Captured by Erica Stevens

Captured by Erica Stevens

First in the Captive series

3.5 stars

Aria lives in a world where vampires rule. The humans are either low class workers who serve vampires, rebels living in the woods hoping to overthrow the reign of the vampires, or blood slaves. Blood slaves are rebels who are captured and sold to the highest bidder for consumption and torture. Aria has been captured and she knows that this will be the end of her life. Braith is the prince of the vampires and he saves Aria before she is given to a monster, but she knows that she has really been saved because the prince is known for being lethal. Vampire stories are not my favorite thing in the world anymore. I used to consume only vampire stories after discovering Twilight and before branching out into different genres. Something that does appeal to me now is slaves/ kidnapped dark romance stories. I love them because of the psychology behind it. Do these characters really love their captor or is it the famous Stockholm syndrome taking hold of their minds and they are trying to survive through psychological means? I think it’s so interesting. I’m usually drawn to darker stories that don’t have paranormal elements like Comfort Food and Nine Minutes and for the younger audience Stolen: A Letter to My Captor. I love dark contemporaries and those three novels have all earned five star ratings from me because they were so compelling. This novel is paranormal and that makes the whole Stockholm syndrome fly to the forest the Aria runs in. It can be there and it is prevalent, but this story isn’t meant to be psychological; it’s meant to be a dark vampire romance story that has a questionable love interest.


"She was most certainly more than an it, but not here, and not now."

I don’t feel guilty admitting to really like this book. I REALLY like this book, so much so that I’ve recommended it to numerous people in my daily life since finishing because it’s free and worth downloading. The writing in this obviously from an indie author. I personally don’t think that indie authors should be excluded from grammar mistakes (Commas are important, Mrs. Stevens! Learn how to use them and apply it!), but the writing flowed very well. It’s not the most wonderful writing in the world, but I was incredibly enamored with the story and couldn’t put it down. I wanted to keep reading and my nitpicky findings were quickly forgotten about because I needed to know how this book would end.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 3.5

The main female character is Aria. I really like Aria; she’s brave, but also realizes that she’s incredibly impulsive and it puts her in bad situations (like becoming a blood slave). Aria is illiterate and that's an incredibly interesting character trait that I enjoy seeing and it's probably the only fully fleshed out thing about Aria. She doesn’t have much character development beyond that. We are told things about her, but I don’t have a connection to Aria. She’s a character whose world I’m currently enjoying being a part of, but I have no deeper connection to her beyond that.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 3.5

The main male character is Braith. I don’t always particularly like Braith and his actions are very gray at best, but I can’t deny that I’m incredibly invested in his storyline with Aria. Like damn, I feel kind of like a fangirl about their relationship, but I don’t LOVE their relationship. Do I ship it? Of course, but I ship it because it’s the primary source of tension in this book. I don’t have a deep connection to Braith, but I do feel like I know him a little more than Aria. Maybe it’s because his secret actually shocked me and I wasn’t expecting him to be a blind vampire. I’m still trying to figure out how that works. Is it through him being blind before the turn or was he blinded so badly that his vampire healing powers couldn’t heal him? These are important questions.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 3.75

The Villain- I think I’m supposed to dislike everybody except Aria and Braith and that’s pretty much the case. This book isn’t meant to have a thought-provoking and intense villain; it’s meant to be devoted to the developing relationship of Aria and Braith and I’m sure the sequels will have more of a “villain” or group to take down.


Villain Scale: 2

Seriously, I didn’t like one single character outside of Aria and Braith. Maggie had potential, but she was just there and didn’t contribute anything. All the characters I’m supposed to like, I’ve begun to dislike since picking up the sequel and that’s pretty much skewed any previous notions of the characters in this book. One area that Stevens really lacks in is character development. It’s just not there. The characters just exist and move around to compliment the story. They are more like paper dolls than realistic heroines and heroes.


Character Scale: 3

Overall, this novel has a lot of flaws, but for being a free Kindle book this novel is superb. Seriously, freebies usually don’t hold up as well as Captured did and that’s why I think I enjoyed it so much. The thrill of finding a new freebie that was actually good (it’s been a long time since that’s happened) and the storyline had one of my immediate book pickups, so there were a lot of pluses for me personally. Do I recommend this? Sure! If you want a fun and free read that is just meant to be fun and nothing beyond that then I highly recommend picking this one up.


Plotastic Scale: 4.5

Cover Thoughts: The cover is cliché, but I kind of dig it. Maybe. It’s pretty meh.

Have you read any good Kindle freebies (or cheap ones)? Do you like to read books with dark and blurred content? Are you interested in this one? Let me know down below in the comments!