Captivate by Carrie Jones

3.5 stars -- I like it.

The sequel to Need, Captivate picks up shortly after Need left off. The author and publisher did very well carrying the themes through. The covers fit together well, and they're both beautiful and haunting. The storyline follows well (as far as I can recall). There are enough clues in Captivate for me to recall what the first book was about without having it regurgitated in its entirety.

I have to admit, I don't really remember the first book at all. I rated it 4 stars, so I must have liked it fairly well, but it didn't stick in my head as anything amazing.

Thus, I don't know if how the characters acted in this book fits well with what happened in the first book, but they fit well for this book. This book feels a bit more "needy" than the first book. More gasping teen hormones than I recalled, but since I didn't recall Nick, the love interest, at all...

All of that to say: take this review as being about a stand-alone novel rather than a sequel, even though it is a sequel and you should definitely read the first book if you're going to read this one.

Captivate has a somewhat unusual plot line. There are fairies and were-things (not merely werewolves, though Nick is that), and in this book we've added some Norse mythology and mythological creatures. Surprisingly, there are no vampires, though they could appear in future books, I'm sure.

Zara, the main character, a half-fairy/half-human hybrid and, conveniently, daughter of the local fairy king, has trapped (with the help of her boyfriend and friends) the local fairy population in a glamour-hidden house (the plot of Need there).

Now Zara, Nick, and her friends patrol the area for pixies that come into the area and drag them to the house to be trapped as well. Except... with the fairy king weak and incapacitated in the house, new fairy kings will try to take over. And that's what this book is about.

I have to say I was quite disappointed by the happenings in this book, though I still liked the storyline well enough and it was a fun read (probably more fun if you can remember the first book). I think the third book will probably make me feel better about this book and its ending, although with the unflattering description of pixies, I'm not sure I could ever like one... although, as happens in fiction, all things are reversible given the right magic.

I don't want to give too much away, because (although you'll figure things out quickly enough if you read the book) I don't want to give so much away that you don't have to read the books at all.

This is a typical YA fantasy book, so if that's your thing, I say go ahead and pick up this series. It's on par with Twilight as far as depth, although it never reaches the same emotional level (which, admittedly, is the main draw to Twilight, but you can still read this for a fun, quick, fantasy escape).