BOOK ONE OF THE DARK DUET:Caleb is a man with a singular interest in revenge. Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery by a power-hungry mobster, he has thought of nothing but vengeance. For twelve years he has immersed himself in the world of pleasure slaves searching for the one man he holds ultimately responsible. Finally, the architect of his suffering has emerged with a new identity, … identity, but not a new nature. If Caleb is to get close enough to strike, he must become the very thing he abhors and kidnap a beautiful girl to train her to be all that he once was.
Eighteen-year-old Olivia Ruiz has just woken up in a strange place. Blindfolded and bound, there is only a calm male voice to welcome her. His name is Caleb, though he demands to be called Master. Olivia is young, beautiful, naïve and willful to a fault. She has a dark sensuality that cannot be hidden or denied, though she tries to accomplish both. Although she is frightened by the strong, sadistic, and arrogant man who holds her prisoner, what keeps Olivia awake in the dark is her unwelcome attraction to him.
WARNING: This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence.
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One of my favorite books of all time.
As soon as i clicked on this book, I was cast into a world not unlike our own. From page one it will captivate you in a sick hold and never let go, even when there are no more pages. I love the dark and twisted romance that unfolds in this amazing book.
My interpretation of “dark romance” is that this particular genre features some bleakness and unhappiness,
whether it’s on the part of the characters or their circumstances. there is going to be some pain,
sadness, and drama before the happy ever after.
I love the dark romances but have to be in a specific mood to take on those types of books.
I don’t reach for the dark and wrenching. all the time, but I do wonder what goes on in the minds of some of my favorite authors.
In my terminology, a dark romance is one where there’s going to be a happy ending eventually, not always ,but it’ll hurt a bit first, for everyone involved, including me, the reader.
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COMPELLING but BRUTAL
I love a dark book I can get my teeth into but even I found this difficult to read at times, as this story was brutal, harsh and down right vile in parts but the pure brilliance of this Author captivates you with the sheer magnitude of what can happen to make you the person you are and keeps you gripped in this story and how it unfolds.
Olivia is an ordinary 18 year old girl going about her mundane life, she has no one special in her life until she is plunged into a darkness that will change her forever,
her life as she knew will be gone.
Caleb is her abductor a man that has no morals and all he wants is revenge and Olivia (livvie) is the end prize after he has to train her in the art of slavery.
This story is about these two characters and how Caleb gets to kidnapp Livvie and keep her looked up to train her how to become a slave for the very people that helped him get out of slavery in his younger years.
I should hate everything he stands for but as its Livvie’s telling the story you get to find out the person Caleb is and god forbid you grow to understand him even though he is despicable, I started to warm to this character even though i wanted to hate him.
This was genius and brave of this author to take on a topic as dark and disturbed as this and getting us the reader liking the abductor at the end where I needed to find out how it all unfolded in the next book. Pure genius.
Outstanding. Edge of your seat all the way. Great character development and chemistry between MCs.
This book is not for everybody! It is dark and twisted, but to those that like hot, forbidding romance, then I’d recommend this read.
Horribly beautiful. Almost redemptive. But not. Evil. Disjointed. Completely realistic, or what I hope to God is all that a kidnapped slave has to endure, but what I fear is merely the tip of the iceberg. You must have a stomach for sadistic cruelty to read this, because it is horribly beautiful and almost redemptive.
It was very
This book is edgy and very dark, it is still sexy and all the feels a good dark romance book should be. I really enjoyed it!
An exciting story that I wolfed down from cover to cover. The author uses too many adverbs, and the ending left me disappointed. I understand the story continues in the next book, which I just downloaded. The plot surprised me several times, and I loved the dynamic between Kaleb and his captive, Livvie. I haven’t read many romances but must say I love the genre, especially the darker end of the spectrum—an enjoyable book which I recommend.
This book is a classic. Definitely don’t read it if you have triggers, but if you like your romance kind of scary you will probably be into this one. I am a huge fan of f’ed up characters and characters who make life changing mistakes, so this book is right up my alley.
I read this many years ago and I still think it’s a great dark (really dark) read.
Intensely Intriguing… When I first heard about this story and perused some of the reviews for it I figured I was being sold another glorified master/slave, dom/sub fantasy. Because of my background friends love to forward titles they think will somehow shock me, news flash, they rarely do. So, at first I figured “Captive in the Dark” by CJ Roberts would be yet another of the stereotypical, “guy spanks, binds, isolates, sexually manipulates girl into realizing she likes being submissive” and hence she eventually falls in love with her master. But, that is most definitely NOT this story! And oh how refreshing it was to be wrong.
Despite being fairly short at only 15 chapters overall. As well as, feeling some of the chapters were rushed and nipped a bit tight for the complex content involved. Roberts still managed to create a literary backdrop which immediately immerses you uncomfortably deep within the landscape of sexual predator and prey.
Captive in the Dark is an intensely dark, forboding work that instantly brought to my mind the phrase, “…like a spider to a fly…” after only the first few sentences. Roberts plays dangerously with the line between submission and stockholm. Obliterates the boundaries between arousing an acceptance of one’s true nature and breaking down a human’s spirit like one would break a horse. So blurry are the lines between reality and sexual trauma you can’t help but read on no matter how uncomfortably your stomach churns at the psychological manipulation and violence.
This book is NOT for the easily disturbed, offended, or faint of heart. But if you are brave enough to read it, you will be rewarded with a rich textual tapestry designed to push the limits of your emotional mind and make you think deeply about the subjects within.
