Review: Need & Captivate

Titles: Need, Captivate

Author: Carrie Jones
Dates Released: December 23rd, 2008; January 5th, 2010 (respectively)
Pages: 306; 273 (respectively)
Rating: 5 out 5 (for both)

Description for Need:
Zara White suspects there's a freaky guy semi-stalking her. She's also obsessed with phobias. And it's true, she hasn't exactly been herself since her stepfather died. But exiling her to shivery Maine to live with her grandmother? That seems a bit extreme. The move is supposed to help her stay sane...but Zara's pretty sure her mom just can't deal with her right now.

She couldn't be more wrong. Turns out the semi-stalker is not a figment of Zara's overactive imagination. In fact, he's still following her, leaving behind an eerie trail of gold dust. There's something not right - not human - in this sleepy Maine town, and all signs point to Zara.

In this creepy, compelling breakout novel, Carrie Jones delivers romance, suspense, and a creature you never thought you'd have to fear.

Description for Captivate:
**I realized that this description contains spoilers!! So highlight it to read it!!**
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 really liked both of these books because I liked the relationship between Nick and Zara.  Somehow it was just different for me.  I also thought that Jones' concept of pixies was really cool because you'd think of them as all nice and pretty, but really they're creepy and total killers.  It also mixes in were-people... there aren't only werewolves, there are also other animals, like a bear and an eagle :)  The really cool thing about these books is that in Need, at the beginning of each chapter there was a phobia, and at the beginning of each chapter in Captivate, there was a Pixie Tip :) 

I really liked Zara because she just seemed like a cool person since she likes helping people and had this cool collection of phobias.  It was pretty sad though about her father, who wasn't her biological father, but treated Zara like he was her own, because he seemed like a really nice, loveable person who loved his adopted daughter.  I don't think that I didn't really like any character... they were all different and had their flaws.  None of them were really annoying to me, except for maybe Megan, in the first book, since she seemed like that typical snobby person.  And I didn't like Astley that much in the second book... I just didn't really trust him.

The plot always kept me in suspense in both books because you want to know who, no, what, the stalker is, who will Zara choose (in the first book), etc.  It's just full of twists (ESPECIALLY THE 2ND BOOK!!!).  So, I REALLY recommend this to anyone who likes any YA fantasy, especially ones with evil pixies in it, as well as the weres ;)  And I love this series a lot, and I can't wait to find out what will happen in the third book, Entice (it comes out on Dec. 7), since SOOOOOOO much happened in second book, that were absolutely shocking.

Cover Reviews:
These covers are da bomb!!! It's really cool how in Need, the lips of the person on the cover (most likely Zara... it probably is Zara), is GOLD (!!) and sparkly!  And, in Captivate, the single tear coming out of her eye is gold as well :) If you read the books, you'll totally understand why it's gold.  Actually, in the description for Need, it says that "he's still following her, leaving behind an eerie trail of gold dust."

Cleo :)

*Descriptions from Goodreads.com

Carrie Jones' website & her blog
Need website