When she’s not traipsing around the world or spending time in imaginary places, Heather Demetrios lives with her husband in New York City. Originally from Los Angeles, she now calls the East Coast home. Heather is a recipient of the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award for her debut novel, Something Real, which Publisher’s Weekly calls “[An] addictive yet thoughtful debut” about reality TV stardom. She is the author of the upcoming EXQUISITE CAPTIVE, a smoldering fantasy about jinn in Los Angeles and what Kirkus called in its starred review “an intoxicating, richly realized realm of magic, politics, spirituality and history” (#1 in the DARK CARAVAN CYCLE). She is also the author of the upcoming I’ll Meet You There (Winter 2015). I’ll Meet You There is a love story about a young combat veteran and a girl trapped in their small town, both struggling to escape the war at home. Heather is the founder of Live Your What, an organization dedicated to fostering passion in people of all ages and creating writing opportunities for youth of limited economic means. She is proud to have an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. You can always find her on Twitter (@HDemetrios), ogling the military dogs she wants to adopt (but can’t because her NYC apartment is way too small). Find out more about Heather and her other books at wwww.heatherdemetrios.com and www.darkcaravancycle.com.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios may not be for everyone. With that said I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next one in the series.
Nalia is a jinni from Arjinna and the only survivor of her tribe. We are actually introduced to her as she lives today, a slave to Malek, the man who controls her every move. He is obviously not human and we don’t really find out what he is until later in the story but we do find out that Nalia and Malek have not had an easy relationship. He bought her a few years ago and she has done everything within her power to fight the constraints Malek has put on her but because he is her master and she is bound to him, she must grant his wishes.
Because Nalia has always challenged Malek, she also knows that his way of punishing her is in the form of a bottle coated in iron which is uncomfortable and painful for Nalia. This is essentially what keeps her just toeing the line. She is willing to challenge him just enough to feel like she has a semblance of control but not enough that he will stick her back in the bottle. As the story opens we find that Nalia is noticing a change in the way Malek interacts with her and it is throwing her off. She doesn’t really know what to expect and she isn’t really sure what it means.
In Arjinna, Nalia was a member of the Ghan Aisouri which was a group that was essentially royalty. They controlled everything and the lower class definitely didn’t like this which led to an uprising led by the father of a character named Raif. When his father died, Raif took over leading the rebel group and in working to find a way to help his people; he ends up on earth with Nalia, the last Ghan Aisouri and the person who has something he needs. As Raif bargains with Nalia, she has to decide what she is truly willing to risk for her freedom in order to save her brother. As the story progresses, Nalia has to trust Raif in order to save her brother and is putting everything she has believes in on the line.
Nalia is an interesting character and it is clear that she struggles with who she was before she became a slave to Malek. She appeared to never really enjoy it but she also didn’t do anything to change who she was. It led to her being put in situations that she completely regrets now and will definitely have an impact on her and her relationship with Raif going forward.
I enjoyed the other characters as well. Raif is definitely a solid hero and I loved how he was so loving and protective of his sister. As the relationship changes between Raif and Nalia, it is clear they have a lot to figure out but once Nalia became a part of his bubble, he was fully invested and willing to do what he needed to in order to get her away from Malek and protect her from the Ifrit that is hunting her down.
Malek absolutely fills the role of the villain. Don’t get me wrong, he had me fooled for a bit but there was always that underlying issue around the fact that he “owned” Nalia and I can’t even fathom why he thought they could ever be more than just master and slave knowing her the way that he did.
I loved the world building in this story. Between the flashbacks/memories that Nalia provides and the rest of the story, Demetrios has created this other world that seems fantastically real. I think anyone who enjoys fantasy with a bit of romance mixed in as well as plenty of action will want to check this story out when they can. I am looking forward to the next book to see where Nalia’s story leads us next.
Thank you to Balzer + Bray for the review copy.
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