This was a reread for me, having already completed this series once in like 2023 maybe. And once again I do understand why this series is so polarizing! The content is pretty heavy—there are on-page depictions of assault (sexual and otherwise), there’s slavery, there’s fantasy racism, there’s just a lot going on.
But like I said in my review for Dark Heir, I feel like one of C.S. Pacat’s strengths as a writer is in his ability to navigate the moral grayness of institutions and circumstances in a way that feels authentic while still remaining hopeful. This is true throughout the entire Captive Prince series, and this is the book where she lays the groundwork for the way that relationships and attitudes will change and grow throughout the rest of the trilogy. Neither of the two main kingdoms in this series are particularly sympathetic—both participate in slavery, both have some somewhat archaic (by my modern American standards) attitudes toward women and consequently some very narrow definitions of masculinity. It’s no surprise that Laurent and Damen are therefore not always particularly sympathetic protagonists, since their attitudes and behaviors are informed by the cultures that shaped them.
That said, what I do think a lot of readers miss in this series is that Pacat isn’t condoning these attitudes and expectations. On the contrary, especially on this reread it seemed pretty obvious to me that a lot of the work the books are doing is getting Damen and Laurent to overcome the circumstances that inform their behaviors, to break away from those expectations and to make their own decisions and grow stronger as a result. A lot of the 1-star reviews I’ve seen for this are like “eww rape shouldn’t be titillating!” and like… yeah! It shouldn’t! And it’s not, it’s pretty clearly always presented in a negative light even when the characters themselves don’t necessarily see it for what it is (yet).
For me personally this book is a really excellent example of building from the ground up, both in terms of the world itself and the characters who populate it. I’ve very rarely read an enemies-to-lovers story where I actually buy that they were enemies to start with and slowly start to fall for each other, but in my opinion Pacat pulls it off without it being cheesy or contrived. It takes a long time and a lot of work for the relationship to blossom and that, along with the hard and sometimes embarrassing work that the characters do to unlearn the negative things they’ve carried with them from their upbringings, is what makes this series so endearing to me.
(Two notes: One, again, C.S. Pacat is genderqueer and uses both she/her and he/him pronouns, so I’ve used both throughout this review. Two, because I read all three of these books in close succession I’m going to use the same review for all three, sorry!)