King’s Captive is one epic, delicious mind fuck of a book. I started it after finishing another book at 11 p.m. and read it in one glorious sitting (Bad Decisions Book Club, y’all) and when I was done I needed a cigarette. And I don’t smoke.

So first of all, this book is total crazysauce but the best kind of crazysauce. I was totally invested in what was happening. I gave up many precious hours of sleep for this book, and I love sleep almost as much as I love chips.

The book is told primarily from the perspective of Sarah, the heroine, and opens up at her eighteenth birthday party. It’s apparent right away that this is not a normal party. Security is carrying around the kind of weaponry that suggests their biggest concern isn’t Aunt Cheryl getting drunk and shouting obscenities at everyone. Sarah also acknowledges that the party is more a social event for her father to conduct business rather than anything related to her actual birth or its celebration thereof. So immediately I think, mafia. This is a mafia book.

Maybe.

Then some guy named Julius King who is like Jason Statham times Jason Bourne and topped off with a little Xander Cage shows up and basically kills everyone and kidnaps Sarah.

I can hear you shouting, “All of this should be really upsetting, Elyse!”

I KNOW I KNOW! BEAR WITH ME!

So cut to three years later where Sarah is currently living on King’s private tropical island as his captive. She thinks King wants to marry her on her 21st birthday when she’ll come into her inheritance and therefore get all her dad’s money.

ALSO THIS SHOULD BE UPSETTING, I KNOW.

Except nothing is quite right about this book. Sarah is telling us all of this, but the actions of the other characters don’t quite add up. Everything is slightly eschew askew. You’re getting two layers of narrative–what Sarah says is happening and what you, the reader, observes happening. It’s tricky and it’s managed brilliantly.

King has never touched Sarah, never hurt her, never done anything without her consent. He’s actually very kind to her other than not letting her leave the island. He’s definitely not a good person, per se, but he doesn’t seem like a sociopath either. And there is so much sexual tension between the two of them that my Kindle screen should have been smoking.

Sarah wants King even though she know she shouldn’t. Stockholm Syndrome? Maybe. King definitely wants Sarah but will not touch her without her clear, verbal consent.

But again, nothing seems quite right–especially Sarah’s memories of her family. The further I got into the book the more I realized that Sarah was not a reliable narrator and things were not as they seemed.

I fucking love it when things are not as they seem.

It’s hard to discuss this book without revealing anything, and I really think that it needs to unravel organically to really get the delightful buzz I got from reading it. I will say this: part of the fantasy of the book is that it’s a captivity story. The Captive Heroine has been a staple of romance from way back when, and generally speaking, it’s problematic. King’s Captive turns that narrative on its head and allows readers to enter that fantasy without feeling icky or exploited on behalf of the heroine.

Also the sex scenes are hot as hell. Like wake your husband up in the middle of the night hot.

The way everything wraps up in the end is stretched my credulity a bit, but I was so invested in the wild ride up until that point, I didn’t really care. If you like darker romance or like me love a good psychological thriller, King’s Captive is so much your catnip. If you prefer your hero to be squeaky clean, then maybe steer clear.