Thursday, January 21, 2010

Review! Captivate by Carrie Jones


 
Captivate (Need, book 2)
Carrie Jones
Bloomsbury Children's Books 
January 5th, 2010 
ISBN-10: 1599903423
ISBN-13: 9781599903422

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.

I started Captivate with high hopes that I would enjoyed it as I enjoyed reading Need. It soon became noticeable that my expectations were too high, the writing felt stilted and I literally felt awkward reading some parts. Yes, Zara was as quirky as ever but she was stepping into some dangerous TSTL territory at times and I really didn't like that. However, I forged through and I'm glad to say that things eventually got a little better.

 The writing still feel awkward but the secondary characters made up for it. The little love triangle between Devin, Is and Cassidy was one of my favorite parts and Nick is as cute as always. Astley, the new king who has it in his mind that Zara is his queen, was one of my favorite characters, I was so torn between him and Nick! The characterization really rocked, even though I did have some beef with the way Zara acted at times. 

Plotwise, I'm still not sure how I feel about the twists in the story. I did not see it coming at all, which was pretty awesome and I'm absolutely looking forward to reading the next installment. Honestly, the ending is just a huge cliffhanger and I was slightly annoyed but at the same time completely hooked.

So while I didn't exactly like the writing itself I did enjoy the story, especially the secondary characters, and I'll definitely be reading the next book in this series! 

2 comments:

Eleni said...

Great review, I just bought Need & Captivate so I hope I'll like them :P

Wendy said...

Hi, Eleni!

I really did like both books, just Need more than Captivate 'cause I had some problems with it. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy them! :)

He can Chapter-32 me anytime!

Bones is Mine