Review: Captivate by Carrie Jones

Captivate by Carrie Jones
Pub. Date: January 05, 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Format: Hardcover, 288pp

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.

Captivate picks up a couple of months from where Need left off with Zara, Nick and company continuing their mission to keep Bedford safe from dangerous pixies. I actually reread Need before starting Captivate as a refresher to get reacquainted with the characters. I’m so glad I did because I enjoyed getting to know Nick again considering there’s a possible love triangle in Captivate.

I also enjoyed getting to see Zara’s growth in this installment and the events that led to her growth when it came down to facing her fears were a shocker indeed. Carrie Jones did a great job keeping me in the dark because I would have never expected certain events to play out the way they did in Captivate. This book had my heart rate sky rocketing while the pages continued to fly away. I could not put this one down.

New characters are introduced in this installment and one of them goes by the name of Astley. He’s the new pixie King in town. Astley has that dark, sexy and mysterious vibe that I love in male characters and while I love Nick, I found myself drawn to Astley in this installment. I also love how Carrie Jones introduced new elements that spanned around the lore which only made Captivate more intriguing.

Captivate ended with a perfect cliffhanger that answered plenty of questions while leaving the storyline open to keep readers salivating for the next installment. Zara has some hard decisions to make and I can’t wait to see what Carrie Jones has in store for us next.

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars