Captivate

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read Need, this review may contain spoilers.

I didn't think it was possible but I may have enjoyed reading Captivate even more than I did Need. It hooked me from page one and I was up late into the night finishing it. I couldn't stop reading!

Captivate starts where Need left off. Zara and her friends are trapping pixies but what they don't know is that more are coming and that they are all in even greater danger, especially Zara. If Zara thought her own father was bad, just wait until she meets the other kings, who want her for their queen.

Captivate was so wonderfully well-written. It flowed really well for me and it made the book even better. Carrie Jones already had me hooked with the story but her writing show more was the icing on the cake.

I guess the thing that bugs me the most is that there is going to be another book. I don't want to wait to find out what happens to everybody. I want to know now! Then again, if I wasn't complaining about that it would mean that I just didn't care about the next book so maybe this isn't so much complaint as compliment to Carrie Jones! =]

Overall, if you've read Need, go get this and read it as soon as you can. And if you haven't read Need go get that one because both of these are books that I can't praise enough. show less

3.5 stars

I was completely captivated by this one - and yes, that's an intentional cheesy line. I'm allowed these sometimes.

After the excellent series debut, I couldn't wait to read this one nd see how firm the band-aid fix from that end held.

As with the last book, the group remains deadset against prejudice on anything to do with "big, bad pixie." They do have good reasons to hate, but the 'trapping' still irks me. Even if their hands were tied, it's still cruel and ignorant.

Zara gets ample warning about the disastrous consequences which soon befall her harebrained scheme. The worst thing about that really is it was so obvious what would happen, warning or not. Still everyone ignores advance warning and are still "unprepared" when it show more blows up in their faces. Argh! Annoying, right? The Valhalla story angle...well, I'll see where the author leads with it. I'm optimistic.

This sequel dishes out a large, depressing change, the intro of a new major player, and branches it's story out to expand horizons beyond the chilly town.

Compared with the first book, this one kicks off with more energy, the dilemma already in their faces. Even tension levels hold strong since pacing is even.

There are several emotional clenchers - wow on what happens to a main! - where shall that lead next? As the newcomer, Astley is intriguing enough to be considered a "good add." Oodles more on the level of group tension due to major changes, but also hard decisions Zara makes.

I hope I'm not the only one NOT warming up to 'dear, old mom?' Yeah, I get that the father's a monster in many respects - I really do - and it's not the mom's fault he 'needs' her to keep the madness at bay....but he does seem to genuinely care about her enough to let her go, which he knew would have him weaker in the process. At the end she's so filled with hated she can't even fully accept her own daughter the same? Really? Yuck. She is blinded by so many pre-arranged prejudices.

At least again Betty completely rocks at being the grandmother. :)

As a Young Adult, this lacks consequential melodrama - I'm pleased to report emo thoughts are kept off the table. There's not a triangle yet but one might be looming. Enough violence will keep action/adventure fans pleased, still a PG-13 book all the way. Sadder than the original, many life altering scenes.

I missed the excitement, intrigue and strong mystery the first boasted, but still dig this action-packed followup. I didn't fall in love with the mains further, but I approve of all newbies blended into the fold. Holding a strong sense of urgency and higher-paced action, while being coated with sadness, this sequel is captivating enough to recommend. show less

This continuation of the series about Zara and her pixie problem was appealing to me for its Maine setting, but needed editing to cut out some of the repetitive angst and whining. The ending, while not exactly a cliff hanger, felt like a dirty trick without any real resolution, clearly setting the stage for the next installment. Seems like this could have been tightened up and combined with whatever is coming next, all in one work. In the audio version, if a Maine accent was attempted, failed miserably.

