Book review: Captivate by Carrie Jones

From the book jacket:

He smiles. It's a wicked smile. Kind but not kind. Handsome but dangerous. Feral almost. I can see why Nick nearly killed him. Nick...
I ask again, "Why were you in the road?"
"I was waiting for you."

Zara and her friends thought they'd solved the pixie problem. And they did--sort of. The pixies are all locked away, deep in the woods. But the king's needs grow stronger each day that he is in captivity, while his control over his people weakens. And it's enough to draw a new king into town. Astley claims he is different. He claims there are pixies who can live peacefully with humans, that it doesn't have to be all violence and nastiness all the time. Zara wants to believe him...until Astley also claims that she is fated to be his queen.

There is no way Zara would ever turn pixie. And she's got good friends who will make sure of that. Besides, she and Nick are so in love they're practically inseparable. But when the very thing Zara wants to protect most is exactly what's at risk, she is forced to make choices she never imagined...

I freaking loved this book.

Oh. Heh. That's pretty much how I started my review of NEED, the first book in this wonderful series by Carrie Jones. Sequels are tricky, especially when there is such massive book love of the first book. I'll admit it: I was nervous. I was so in love with the characters and story in NEED that I was afraid CAPTIVATE wouldn't live up to its predecessor. Big shoes and all that. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about.

CAPTIVATE brings us more of Zara, Nick, Issie, Devyn, and Betty as they struggle against even more difficult and morally complex challenges than we saw in NEED. Things like the realization that sometimes the only way to get yourself out of a bad situation is to blindly throw your faith at the idea that things are not what they seem. Also? Boy problems. Yeesh.

CAPTIVATE's story thrusts us deeper into the world of the pixies. The universe of the book becomes richer--and scarier--as a new element is introduced: a battle for the world is brewing, with Zara's town as its epicenter. Carrie does a great job of weaving in this new aspect of the world, which is based in Norse mythology, while making it feel like it was always there, waiting for Zara and crew to discover it. The plot keeps you turning pages, fearing for the characters you've fallen in love with, wondering what's going to happen next.

The very best thing about CAPTIVATE, in my opinion, is the morally complex situations Zara is forced into. She has some really big decisions to make--decisions that cause her to question some of the very foundations she's built her new life upon. In this book, we see Zara having to dig deep to decide how far she's willing to go to stick to the things she's always used to define herself.

Highly recommended, especially if you loved NEED. Go! Buy! Love!

Also: Stay tuned for a new interview between my dog Logan and Carrie's dog Tala--and, of course, a giveaway of CAPTIVATE! Click here to read Logan's interview with Tala about NEED.