a few years before. In that war Damen killed Vere’s crown prince; now he is the property of Vere’s new heir, Laurent, who does not, as yet, know who Damen is. Pacat’s ubiquitous and varyingly grim depictions of sexual slavery play brutal counterpoint to Damen’s optimistic attempts to regain agency, and the obvious ways Damen and Laurent could help each other are made plausibly difficult by old hatreds and deep cultural differences. The intricacy of the political entanglements gives depth to the novel’s erotic turmoil, and readers who struggle with the extensive scenes of nonconsensual sex will still be drawn in by the subtle, powerful writing. Fans of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series will eat this up with a spoon. Agent: Emily Sylvan Kim, Prospect Agency.