Captured: A Dark Romance

by R.A. Frick

Running away from small-town Montana to Los Angeles, and meeting the handsome Jayantha, Cal thinks his luck is getting better. The man with Jay is looking for models, but Cal gets kidnapped and brought far away from his American life and innocent world view.

Jay learns his family has secrets of their their matchmaking is a front for kidnapping people to sell. He's not sure how to save himself, let alone the innocents they have imprisoned...

Can Cal trust anyone, or will he have to save himself?
*
Content Warning : If you like your stories dark and twisty before the romance happens, this book has that in spades. If you like your romance fluffy with insta-love, this is not the book for you! Third person, past tense, dual POV. Full content warning inside.

153 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 2021

About the author

R.A. Frick is a queer author of steamy queer romance, often with angst, always with a HEA! Focusing on non-binary, trans, and gay characters is close to RA's lived experiences, though they have written everything from YA dystopian time travel to dark taboo romance, and added paranormal romance to their repertoire in 2025.

RA's books have been on multiple bestseller lists, and they are usually found writing with their corgi in Northern California.

Reviews

[Nessie Reads MM]

~^~

Captured: A Dark Romance was my first read by R.A. Frick, but definitely not the last. It comes with a list of content warning - they're there for a reason, and this book does not tell a happy story.
Eighteen year old Cal escapes his small home town after being attacked after work. He flees to L.A. where he immediately meets Cambridge graduate Jay and his brother Dru, who offers him a casting call. Jay is confused by his brother's interest in young Cal as their family business sources Indian wives/ Bollywood actresses but soon discovers the grim truth - their family business is a human trafficking affair. Jay has days to figure out an escape plan and save Cal and the others.
This was not an easy read. The author does not sugar coat the abuse Cal and the others experience during their short time in captivity. Cal and Jay's relationship can be seen as problematic as the two form a bond under extenuating circumstances. There were many scenes were consent is dubious or straight up not there. However Jay definitely cares for Cal and does everything he can to save him from his family, including putting his life in danger. The events after the escape are pretty much a summary as this is a short read, but there is a happy ending. Captured is definitely worth a read (just heed the C.W.!).

Angst: 💔💔💔💔💔
Story: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

I received a free copy of this book through Gay Romance Reviews and this is my honest review.

[Theresa Derwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I've read all of Frick's order books, and they are great, and I read the earlier edition of this one too.

This re-release has a great cover and it's edited so much better, with only minor issues.

CW first; this is about abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking and homophobia. These areas are dealt with as respectfully as possible whilst still telling a story.


Cal has escaped his small town in Montana only to get abducted by a human trafficking group.


As for handsome Jay, when he discovers his family's secret he is knocked out and dragged back home to join the family business.


It was interesting having a good mix of Indian and Pakistani characters, some good like Jay and Soonie and others evil and immoral.

Jay uses his semi-powerful position to help the victims, especially Cal, and despite the setting, feelings start to blossom between them.

I'd like to see more of the other characters, perhaps Soonie.

[Anne Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, let me say I got this book from gay romance reviews, and this is me leaving my honest review.
First thing I must say is read the triggers for this book because there’s some pretty heavy stuff in This book. It’s about human trafficking and it doesn’t go easy on you at all.
I have been through every single emotion reading this book. This is the first book I read by R.A. Frick. and I would read more from this author you just need to go into it with your eyes open.
Cal has not had the best upbringing. He’s just turned 18 working in a bar and an incident makes him run away. He goes to LA and that is where he comes across Jay and his brother Dru. Dru gives it a business card with an address on it for a modelling agency interview. And he goes and it is the worst and the best moment of his life. The worst because he gets drugged and kidnapped and the best because he meets Jay.
Jay family owned an Indian bride agency, but that was a front what they really were, were human traffickers. Jay got a rude awakening when he woke on a plane, and then was taken to a building in the middle of a jungle where his brother had taken three women and one male. And that male was Cal.
What happens next? You’ll have to read to find out. I’ve Gotta say it’s disturbing. What happens in this book, but I don’t think it’s far off what really happens. I was so thankful that Cal had Jay. The attraction between these two was instant, and whenever they were together, it was tantalising. It was absolutely amazing to watch their trust in one another grow as do their feelings.

