Entice

Danger, danger!  Stop here if you haven’t read both Need and Captivate by Carrie Jones.  You simply must read these two books before reading this post about book three, Entice.  You’ve been warned!

Another day, another book finished.  I think Entice by Carrie Jones is the seventh book I’ve read in the past week.  I am made of awesome.  (Of course, it’s certainly helped that school has been cancelled all week because of snow…but I’m still pretty awesome…and humble.)  I think I may take a little break after this post, partly because I have to go back to work next week, and partly because, quite frankly, I’m kind of tired.  Not to fear, though, I will still do my best to bring you the best in young adult literature–just not as much of it in one week.  Sorry.  Now, on to Entice, the third installment in Carrie Jones’ Need series.  This book picks up mere minutes after Captivate leaves off, and things in Bedford, Maine, are about to get a lot more dangerous…

Zara never thought she would be a pixie, but it seems she’ll do anything to bring her boyfriend, Nick, back home and save the people that she loves.  So she’s now a pixie.  But she’s not just any pixie.  She’s a pixie queen.  Astley’s pixie queen.  Can she convince everyone she loves that not all pixies are evil (just like not all people are evil)?  Will they ever truly trust her again?  Will Nick if she ever finds him?

More and more people are dying and going missing in Bedford, and Zara, Astley, and all of Zara’s friends must put aside their differences and work together to stop this evil from spreading.  Who is behind it all?  Is the other pixie king, Frank?  Or is there a larger force behind it all, one who no one really suspects?  The answers, I’m afraid, are not easy.  It is not always apparent who can be trusted or when trusting the wrong person will lead to even more death and destruction.

As Zara works to stop the violence from spreading in Bedford, she must also find a way to get to Valhalla to rescue Nick.  But how?  What will she have to do if she ever makes it there?  Will Nick want to come back with her once he realizes that she became a pixie just to rescue him?  Will he accept that she is Astley’s queen?  And how can Zara reconcile her love for Nick with her growing feelings for Astley?  There are no easy answers, but join Zara as she tries to discover who she truly is when you read Entice by Carrie Jones.

As you can see, there are a lot of questions to be answered in the Need series.  I’ll go ahead and warn you that not all of them are answered in this book.  I have high hopes that the fourth book will clear things up a bit, but we’ll have to wait on that.  It’s not scheduled to be released until early 2012.  In the meantime, there are many, many more books to read, and I must get to them.  So long for now…

Captivate

Spoiler alert!  Read no further unless you’ve read Need by Carrie Jones.  I will, well, spoil things for you.  That’s why they call it a spoiler.

I’ve noticed a weird connection between several of the books I’ve read recently.  They contain connections to Norse mythology.  I don’t know why I’m gravitating toward these books, but it’s kind of spooky.  Luckily, I know a little about Norse mythology, so I’m not too confused about what’s going on in these books.  (When I was a freshman in college, I had to write a paper about artistic depictions of Odin throughout history.  I still remember some of it.  As a matter of fact, I still have that paper.  I got an A.)  Weirdness aside, it is now time to talk about my latest read, Captivate by Carrie Jones, which is the sequel to Need (if the spoiler above didn’t make that clear).  Captivate picks up right where Need left off, and it introduces some new and rather mysterious new characters.  Let’s dive in.

Zara White is still struggling with who she truly is.  After discovering that her father is a pixie king, her grandmother is a weretiger, and her boyfriend is a werewolf, you can imagine that she’s having issues adjusting to everything going on around her.  Well, things aren’t going to get any better any time soon.  She’s dealing with the fact that she and her friends have imprisoned her father and his fellow pixies.  (She’s a member of Amnesty International, so this is especially difficult to stomach.)  These pixies want out in the worst way, and there’s no telling what they’ll do to Zara if they’re freed.  There are also more pixies coming to her new town in Maine.  Why are they all coming here?  What’s so special about Bedford, Maine?

As Zara soon discovers, an ancient war is brewing, and Bedford may be destined to be the battleground.  When Zara encounters not one but two new pixie kings and a Valkyrie straight from Valhalla, she knows that things are about to get really, really bad.  When her boyfriend, Nick, is taken to Valhalla by the mysterious Valkyrie, Zara knows she must do everything in her power to bring him back and stop the bad pixies from completely taking over…even if that means becoming the very thing she fears the most.  Will Zara align with Astley, the “good” pixie king, to save Nick?  Could there be another way to bring him back?  Does Nick even want to come back to Zara?  Read Captivate by Carrie Jones to uncover the mystery.

While I enjoyed Need more, I still think Captivate is a cool book.  I’m hoping things will become a bit clearer in the third book, Entice, which I will probably begin reading in about ten minutes.  I think it will be interesting to see just how much Norse mythology really plays a part in what will happen to these characters.  This should be fun.

For more information on this series and author Carrie Jones, visit http://www.carriejonesbooks.com/.

Need

If you follow this blog at all, you may have noticed that I am quite the wuss.  I am afraid of many, many things:  clowns (coulrophobia), thunderstorms (astraphobia), rodents (musophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), the dark (nyctophobia), falling (bathophobia), failure (atychiphobia), evil children (I don’t think there’s a name for this one), and a few others.  My many phobias made it really easy for me to relate to the main character in Need by Carrie Jones.  Each chapter in this book begins with the name and definition of a particular phobia (and provides a bit of foreshadowing about what will happen in that chapter).  The main character, Zara, believes that naming one’s fear helps in understanding it.  I don’t know if that’s true, but, hey, it’s worth a shot.  In any case, Zara has quite a bit to fear, it seems.

Zara is moving from Charleston, South Carolina, to the wilds of Maine.  (As a native South Carolinian, I can tell you that this would be an uncomfortable and drastic change.)  The only father she’s ever known has died, and her mother can no longer deal with her, so Zara is being sent to live with her grandmother in Maine.  It appears, though, that someone has followed her.  A weird guy has been stalking her from Charleston to Maine, and Zara wonders what he wants with her.  Why did he appear just as her stepdad was dying?  Why has he followed her all this way?  This situation is not helping her fear of the unknown.

Despite everything that she’s had to endure lately, Zara’s grandmother insists that Zara start classes at the local high school immediately.  (The horror!)  Almost at once, Zara makes some fierce enemies and a few loyal friends.  But something is not quite right with some of these people.  Zara glimpses something in their eyes that only serves to increase her fear.  Do they have any connection to the man following her?  Do they know why boys have been going missing?  What is really going on in this crazy town?

Well, the answers may not be what Zara expects.  Her fears may really get the best of her when she discovers that the people around her, even her new boyfriend and her own grandmother, are not exactly what they appear to be.  Even Zara may not be who she thinks she is.  When Zara learns that “fairy tale” creatures actually exist, will she let her fear overcome her?  Or will she do everything she can to understand what’s going on and stop the bad guy from winning?  And what will she do when she discovers her own eery connection to this mysterious bad guy?  Read Need by Carrie Jones to find out.

I know this post has been a bit cryptic, and that was intentional.  I want you to read for yourselves about what Zara is facing.  It’s really cool but unexpected at times.  As soon as I finish this post, I plan to start reading the next book in this series, Captivate.  I’m eager to see what else Zara and the gang can get into and how they’ll battle the forces working against them.

Need is part of a series.  Like I mentioned above, Captivate is the second book in this series.  The third book, Entice, is already out, and I’ll start on that one as soon as I finish Captivate.  According to Carrie Jones’ website (http://www.carriejonesbooks.com/), a fourth book is in the works, and it should be out in early 2012.