Review Captivated by Lauren Dane
Vincenz Fardelle, exiled son of the Supreme Leader of the Imperialist Universe, has spent much of the last ten years working to stop the threat his father poses. But he’s not alone in his quest. Julian Marsters has lost his best friend and countless others in the war and has made vengeance his only goal. In each other, Julian and Vincenz find not only like minds, but kindred spirits.
However unexpected their relationship, everything changes for Vincenz and Julian when Hannah Black comes into their lives. Having been captured and held in near total isolation by imperialist troops, their immediate response is to protect her.
Emotionally shattered but resilient, Hannah rebuilds herself. Because of the warm safety she finds in the arms of Julian—and Vincenz—she becomes someone harder, stronger and bent on preventing the Imperialists from harming anyone else.
For the two men, wrestling with their passionate feelings for Hannah is only the beginning. War is about to send all three into harm’s way and an equally dangerous secret could tear them apart.
A Tremendous story about 3 hurt and damaged individuals healing. Thats what Captivated is all about. At least for me. It was about healing. Mentally, physically, emotionally, what people do when they are trying to put their lives back together and the differences that these situations make in their lives, the way they change and the way that avenues open as a result of pain, and hurt, and death and captivity, and how one can be stronger, relationships can be tighter, more communicative, and better as a result of people being put through trials by fire.
Hannah was (for lack of a better word) Captivating. She was isolated for over a year, having been made into almost an animal by her captors, tortured, starved, beaten, cold, she still managed to keep some measures of sanity, when she tried to make calendars, to keep track of time, she was beaten and punished, so she did it by carving her skin into a calendar of sorts to mark the progress of time. She was able to keep focus on who she was, by reciting mantras from her childhood. This once brilliant fearless scientist left broken, almost defeated, holding on by the skin of her teeth and the will in her backbone.
Vincenz, the exiled son of leader Faradelle has lived through seeing his father kill his sister and his brother and ruining his mothers life, and abusing and killing, every atrocity you can imagine coming through a dictator who has no responsibility and no accountability, thats what his father has done. Vincenz who is working to overthrow and thwart his father at every turn who has so much guilt and pain, he is literally staggering under the weight of it.
And Julian, whom every person he has loved has been lost, killed, except for Vincenz, they are all healing together, with vincenz and Julian helping Hannah to become human again, to become herself again its a dirty, brutal, difficult, painful process and its beautiful. Her pain, their struggle, their growth, together its a beautiful magnificently written masterful story, that makes you believe that the power of touch, the power of healing, is so overpowering, so profound. It makes you believe in the power of the human spirit to be be able to overcome and to be able to make yourself stronger and better as a result of your trials.
I loved loved Captivated. It was one of those books that even when its hot and sexy and dirty, its still profound, its about more than just the relationship and the sex its about healing, and love. and I loved it.
Overall Rating; A
