Book Review: Captive Prince (Captive Prince #1) by C.S. Pacat

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Publisher: Berkeley
270 Pages

From global phenomenon C. S. Pacat comes the first in her critically acclaimed trilogy—with a bonus story.

Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos. But when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.

Beautiful, manipulative, and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.

For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else…

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I have a tendency to just dive into books without knowing anything about them other than what the cover looks like. The Captive Prince was one of them. Sometimes it's just nice to go into a book with no expectations. Not going to lie, in the beginning I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like it, but I carried on and what I found was an interesting story of deception, rivalries, and survival.

Let's start with why I was hesitant in the beginning. Mostly it had to do with the presentation of information. For a story that takes place in a different world, there needs to be world building and it needs to be done in a way that your readers can grasp. Pacat just kind of threw it all out there. World, people, plot...all of this came within the first chapter without any buildup. Yes, there was a prologue which drew me in. And yes, there was a character log at the beginning, but having to turn to the front and then back to where I was in the book was time consuming and I still couldn't remember who everyone was.

What I liked was the how this wasn't a love story. This is a story about a Prince who wants his kingdom back and the way he has to side with one enemy in order to get it. These were strong, interesting characters and I could never guess where they were going to go next. While I'm not a huge fan of sex slave story lines and public humiliations, the story wasn't weighed down with them and I was able to stay in the story.

This isn't normally the style of book that I read but I liked the complexity of it and how different it was for me. Basically, how do you know you don't like it if you don't try it? And this, I ended up liking. I am invested in Damen and want to know how his story plays out. On to the next one...

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.