Entice by Carrie Jones

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR NEED AND CAPTIVATE!

Synopsis

Zara and Nick are soul-mates – they’re meant to be together for ever. But that’s not quite how things have worked out. For starters, Nick is dead, and has been taken to Valhalla, a mystical resting place for warriors. If they can find the way there, Zara and her friends will try to get him back. But even if they do, Zara has turned pixie – and now she’s Astley’s queen!

Meanwhile, more teenagers go missing as a group of evil pixies devastates the town of Bedford. An all-out war seems imminent and Zara and her friends need all the warriors they can find . .

Entice starts immediately after the events of Captivate and Zara is getting ready for the school dance. She's got a great deal to take on board, what with Nick in Valhalla, her own pixie status and finding out that another of her friends is not as human as she thought. As a result the start of Entice is a bit low key. Zara is quite literally not herself and is now leaning on Astley for support and to help her find Nick. To add to Zara's load, her friend Devyn is being a little frosty with her. More high school boys are going missing and it's fair to say that Zara and co are not coping with the Pixie onslaught.

I must admit that I found the first part of this book a little hard to connect with - for some reason it felt a little stop start, if that makes sense. Zara is searching for the road to Valhalla in the hopes that it'll lead her to Nick and, rightly so, this forms the main part of the plot. However, I didn't slip into the book as I had with the previous two. It would be easy to say that this was because the start was a little slow but it wasn't. Anyway, by the time I was halfway through I was hooked as Astley and Zara struggle to find a key to get them what they need. Initially I worried that I wouldn't warm to Astley as he clearly has high hopes of Zara but as the book proceeds I felt a great deal of compassion for him.

Another great thing about Entice is the world building. As Zara starts to trust Astley more we get to see how the politics of the pixie world work. I'd love to see more of this in the next book as it really adds a little extra something. Zara and friends become a little more adventurous too and we start to see more of the area where they live. Issie is adorable as ever and I still found her and Zara's friendship touching and genuine. The final chapters of the book were exciting and suitably dramatic. I started the book unsure if I wanted to read more but finished excited to see what happens next.

Entice - Carrie Jones

Just heard from Bloomsbury that one of MFB's fave writers Carrie Jones has her new book out VERY soon.

The new novel is called Entice and it is the third in her series featuring her main character, Zara.

This is from the PR document:

Zara and Nick are soul-mates – they’re meant to be together forever. But that’s not quite how things have worked out. For starters, Nick is dead, and has been taken to Valhalla, a mystical resting place for warriors. If they can find the way there, Zara and her friends will try to get him back. But even if they do, Zara has turned pixie – and now she’s Astley’s queen. Will Nick still feel the same way about her?

Meanwhile, more teenagers go missing as a group of evil pixies devastates the town of Bedford. An all-out war seems imminent and Zara and her friends need all the warriors they can find . . .

Ever gripping, Carrie Jones takes the suspense up a notch with Entice. Full of romance, tension and ass-kicking adventure, readers will be hungry for more!  

Keep up to date here with the main website.

This will take you to a sneak peak of Entice that is being published in Jan 2011 and do pop by Facebook if you want to be kept up to date with Zara and her world.  And just in case you don't know WHO Carrie Jones is...this is her website.

And of course, here are the MFB reviews for Carrie's books that we've read and loved. Notice that we loved Need so much, we reviewed it twice.

Liz reviews Need

Essjay reviews Need

Essjay reviews Captivate

Stay tuned for an upcoming review.  Essjay and I will be thumbwrestling for this one, I think!

Captivate by Carrie Jones

Warning: If you haven't read Need this review contains spoilers!

Synopsis

Zara and her friends thought they'd solved the pixie problem. And they had - sort of. They're locked away, deep in the woods. But the king's needs grow stronger each day that he's in captivity, while his control over his people weakens. Who will fill the power vacuum? Astley. He claims he's different. He claims that it doesn't have to be violence and nastiness all the time. Zara wants to believe him ... until Astley also claims that she's fated to be his queen.

