Exquisite Captive Caravan Giveaway Relay!

Today I'm excited to be a part of a really fun promotion for Exquisite Captive, the latest release from the fabulous Heather Demetrios. I absolutely adored this book and can't recommend it enough, so I'm hoping to pass that love on to someone else by giving away a hardcover copy to one lucky winner. This isn't just any giveaway though, this is a whole new level of giveaway. A giveaway RELAY. What's that you ask? Well, I'll let Heather briefly explain it to you:

See the schedule below? Time to memorize it because starting November 3rd, there will be a giveaway of a hardcover edition of Exquisite Captive with a signed bookplate EVERY WEEK DAY for a month (US only). What?!

My Blogger Caravan is doing a blog relay. Each blog will host a giveaway of the book for one day only. The winner will be announced the next day on a new blog - they're basically passing the book baton.

•    9:00 am EST a giveaway begins.
•    It ends at midnight EST that day (or whenever each blogger specifies).
•    The winner will be announced on the next blog at 9am EST.
•    If you didn't win, you can enter the next blog's giveaway. If you did win - yay!

SCHEDULE:

November 3rd: Adventures of a Book Junkie

November 4th: Alexa Loves Books

November 5th: Lili’s Reflections

November 6th: ForeverBookish

November 7th: Supernatural Snark

November 10th: RealityLapse

November 11th: Hello, Chelly

November 12th: What Sarah Read

November 13th: That Artsy Reader Girl

November 14th: A Glass Of Wine

November 17th: The NerdHerd Reads

November 18th: The Book Rat

November 19th: Book Chic

November 20th: Great Imaginations

November 21st: Falling For YA

November 24th: The Quirky Reader

November 25th: Book Whales

November 26th:  The Best Books Ever

November 27th: The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club

November 28th: A Reading Nurse

December 1st: Michelle and Leslie’s Book Picks

December 2nd: Bewitched Bookworm

December 3rd: Bookish Broads

December 4th: Eater of Books

FOREVER BOOKISH WINNER: Marissa Hardy

• • • • • • • • • • • 

EXQUISITE CAPTIVE

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’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to 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?

Goodreads • Amazon

• • • • • • • • • • • 

HEATHER DEMETRIOS

I love books. I love writing stories almost as much as I like reading them. When I’m not traipsing about the world, I prefer to spend my time in imaginary places, living my What—maybe I’ll see you in one of them. I’ll be the one with my nose in a book and more tattoos than your mother would approve of.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

• • • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAY
  

As mentioned above, up for grabs to one lucky winner (a huge thank you to Heather and HarperCollins!) is a hardcover copy of Exquisite Captive AND a signed bookplate for said hardcover. The giveaway here on Supernatural Snark is only open for 24 hours and will end at 11:59 EST tonight (Friday, November 7th). The winner will be announced on Reality Lapse on Monday and she will then kick off her own 24-hour giveaway, so be sure and follow along for more chances to win! 

Giveaway is open to US addresses only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Exquisite Captive

EXQUISITE CAPTIVE
Dark Caravan Cycle #1
Heather Demetrios
Young Adult/Fantasy-ish
480 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available October 7th
Source: BEA

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to 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?

MY THOUGHTS
Exquisite Captive is an aptly named story, Nalia’s tale of servitude a striking combination of beauty and darkness, the gilded shackles that bind her to Malek all the more painful for the shame and guilt their elegance masks. Ms. Demetrios does her readers a kindness by supplying a glossary of the various jinni castes in the front of the book, preparing us upfront for the unusual terminology and ensuring we’re instantly riveted by this epic fantasy because little time is wasted trying to sort through complicated history and an unfamiliar vocabulary. She also proves herself to be more than adept at feeding readers backstory in easily digestible pieces, giving us time to familiarize ourselves with Nalia and her predicament before slowly revealing the history of her people and what led them all to this exact moment in time.

Nalia is someone easy to root for from the very beginning, a prologue detailing the pain and terror she feels in the confines of the bottle tying her to Malek echoing through us until we want nothing more than for her to attain her freedom by any means possible. She handles her time with Malek remarkably well, staging minor rebellions however she can just so she doesn’t lose herself to him completely, but also knowing when subservience will be more to her benefit than fight and fire. Her guilt over her brother and the fate of the other Ghan Aisouri eats at her every waking moment, but instead of allowing herself to be weighed down by melancholy and myriad “what if” questions, she puts one foot in front of the other and does what needs to be done.

Many readers may initial shy away from this story simply due to the fact that there are two men in Nalia’s life once revolutionary leader Raif approaches her at Malek’s home, but the lines connecting the three of them do not form the traditional triangle found in so many YA novels. Instead, Ms. Demetrios gives us in Malek someone who simply cannot be viewed as a love interest given what he’s put Nalia through for the past three years, but yet, YET, she’s written him in such a way that we fall prey to the dangerous illusion that is the promise of change. In his quiet moments with Nalia, Malek shows glimmers of true affection so enticingly fragile we can’t help but want to protect them from the times when his baser nature gets the better him, and every viscerally tender moment causes the hope that he will choose to be the better of his two selves to reignite. Swiftly following that hope though are tendrils of doubt, weaving themselves in and around us so we are as shackled as Nalia, wondering if we’ll ever be able to see Malek for what he truly is rather than what we wish him to be.

Overall, Exquisite Captive is a haunting start to this series, the wishes, fears, and hopes of both characters and readers coalescing into a single beautiful story that leaves us looking forward with nothing but anticipation.

Rating: 4/5

Find Heather:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Waiting on Wednesday: Exquisite Captive

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

EXQUISITE CAPTIVE

Dark Caravan Cycle #1

Heather Demetrios

Young Adult/Fantasy

Releases October 7th from Balzer + Bray

From Goodreads:

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’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to 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?

Inspired by Arabian Nights, EXQUISITE CAPTIVE brings to life a deliciously seductive world where a wish can be a curse and shadows are sometimes safer than the light.

Um. All I can really say about this book is YES PLEASE! I don't know much about the Arabian Nights story, so I'm really looking forward to that particular aspect of this book, and of course I'm always intrigued by the mention of a handsome, cruel man. I find myself sickly fascinated by such characters, spending majority of the book looking for the tiniest of hints to indicate they are more than they appear to be and will be redeemed in all their romantic glory by the end. Most of the time I'm simply delusional in my romantic idealism, but I have so much fun wishing for the bad guy to turn into a love interest that I don't even care. I embrace the delusion fully:)

Way to digress there, Jenny! Anyway, I can't wait to fixate on Malek and see if he turns out to be worthy of my affection or if Raif will prove to be the more appealing of the two:)