Captivate by Carrie Jones

****NEWS: Book Three Titled Entice is set to come out December 7th of this year according to Anazon****


Summary:
This book is the second in her Need series. It is narrated by Zara who has been living a fairly normal life since she and her friends locked her pixie father and his followers in the house in the woods. Zara and Nick are in a relationship and they are still in school where they along with Issie and Devyn all take part in things like Amnesty, Track, and French club. However they have also been taking shifts making sure the iron is keeping the pixies in the house and catching new pixies that come to town. Zara is out walking one day and comes across a pixie who begs for his life because he is hurt and chained to a tree and a Valkyrie is trying to take him to Valhalla. Zara saves him and finds out that he is a new pixie king named Astley. She also finds out that she has an unexpected reaction to him. She turns blue and swoons becoming more pixie-like when he is around. It is a reaction that her pixie blood has to kings she can couple with. However we find that all is not well in their little corner of Maine. With the weakness of her father and his court many kings are planning to try to take over his territory. This is why Astley has come he claims to be a good pixie sent by a group of good rulers to take control before someone else can. However, Zara won’t tell him where the house is so he looks for it in vain because eventually a new bad pixie king shows up and massacres the pixie house and wounds Zara’s father. Zara and Nick come to check on the house before the bad king can leave and so they find him and Nick and the new pixie king fight while fighting Nick is mortally wounded and the bad king leaves Zara to watch him die before he comes back to claim Zara as his queen. When both the bad king and Zara’s wounded father have fled Zara tries to call Grandma Betty or Issie and Devyn for help but they are all busy because the pixies that escaped the house stopped a school bus and killed and hurt many people. The Valkyrie comes and takes Nick away and there is nothing Zara can do about it. So she is left alone in the woods consumed by grief when 2 pixies come upon her and she kills them both before being rescued by Astley. While with Astley Zara demands to know what he knows about the Valkyrie and Valhalla. He tells her that the Valkyrie is collecting warriors for a coming battle. This means that Nick will still be alive. But any warrior who enters Valhalla will be kept there and no humans will be able to find it. So Zara plans to let Astley make her his Queen and perform the pixie kiss so that with help from her friends and Astley she will be able to travel to Valhalla and bring back Nick. Before she can plan with Issie, Devyn, Betty and Betty’s friend the Were-bear they are attacked by more pixies. Zara is separated from the group and is saved by Astley who takes her away from the fighting. Zara decides to go ahead with the plan and she kisses Astley. Two days later she wakes up a pixie and goes to talk with Devyn and Issie who have made a new friend in Chelsea who is part elf. At first they are afraid of the new pixie Zara but then they realize she is still the same and is in control of any needs she has. The book ends with them seeing that nick is in fact alive somewhere so Zara didn’t turn into a pixie in vain.


Review:
This was a good book my only complaint is that I felt ripped off by the ending because you are left with all questions and no answers. However it sets it up for the next book so it’s not like those answers won’t ever be answered. That said all I have for this book is praise. I love Nick and Zara but I was getting tired of them together because they didn’t seem to work. They both want to save the world but in very different ways. Nick being so bigoted was getting on my nerves and I loved the introduction of Astley. I was really hoping for a good pixie character because the real world isn’t quite so black and white. That said I think there is something fishy going on with him and his people and I really hope he remains to be a good guy. I liked the introduction of a new race into this book and I think the character of Chelsea is awesome and fits right in even though we didn’t see much of her in this book. I also like that Zara went pixie because not only was that a self sacrificing act which is so Zara but it also allows her to do more than sit and watch her protectors save her from the kings seeking queens. It gave her power to take care of herself and empowerment is a strong thing. I can’t wait to hear more about Valhalla and Astley. And I hope Betty takes the transformation pretty well because it would suck to have Zara estranged from her only family in town.