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

I loved Need, so when I got the opportunity to review Captivate I was excited and nervous. Would I like it as much as Need? Would the second book in the series live up to my expectations? Well, I started it yesterday and was up at six this morning to continue. I enjoyed it more than Need, I loved it.

It was obvious at the end of Need that capturing the pixies was only a quick fix - there would be repercussions. Captivate finds Zara, Nick, Devyn and Issie doing patrols and throwing rogue pixies into the house with the others. Zara's dad, the king, is still there growing weaker while his followers become more restless and needy for flesh. Soon, a new king arrives in the shape of Astley. He appears to be different to Zara's dad but can he be trusted? Astley isn't the only king on the scene either. It's obvious that the status quo can't hold.

I loved the dark underside of Need and in Captivate this becomes more apparent and is stronger in this respect. I could sense the undercurrent of danger which leaks out as you read finally bursting out as the book progresses. Spring feels like a long way off in Maine and in a way I was reminded of the winter of Narnia; I could almost smell the pine trees and hear the crunch of snow. Captivate takes the feeling of threat that runs through Need and spins it into a whole new dimension of terror. This book is far from fluffy and light. However, Captivate keeps some humour. My favourite funny line, "The other king was last spotted in Wal-Mart."

The characters all develop well; Zara still worries about her Amensty International cases but also shows a parallel between her concern for these people and her complex feelings about her own captives. Issie is still crushing on Devyn, but Devyn is getting more independent. Who is Cassidy and why is Devyn drawn to her? Nick is still Zara's protector but can he control his feelings when she acts upon her own impulses despite the fact that he sometimes breaks the rules of the gang? In this book Nick and Zara grow closer. Incidentally, I hated Cassidy throughout most of this book. How dare she muscle in on Issie and Devyn!

Zara starts to turn blue when the new king is in the vicinity and a new paranormal entity arrives and starts carrying away possibly warriors. I'm bubbling over here to spill the rest of the plot but wouldn't spoil it. I didn't expect the book to take the turn that it did, I was flipping over the pages thinking, "No! Surely not!" The ending cliff-hanger is all the worse for the fact that the next book isn't due until 2011.

I donated my copy of Need to the library. Uncharitably, I now wish I hadn't as this series is a keeper - and no, you can't have my copy of Captivate.

Need by Carrie Jones

Sarah Bryars has kindly offered to review Need by Carrie Jones for MFB. I am very pleased that she did because it's a fab novel, one I raved about madly last year when I bought the hardcover in from the States. Now it's come to the UK, thanks to Bloomsbury, and I can't be a happier fan-girl. Here you go, Sarah's review:

Synopsis

Following the death of her beloved stepfather, Zara is forced to leave Charleston and her mother to live with her grandmother, Betty, in Maine. The move is bad enough, but when Zara realises she has been followed across the country by a strange man, things get even worse. Local boys are disappearing, she hears a voice calling her name in the night, mysterious figures seem to flit in and out of the shadows of the forest, and Zara’s sure her mother and Betty are hiding something from her. Life is made a little easier by new-found friends Issie and Devyn, and possible love interest Nick, but even they are keeping secrets from her.

The blurb on the back of this suggests that Need is a kind of mash-up of Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer which made me raise an eyebrow. Part way through I changed my mind; it’s true! Need has an atmospheric, almost hypnotic quality to it which I wasn’t expecting. Added to that is a growing feeling of unease and dread. Zara is sent to her grandmother’s house when her mum finds her behaviour after the death of her stepfather worrying. Once there she finds the lifestyle a complete culture shock; the weather, the clothes and the sense of isolation all make her wish she could go home.

The tension soon ramps up as she sees a man, pointing at her from the side of the road. She recognises him as the same one she saw on the way to the airport. Once at her grandmother’s she sees him again and when she leaps out of the car to see where he went all that’s left is a trail of glitter. Zara uses phobias as a coping mechanism, she chants them to herself in times of stress and each chapter starts with a different phobia which is a nice touch. Her first days at school see her making new friends and enemies; Issie and Devyn are sweet characters. I started to warm to Zara as her relationship with Issie developed. Nick is also an intriguing character; throughout the book I was first for him then unsure of his motives. As a whole, the supporting characters are both entertaining and intriguing – they add to the growing mystery.