[S.K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love a dark and twisty romance so this sounded like it would be well up my street. Judging by the other reviews this has received, this hit the mark for a LOT of people. Unfortunately, not for me.

None of the characters were built into someone to care/root for; lots of the story seemed to make little to no sense, with villains that were worse than caricatures; I seriously do not understand how any of this made it past beta readers because it was just all so off. It had the bones of a really good, interesting story but unfortunately it was never truly fleshed out.

The relationship between Jay and Cal could barely be called a relationship – in fact, the blurb says if you like insta-love, this is not for you but there is no other way to describe the situation-ship between the two men. There was no reason for Cal to trust Jay, and certainly no reason for Jay to want to save Cal and the others. Even the ‘intimacy’ between Cal and Jay was transactional at best and the fact that Cal was a virgin before anything happened between them actually makes things feel so much worse.

There felt like there was a lot of MF content, albeit non-consensual, and just overall I don’t think this was the book for me at all. I’m not going to get into the whole editing, spelling thing because I know that isn’t the substance of the book, but there were errors in who was speaking, etc that didn’t help.

I received an ARC from GRR.

[Bkwrm24 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jay and Cal ❤️

4 Stars ⭐️

I'm gonna come right out and say that this book won't be for everyone, it touches on some extremely disturbing things so please pay very close attention to the trigger warnings before picking this up. With that being said, holy sh*t, this book made me nauseous at times, it was so heavy with realistic events that were so tough to read which I consider a testament to R.A. Frick's writing. It captured so much ugliness, it was raw, it was dark and it was emotional. So yeah I cried like a baby, I'll admit it. I would not classify this as a romance although there is a main couple, who are attracted to one another, who share their bodies and who build a relationship all while under some extremely difficult circumstances. In the end there was love but it most definitely wasn't the typical romantic relationship build, it was very hard fought let's just put it that way. I would recommend this book as dark as it was, there ended up being a light at the end of that long, painful tunnel.

* received an ARC from GRR, this is my open and honest review *

[Nedra81 · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, the writer lays everything bare, never shying away from true events happening in the world today. This is what continues to draw me to their stories, for the realism and despair that most are oblivious to, but happening right under our noses.

𝕎𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℂ𝕒𝕝 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕤𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕠𝕟𝕝𝕪 𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕙 𝕘𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕙𝕚𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕙 𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣’𝕤 𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖.

RA also doesn't shy away from the dominance of her characters. Her explicitly of scenes, never leaving out aftercare, down to the consistency of Jay’s protection of Cal, speaks volumes of how enjoyable a BDSM lifestyle/relationship can become.

I do wish there were more intimate moments between Jay and Cal, but I also understood the need for their individual development with such a quick story. Hopefully, we'll see these two lovebirds in a future story!!

[Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cal wanting to escape the only life he has known, leaves his home in Montana to go to L.A. hoping for a new life. He is approached by a man offering Cal a job acting. Cal has doubts, but goes anyway and is abducted by a human trafficking family. The older brother Dru and his mother have been running it while the younger brother has been away at school with no knowledge what they are doing. When the younger brother Jay is faced with what is going on, he steps in and tries to put a stop to it. Meanwhile Cal and Jay have this attraction. Both are unable to deny it and the issues with this. This story moved right along and had plenty of twists to keep it interesting. I will read more by this author.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cal and Jay story was intense with a lot of danger and fight for liberty.
Landing in a toxic ring is unexpected and escaping it is quite difficult when truth comes to light and your world is crumbling.
I liked how their relationship blooms and how they help each other in their escape plan along others wounded and abused souls.
It's a story with a happy ending but the journey is a painful one with betrayal of family, abuse and other horrors, so is not a story for the faint hearted or the ones that like happy ones.