This book goes far beyond the concepts of dom/sub, master/slave, or even the realm of dominant submissives. Yes, Caleb is a sadistic predator expertly filling his role as master to Livvie. Yes, Livvie is submissive in her need and longing for emotional shelter from Caleb despite his true intentions for her. But then again, that’s the point, neither are truly what they appear at their cores. Both have been born from horrific neglect and sexual violence, and once put together morph and merge into something even they don’t recognize, and THAT is where the true beauty of this story lies!
I look forward to seeing how Caleb and Livvie’s journey continues in book two.
This was my very first dark book and I absolutely love Caleb and Oliva’s story. The book was extremely dark and I’ll recommend it to anyone who likes it dark and doesn’t mind dubious consent.
Absolutely sensational… Goosebumps entirely
One of the best books i”ve read ever!!
Hey everyone, this is my very first post and I would like to recommend you guys this book for all lovers of the dark and erotic novels this is the perfect start,it is a trilogy the first book is this , the second is called ” seduced in the dark” and the final one is “epilogue the dark duet”, its an amazing novel and full of surprises I really do recommend it.
Cant believe I just found this series but it was amazing!!
Absolutely loved this book, could not put it down!
I don’t normally like books that are not complete, I mean how you can you like it when the story, even if it is to be continued, isn’t complete? The journey hasn’t ended and it stops mid-sentence, and that leaves me confused. As a I said, normally, but in this case, it was perfect, and while the journey was not complete, the story naturally came to an end. I’m not really good at explaining it any further than that but oh wow!
That being said, I didn’t dive directly into the next book, the first chapter is contained at the end of the book, so I read it to get an idea, but needed a break before going into to as usually with these wrenching novels, they can mess with your head!
So what is all the fuss about? Again, hard to explain, but we have two terribly broken people, in different ways and by different circumstances, who are a means to an end by others. Livvie grew up neglected and disdained and Caleb was taken at a very young age and used in a brothel. He was saved and now serves his saviour and took Livvie to finalize his saviours revenge.
The story is how Master and Kitten are formed, and how Caleb and Livvie still survive and cling to each other under the surface.
And now to the continuing saga….
“He wanted Livvie.”
For those of us that indulge in the darker romantic reads that make us shudder and sweat…pine and pant, we have yet another author that can fill those mysterious, somewhat incomprehensible needs of ours for that devilish, damaged misguided hero and the object of his cruel attentions, the heroine. It was a happy day for me as I devoured this well written story. To my mind Ms. Roberts mastered all the important elements that satisfy a reader of dark romance. Simply put…she can write and write well…to include the darker erotica central to the story in Captive in the Dark.
The story begins with Caleb who has revenge on his mind that involved years in the planning. An important part of the plans he has made with his savior and mentor in Pakistan, is the kidnap of a beautiful American virgin. He intends to train her to be a sexual slave to be sold at a secret auction. To this end, he has his eyes set on Livvie (his Kitten). Caleb accepts that he is soulless monster living in the dark. He finds his safety in the dark so he can do this ignoble deed.
Livvie is a troubled young beauty who is trying her level best dealing with high school and family issues. Caleb is fascinated with her as he stalks her like prey eventually kidnapping her and holding her captive in Mexico. He is none-too kind to her. Livvie is confused, frightened, and desperate to be free. Caleb depredates her with punishments and…expert sexual stimulation. Caleb has dragged her into his dark world wherein he becomes her “Master”.
The reader is held “captive”, right along with Livvie, in the dark with the shifting and evolving dynamic between Caleb and her. Livvie is and becomes more than Caleb had anticipated in his plans… in her actions…in who she is and what she begins to mean to him. Livvie is extraordinary in her will to fight for her freedom and her safety. Rather than wallow in the cruel intentions of Caleb…she searches for insight and uses all her wits and guile to try and prevent him from selling her. Could she also be falling a little in love? Is there a flicker of light in all his darkness?
It is interesting to note that the author chose to narrate Caleb’s POV in the third person… this has the effect of making him aloof…set apart…less intimate. Livvie’s POV is presented in the first person. It makes it easier to empathize with her, feel her fear, her pain and…her ecstasy.
What is particularly gratifying was the exquisitely taut sexual tension created by the thoughts, intentions and actions of Caleb and his Kitten throughout the story. There was always the lovely build up of desire and want between them. So much so…in the end …the Master slipped in his control and Kitten became a panther stalking him.
The book does not end on a “cliffy” but there is no resolution to the story. I honestly don’t mind this because this is a full book of well written story and a duet is an understandable presentation for a longer involved saga. I look forward, eagerly, to the continuation of this enthralling tale of dark desires and perhaps finding that pure sliver of whitest white representing resolution, renewal and even redemption.
For those of us that delight in the dark…putting it less than eloquently…this is our “jam”.
Quotes:
“But safety—like light—was a façade. Underneath, the whole world was drenched in darkness. Caleb knew that. He also knew the only way to truly be safer was to accept the dark, to walk in it with eyes wide open, to be a part of it.” – Caleb
“There is a moment, in all my studying of movies and scripts, that I’d realized something elemental about human beings and why I’d been attracted to that imaginary world. Each piece of work was attempting to describe the human condition, in all its good, bad and ugly glory. At first, it’d been an extension of my own life, strangely mirrored in this world of “fiction.” Each story wanted, no—needed—to reveal a human fragility, a human bondage which tied people to the things they did and to be the person they held in their heads.” – Livvie