Zara discovers that the problem with Maine is pixies added to which boys are going missing. The deeper that Zara gets into the problem the more creepy it becomes. The pixies in Need are much like the fairies in Wicked Lovely, just plain nasty at times. As the snow begins to fall and the sense of isolation and danger increases I was whipping through the pages to find out what was going to happen! Without giving away too much of the story, pixies aren’t the only things that Zara has to deal with. The mother/daughter relationship was really well handled too, the distance that had grown between them was caused by secrets which slowly unravel. The tight band of grief that is strangling Zara slowly starts to loosen in Maine. She starts to open up and she allows little bits of information to slip out which start to put the jigsaw together.

The ending was quirky enough to make me want the sequel. In fact, it’s the sort of ending that plays on your mind a bit. I kept thinking, “Well, what’s going to happen with that?” To sum up, Need has enough to offer which is different to make this series gripping. For me, there can never be too many supernatural beings anyway, so there’s more to love!

Need is out now from Bloomsbury UK and the sequel will very soon be with us!

Need by Carrie Jones

Synopsis

Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

I sometimes wish I could do this: and leave it at that. Sometimes words are unneccesary when having to review a book so totally cool that you want to read it immediately after closing the covers.

Need by Carrie Jones started off 2009 for me at such a high level, when it comes to urban fantasy / young adult, I'm sort of despairing for the rest of the year. I truly hope everything else that comes way will be as good / better (if possible).

I fell in love with Zara and her grandmother - they have this gutsy amusing relationship of straight talking and honesty which I thoroughly loved. What I appreciated even more, is how unique the author portrayed Zara's grandmother - not at all a stay-at-home granny who does baking and cooking. Here you have a proper frontierswoman out there doing hard graft work in the ice and cold, looking after people and helping them. This should have been the first indication that things were going to be turned topsy turvy.

Zara is a breath of fresh air - she is level headed, funny, she collects phobias and sort of sees the world for what it is. She is also a strong campaigner for Human Rights and belongs to Amnesty International. She's also a good athlete and runner and as the new girl makes her mark on the new school by joining the cross country team. Naturally this brings her into conflict with one of the girls on the team who thinks she's hawter than anyone else. Zara frankly does not care because she has more than running and boys on her mind. She's dealing with her stepfather, the only father she's known, dying shortly after they finished a run together and with her mother completely breaking up because of it and sending her away. Her feelings are easy to dissect - guilt, betrayal, anger, frustration. Not healthy, in other words. She started running on empty after her stepfather's death and her mother thought she saw signs of suicide. So her mother sends her to Maine (yes, that Maine of Stephen King ilk) to somehow see if her grandmother can help her, bring her back to real life, to keep her safe.

The novel is well written with a deft touch and light hand, never letting Zara's emotional turmoil get too heavy to deal with. The pixie (I spluttered when I read this, immediately thinking girly flying things, but I was WRONG) who turns out to be stalking Zara (this is not a reveal, I swear) is always at the periphery of the story. Who is he, what does he want, why does he want Zara and why are kids disappearing when they go out after dark?

The cast of characters are kept very small so you keep track of everyone without a problem. The budding romance between Michael and Zara is sweet to watch and I love how witty they are with one another. Michael may be replacing Jacob in my book as teen boy hottie.

I'm not going to rave on more - all I would you to do is, give this book a chance - if you've not ever read anything remotely like this in the past, this is the book to turn you onto this genre. It is fresh, funny, well written, the characters are interesting and the plot is well executed with a twist in the end. Sadly I don't think Need is available here in the UK apart from Amazon and it's affiliates, but I'm hoping a UK publisher will pick this up because it will go down a storm.