Captivate by Carrie Jones
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Genre: Paranormal Young Adult

Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 273

Summary: Zara and her friends knew they hadn’t solved the pixie problem for good. Far from it. The king’s needs grow deeper every day he’s stuck in captivity, while his control over his people gets weaker. It’s made him vulnerable. And now there’s a new king in town.

A turf war is imminent, since the new pixie king, Astley, is moving in quickly. Nick nearly killed him in the woods on day one, but Zara came to his rescue. Astley swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he’s one of the good guys. Nick isn’t buying it, though Zara isn’t as sure — despite herself, she wants to trust the new king. But it’s a lot more than her relationship with Nick that is at stake. It’s her life — and his.

Thoughts: Captivate was a real disappointment.  All the bones where there – interesting characters, surprising plot, fantastic supernatural characters – but the emotion was missing.  I could remember loving these characters but, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember why.

While I was intrigued by the character development in this book (OMG she… oh, I can’t say anything) it was rather an intellectual appreciation.  There were a couple of climatic, emotionally intense scenes that left me rather… blank. Every character in Captivate – no exceptions – became a plot device.  Sure, they were servicing a really interesting plot, but that’s not enough.

All of the emotional issues felt rather forced – all talk, no substance.  All the he-love-she-love tragedy became annoying instead of touching.  Not to mention Zara’s sidekicks, Issie and Devyn, ended up really getting on my nerves.  I could barely believe this was the same author and the same characters who made my heart pitter-patter in Need!  The only character who kept me interested was Astley.  I have yet to figure him out, and I am rather looking forward to seeing more of him.



Bottom line? If I could only judge the series by Captivate, I’d say skip it. But I still have hope.  The bones are there for a spectacular series are there – Captivate just missed the mark.

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