Faux LGBT
I've read reviews of other books pretending to be lgbtq but this was the first time I experienced it myself. The story would be completely functional even if you changed one of the protagonist's name from Theo to Thea and nothing else!

Unsuited Leads & Impractical Relationship
Theo was decidedly feminine and not even the good kind. The kind that gets you mocked and made fun of. His counterpart found it all right to carry on having sex with Theo while believing he was married! Not the sort of guys who'd form a stable relationship.

Faux SciFi
I only know one sci-fi-ish detail about this story, i.e., most of it happens on a spaceship traveling through space. There isn't much more that would convince me to label this book sci-fi. What's more, there's little to no worldbuilding, which is something else that's usually a hallmark of scific novels. Although this IS the second book and the author might have mentioned more details in the first one?

Final Verdict
Another weird read but it did make me laugh, so I'm not counting it as a total loss!

another excellent entry in the Verge series, the characters were what I wanted from a sequel. I was impressed by the plot of the book and really enjoyed going through this book.

Jun and Theo were wonderful characters, Jun's gruff personality was the perfect counter to Theo's chatterbox nature. This was an entertaining space opera and a fantastic second book to the series.

*I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley*

4 stars

I loved this book. I adore it.
Theo was a character I wanted to read about since book one and ugh it was so good!
The book was fabulously written, fun but still touching.
I liked how the story blended with the first book and I'm sure will have an epic ending (fingers crossed) in book 3.

Definitely a new favorite series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review

4.5 Stars
Dr. Theophrastus Campbell is a resident of Brittania, one of the Core planets stuck within the Verge, a force field that prevents marauders from attacking the main planets. He's an extroverted linguist--one of the best in the Core--and that's my Captain Park Jun-Seo, from the Restricted Section beyond the Verge has come to his office to kidnap him. Theo scribes out a hidden message to his twin brother, Dr. Aristotle Campbell, a pre-eminent geologist, and decides to take Captain Park's kidnapping as a bit of an adventurous lark, one that could net him some fascinating linguistic opportunities as well as some sexy-time with the delicious, if gruff, man.

Jun is a beast of a man, tatted and augmented to help keep him alive in the desolate and dangerous areas of space he's grown up in. But, there might be a way to bring a new energy source to the planets beyond the Verge, which would open trade routes and perhaps help those of his family still exist beyond the Verge. If only Dr. Campbell wasn't so lithe, and clean, and verbose about his sexual desires. Jun needs Theo's help deciphering the dead language that hides these galactic secrets. If only the young, gorgeous academic could keep his sexy, tempting mouth shut.


Well, all of Theo's suitors had felt the same, so he's going to make the most of his forced proximity to the virile and forceful captain.


This is a unique and engaging world that's a bit of a mix with Victorian sensibilities and the space exploration tech. As with the first book in the series, I really loved the story, and the originality of the plot twists. Theo is cheeky and fun, absorbing his captivity with salty aplomb, and teasing the heck out of Jun. He's brave and bold and unashamed of his attraction to Jun. They develop a rapport that feeds the sexual tension growing between them. Jun is really a decent man, stressed to all lengths to achieve independence for himself and his followers. Their part of space is continually ravaged by marauders, and he wants to level the playing field, so there can be more than a subsistence existence beyond the Verge--where plenty of beings live. Even his initial resistance to Theo's overtures is admirable, if frustrating!


Their adventures are risky, putting Jun in position to be captured by his former captain/owner and maybe scuttle the entire mission. For those who've read the first book, you know that Ari is doggedly trying to save Theo from his captors--and their reunion is so joyful. Captains Jun and Orin (who helped Ari locate Theo) are outmatched, but never outclassed, by this dynamic duo of intelligence, the Doctors Ari and Theo Campbell. It seems that the stage is now set to liberate the energy needed to power the planets and outposts beyond the Verge, but the story ends pretty much with a plan to go on. I flew through both RESTRICTED and CAPTIVATED, adoring the adventures and the romances, and I SO HOPE we will have a third book to complete the story arc. If so, I look very much forward to reading it.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Captivated is the 2nd book in this space adventure series by A C Thomas.
I haven't read book 1 in this series but after reading the blurb it didn't seem like it would be a major problem and on the most part it wasn't.
This book has a fantastic group of characters and is told from the 2nd twins story and seems to come together with book 1 more towards the end leaving a premise that book 3 may include both main characters and an even better bigger group of characters to read of!
This book reads as a space opera kind of book and I loved the outlaw character who commits kidnap but then becomes reliant on the hostages translation skills.
This book is full of heat and spice and fast paced adventure.
Definitely worth a read!

