Exquisite Captive

Exquisite Captive is the first book of Heather Demetrios' Dark Caravan Cycle.

Forced to obey her master.
Compelled to help her enemy.
Determined to free herself.

Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved.  Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she's 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's give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her 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 free Nalia from her master so that she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother- all for an unbearably high price.  Nalia's not sure she can trust him, but Raif's her only hope of escape.  With her enemies on the hunt, Earth has become more perilous than ever for Nalia.  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.  Battling a dark past and harboring  a terrible secret, Nalia soon realizes her freedom may come at a price too terrible to pay: but how far is she willing to go for it?

The Breakdown:
1. I won an autographed copy of this book on the Blogger Caravan for its release back in December, and was super excited to read it.  Demetrios has quite an interesting take on the world building of Arjinna, which is all done through the memories of Nalia and Raif, instead on being directly in the world.  While I enjoyed the memories, they did slow the story down at times.

2.  I liked that her characters were an interesting mix of hard and soft, from Nalia to Raif, even Malek had moments of tenderness.  Demetrios was able to balance these characters so well.  For me, that balance really made Nalia and Raif likable characters.

3. I really liked Nalia.  She was not exactly what I expected when I read the description.  While a trained warrior in her home world, she seem to be different from the other warriors in her memories. She had a big heart, and she learned to care deeply for those around her. I adored her devotion to her brother, whom most assumed she would have nothing to do with.

4.  Raif reminded me a little of an M&M, with his hard outer shell, but soft sweet inside.  He is a capable leader of his rebels, but underneath he wants more to life than war.  The way he is with is sister is the first glimpse of soft soul.  Once he gets to know Nalia, it is amazing the lengths he goes to to protect her, even when he knows what is she and how their past puts them at odds.

5.  I enjoyed the many secrets that all the characters have.  Demetrios does a great job of revealing their secrets in perfect timing in the book.  From Malek's heritage to Nalia's shame, all fit so well into the story, and I think will have interesting consequences in the rest of the series.  Plus that ending is going to make things really interesting in the next book.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read