Book Review: Captivate Me by S.J. Pierce

Synopsis:

“My mom had always told me – when you meet “the one”, you’ll know; they’ll captivate your heart the moment you lay eyes on them. I had always wondered, though, if my mom’s words of wisdom were finite – if they applied to everyone. Maybe those who had found their one great love were the lucky few, and maybe the rest of us would have to settle for less than earth-shattering.”

Seventeen-year-old Kat Walsh is a Gifted – a human with paranormal abilities. With her mom a former Angel and her dad a dream prophet, it’s always been in her genetic make-up to be extraordinary. But, unfortunately for her, the world can’t handle the strange or unusual. So when she slips up and uses her powers at her high school in Ireland, the entire student body treats her like a freak – even the ones she thought were her closest friends.

Broken, but hopeful for a fresh start, she allows her parents to enroll her in a boarding school buried deep within the forests of a small Colorado town. At Midland Pines, School for the Gifted, she feels as though she can finally be herself; she makes new friends and even has the attention of the most popular guy in school – Levi. Everything feels normal again… or does it?

Not long after her arrival, weird dreams of an alluring boy whom she’s never met surface during the night, and the eerie, shadowy trees encircling their school seem to call to her. As these disturbing, yet enticing developments intensify, other bizarre occurrences happen – students and staff turn up missing, and mystery visitors leave gifts while she sleeps. With all of these other things fighting for her attention, a desperate Levi has to fight even harder to keep her interest. But with the dreams of the attractive boy slowly captivating her heart, Kat has to make a choice – will she settle for ‘great’ Levi, or will she search for her elusive dream visitor, possibly stumbling across ‘amazing’?

From the author of the Alyx Rayer Chronicles, comes a refreshingly different Young Adult series with plenty of love, suspense, and a new take on the Paranormal.

Recommended for readers 16 and up due to mature content.

 About the Author: 

Susan James Pierce has a degree in Marketing Management, works for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta, Georgia, and devotes her precious, spare time to writing Fantasy, Paranormal and Sci-fi novels.

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My Review:

Captivate Me is a YA paranormal novel and really reminded me of Twilight. It was written in a way that made it easy to glide from chapter to chapter, and gave the reader a warm and traditional YA set-up of fated love and a circle of friends.

From a writer’s perspective, my only issue was the main character, although it’s told first person, which is what I generally prefer as a reader and writer, I found her hard to relate to and she didn’t really struggle much with her abilities. I think if she would have been slightly less powerfully, it would have been much easier to feel for her. But when you can move objects with your mind, well you need to stop complaining and just get on with it! Perhaps its me and I was looking for more of a troubled loner like Stephen King’s Carrie? I’ve said this many times before, but a YA book can commercially span the ages, if the characters and writing allow. Books such as Twilight, Beautiful Creatures and Warm Bodies, did this with ease – but in truth dancing that line is harder than it looks. You need to keep both teens and adults interested in the plot and characters.

The front cover is going to be very attractive the teen audience, it looks expensive and sets the tone for the book.

Overall, I’d give Captivate me 4 out of 5 stars – if you’re missing Twilight and looking for a YA book to fill the void, this one fits the bill.