[Nicole van Dongen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cal has already led a pretty rough life. Jay has grown up in the lap of luxury. They are thrown together in a horrible situation when Cal is captured, and Jay faces the crimes of his family that has provided his lifestyle. This did not start as a romance, it has a lot of dark TW events. Due to the direness of the situation, and the gentleness Jay shows we definitely get an insta-love/Stockholm situation between the two, and I enjoyed it. There was still some minor editing errors, but it didn't deter from the story. I would have liked a little more details on the FBI crackdown portion of the trafficking ring, but I enjoyed the epilogue.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Cal leaves home pursuing a new life in L.A., he quickly gets himself drawn in by human traffickers, is kidnapped, and whisked off to India. Jay, brother of the kidnapper and an unwitting, unknowing part of his trafficking family, is drawn to Cal and vows to help him and the other current victims of his unscrupulous family. He just isn’t quite sure how to pull this off and protect Cal and the others. Pretty fast paced, twists and turns, a few hot scenes with BDSM elements, and an eventual HEA. Fairly short read.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cal has left his home for greener pastures. He meets up with Jay and his brother. This book is dark, especially in the beginning. I highly recommend that you read the triggers before starting this book. There is no runway into the darkness of mankind.

Jay learns about his family's real business. The story is a good story if you can hang in there. The relationship between the two men is interesting to watch it develop and how they work through not only saving themselves but their lives.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5⭐️ So this was an odd one for me to rate. I knew I signed up for a dark romance and I read the warnings but it still had some icky moments for me. The word consent was thrown around a lot by Jay but how was Cal really able to consent- he had no choice. It was implied there was some insta feelings between these two but it was really hard to be believe. Otherwise I thought the plot line had great potential but just missed the opportunities presented.

[Ida Umphers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the way the author took all those warnings you hear in public service announcements about being careful who you trust, let poor Cal ignore them and unfortunately discover in this case they were all true. As he struggles to deal with his new horrific situation and try to figure out how to survive/escape, Jay is discovering things about his family that force him to choose a side an act. These two have great chemistry together and I loved this dark story.

[Autumn Winchester · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

To start off, I had read the first published version of this book. When I did, I had struggled to get through because of the lack of editing.
Now, with new editing and formatting, it has made the world of difference. It's much better.
I am giving this book a 3.5 star rating because it is good, but not a capitving read for me. I wish these sights would do half stars, because it'd make it easier.

[Saskia Veldhuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting story including some truly awful practices (like human trafficking). The unusual differences were the location and the position of Jay in his family and his roles here. I did struggle with Cal's continuing trust in Jay - I can't imagine that he wouldn't have been more suspicious of his motives. Cal's consent to everything was very dubious, seeing what the alternatives were.

[J K H · Rating 5 out of 5]

RA Frick brings us a book that is so different, so original and I just loved this book. It’s much darker than their other stories but it just works perfectly. The twists and turns that Cal and Jay take us on are unexpected it’s an adventure form word one. Heed the trigger warnings please but if you’re up for it, this is a fantastic story!

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

He wants a different life so he runs away when he meets them and a new man who will help him. There is one big issue he is taken to be sold which shocks them. They cannot believe what their family is doing. Can they save him? Will he be able to save everyone else? What is going to happen next? Follow them all to see what will happen

[MM Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captured by R.A. Frick just wet my whistle. The story just ticked all my checkboxes for dark, dark story. It has all the triggers or content warnings I wanted.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I enjoyed the story, it was a quick dark read, please read trigger warnings.

[Virginia Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the dark twist in this book. you fall for the one boy family that put you into the cage.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately this didn’t live up to the promise of a dark romance for me.
The story had potential but it lacked depth both to the characters and the plot.