Captivate (Need, #2)
by Carrie Jones
Pages: 273
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.
First of all… how beautiful is that cover? I mean come, on. You can’t go wrong with fairy dust.
I really loved the first book of this trilogy and was hoping for the same from Jones’ second book, Captivate. It just didn’t have the same appeal as Need. It didn’t captivate me. (See what I did there? Hah.)
I love Zara as a character. She’s quirky and tough, but still vulnerable. There are so many things going wrong in her life, but she brings the humor. Captivate finds us just after Need ends and Zara is trying to decide between 2 equally sucky choices that she is facing. Enter…cute fairy boy. (Not that type of fairy boy. A REAL fairy.) Zara is forced to take action into her own hands and come up with the best compromise that she can offer, given the tense situation.
I also loved the appearance of this new and interesting character. For me, he made the book. I knew I wasn’t supposed to like him, but I couldn’t help it. It was definitely a great addition, since a few of the characters that I really enjoyed in Need were rather flat this time around. The biggest thing that bothered me in Captivate was the pacing. I feel like it was rushed and we didn’t get a good feel for how epic the decisions Zara makes are. A good portion of the book was spent building up the relationships (which IS important, but it may have gone too far) and not enough on the actual plot.
I’m really looking forward to Entice, to see whether or not Jones was able to up the ante and pull me back into the story.