Zara hasa few pixie problems, she is half pixie, her father a pixie king is locked up in a prison house with other pixies who want to kill her and other king pixies want to turn her to make her their queen. There seems to be a parade of them coming to town to eat (murder),rule and have her. Her love Nick, the wolf has some competition when a Pixie King Astley behaves honorably toward Zara. He shows her a side of the pixies she did not believe existed. Everything goes wrong, her life is in extreme danger and Astley may be the one she has to turn to. Her friends and her family all warn her, but she has to make her own choices.
I really liked Need, the first book, and I enjoyed continuation even more. It is a wonderful fairytale with a well show more detailed world and strongly developed characters. My only complaint is that it is too short, I wanted more. It is a YA book but it never had the teen angst feel that many books have.
*Cliffhanger ending* show less

My Thoughts: (Contains spoilers for Need)

If you know me, you know I love fantasy. Absolutely anything fantastical, especially urban fantasy. But, let's be honest, who isn't tired of vampires and werewolves? While there are some truly great vampire and werewolf books out there, I was so ready for something new. So, when I got Captivate, the sequel to Need, by Carrie Jones a couple of weeks ago, it soared straight to the top of my TBR pile.
If you don't know, Need is the story of Zara discovering that she is half-pixie and that her boyfriend is a werewolf (yes, I said werewolf. I like this werewolf, so be quiet!). Captivate picks up right where Need left off. Like, exactly where Need left off. As in, it seems to pick up the very next day. show more I'm not sure if this is the case but it speaks loads that Carrie is able to make it feel like you just finished Need and immediately started Captivate.
Captivate easily could have been just the continuation of the pixie war along with some couple troubles for Zara and Nick, but it was so much more than that! The new characters and lore Carrie introduces are weaved seamlessly into the already seamless piece of work that is Zara's story. I love that Zara is a character that fits perfectly into both the fantasy world and the 'real' world represented in the novel. So often I see a character that is perfectly at home among the fantastical but has trouble in school and dealing with the human aspect of their lives. Again, not the case with this book.
I think the only problem that I had with Captivate is the fact that it made me show emotion. I bawled my head off while reading. The pages of my book have water damage I cried so hard. I'm not used to a book making me cry. I don't cry. Ever. I commend Carrie on making me cry; it is quite a feat. The ending is truly sad, yet at the same time full of hope.

The Verdict: If I could give Captivate 6/5 stars, I would. This book is truly fantastic. Just, be prepared with a few boxes of tissues. show less

While I enjoyed Need by Carrie Jones, I couldn't finish Captivate. It felt too forced to me, too predictable. I could see where things were headed from about Chapter 2 and I got about 3/4 of the way through before I lost all interest. I stopped caring what happened to Zara--she felt too selfish, too wrapped up in herself & her own determination to save the world to care about those around her & she lost a lot of the qualities that I liked in her in Need. I lost interest in the story and put the book down, walked away and thought that in a day or two I'd go back to it. I didn't--two days later it was on the list for my book swap site.

CAPTIVATE, by Carrie Jones, continues the story of half-pixie, Zara, and battle against the pixies inhabiting Bedford, Maine. In the previous book, Need, Zara and her friends locked her pixie father and his followers in a iron-protected house, but now they are starving with Need and will do anything to satiate their hunger.

This book was definitely a step up from the first. The tension ran high with the pixies trying to escape from their iron prison, other pixie kings trying to gain followers, and the appearance of Astley who threatened to tear Zara and Nick apart. Jones created a heart-pumping sequel that captivates you from the start.

I felt this was a better storyline than Need. I liked Need but it was more of the background story for show more the series. Captivate dealt with the consequences of locking up Zara's father's pixies and the beginning of a war bigger than Bedford. The book was full of action and suspense that I listened to it as much as humanly possible. Jones raised the bar when she introduced Astley and the possibility for Zara to become a pixie. I loved the Astley/Zara dynamic actually more than the Nick/Zara dynamic. I felt that she needed to become a pixie because it was her birthright, but Nick's distain for pixies kept Zara prejudiced against them. Zara's character progression was fantastic in this book. I liked when she stripped her non-violent self and really let go, she was actually pretty badass.

In terms of the audiobook, I was less annoyed this time around with the accents. Whelan did a great job portraying Astley's smoking Irish accent, and I applaud her for her ability to keep the accents and voices separate and clear.

I loved the cover for this book. The addition of the gold keeps each book linked and absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait for the continuation of the series in, Entice. show less