How loudly can I scream about this book and still be considered socially acceptable? This is the second in The Verge series and ooh boy did I adore it. I mean, we got the mystery and adventure from Theo’s point of view where the first book is from his twin brothers Ari’s point of view. I loved the contrast between Theo and Ari. How different they are, but how desperately they love and care for each other. It was also fun to watch the pairing of Jun and Theo who are so very different but definitely interested in each other, as well as the mystery of why Jun abducted Theo in the first place and the reason Jun needed an academic languages genius.
If you couldn’t tell already, I absolutely adored this book. I mean, I am desperate to see where the story goes! This series is fast paced and fun! It’s also so wholesome and steamy. Overall, I am in love with this series and can’t wait for what comes next.

Rating: 5/5

I freely admit to not having read the first book in this series and I don't usually request books on Netgalley if they're not first books in a series, but it seemed from the blurb that this wouldn't really matter all that much in this case. There's a kind of coming together of plots towards the end of this book, where the main characters from book 1 turn up, clearly setting up for a denouement in book 3 with everyone together.

Anyway, the basic premise of Captivated is that it's a space opera story with an outlaw character coming to the more 'civilised' parts of space to kidnap an academic. He needs to do this because of an, at least initially, unspecified disaster that's approaching which can only be stopped by written material he's currently unable to translate without this academic's assistance. Said academic is actually quite excited by the prospect of being kidnapped and goes along readily, joining his kidnapper's ragtag group of rejects on a battered spaceship. Matters escalate between the two main characters quite quickly, leading to quite a bit of sex at various points in the story.

So far so good, except that I like a little more plot with my porn. I can't fault the quality of the sex scenes but would have liked the same attention to detail paid to the overall world-building and plot - there's being paranoid and wanting to keep information safe and then there's making it all but impossible to translate when lives are potentially at stake, which seems like a pretty dumb thing to do. For me, there's not quite enough structure given to exactly how this whole universe works and the separation between 'civilised' planets and the rest.

In terms of characters, it's a bit of a mixed bag. There's a deliberate contrast set up here between the stoic outlaw captain who's a man of few words and the overactive, talkative academic - this gets a little out of control for me at times, with said academic's self-deprecation straying across the border into whining. Not an attractive quality, in my opinion, and certainly not one that makes me think of sexy times. There's also a whole thing about the captain thinking that Theo (the academic) already has a husband because he keeps talking about this other guy but that doesn't stop them doing the horizontal tango repeatedly. Now who has the low self-esteem?

Anyway, it was an enjoyable enough read but not quite sufficient to make me want to pick up the third book, for the reasons above. If there was a little more balance between porn and plot, I might have thought differently, but everyone's tastes are different...

I adored the first book in this story - and the second one was maybe even better. Bad Ass alpha's are always lovely, Beta heroes will always have a place in my heart, but non-traditional characters are just so awesome to read about. Theo is "too much" for most people. He talks a lot, he has over-the-top reactions to things, and is perhaps a poster-child for attention deficit and hyperactivity. He is also brilliant with languages. As a result - Captain Jun Park kidnaps him to help translate some difficult materials his parents left for him that may save thousands of lives.

Jun is definitely a strong and silent type - with a serious dose of grumpiness. He's adorable - between his commitment to saving people and his crew - he clearly has a very soft heart. To say he is conflicted about what to do with Theo is maybe the understatement of the year - but it was definitely fun to watch.

This book is definitely a very fun space opera. I recommend it for basically anyone who likes interstellar based fantasy. The book does leave you a bit on a cliffhanger - what is next for the twins, their romantic partners, the crew, and the future of the galaxy? I can't wait to find out! Write fast please!!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.