Book Review: Captivate (Need #2) by Carrie Jones

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.

Review:

I feel strangely ambivalent about this pixie book.  I found the beginning to be really slow.  I got tired of reading about how much in love Zara and Nick are.  I really don't like it when authors keep telling me the same thing over and over.  They're in love, I get it, let's move on with the story! 

Another drawback was the fact that I'm not crazy about books written in the teenage vernacular.  It really starts to grate on my nerves after a while.  This is a major drawback to YA for me, which sometimes feels like reason enough to give up on the genre.  I don't give up on YA, though, because I read so many great YA books that are intelligently written without teenage slang (by authors such as Cassandra Clare, Stephanie Meyer, Melissa Marr, Melissa de la Cruz, etc). 

When I say this book is about pixies, I mean it's really about pixies.  It's all about finding pixies, killing/imprisoning them, wondering if you are one, and keeping the rest of the world safe from them.  All of this talk about pixies made me want to read about the pixies in Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series.  Jenks, the main pixie character in that series, is a tiny Tinkerbell-like pixie who is always getting into trouble.  He is a lot more fun than the pixies in this series, who are mostly evil. 

The story picked up  about halfway through, which saved the book for me.  I was surprised by Zara's decision at the end---I really like to be surprised so that was nice.  There was a certain kissing scene that was Isle of Esme hot!  I find this series to be very Twilight-ish; however, I think it's hard for any paranormal YA to not be compared to Twilight.  The love triangle, the separation, the transformation, the bad guys, all of it was very similar to Twilight for me, and it got old.  Fans of Twilight, Wicked Lovely, and Wondrous Strange will like Need and Captivate. 

Just One Gripe:

Like Need, Captivate was slow to take off.

The Best Thing About This Book:

I like the new love triangle.  I still can't decide which team I'm on.  Nick is very Jacob Black-ish, so I'm leaning towards Astley.

Appropriate for a younger audience:

Yes

Score:

Characters: 2/5

Plot: 3/5

Setting/Imagery: 3/5

Originality: 1/5

Ending: 3/5

Total Score:  12/25