Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
3 out of 5 stars
Summary:
An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of "Riding Lessons." "Gritty, sensual and charged with dark secrets involving love, murder and a majestic, mute heroine.
Favorite Quotes:
“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
“I want her to melt into me, like butter on toast. I want to absorb her and walk around for the rest of my days with her encased in my skin.
My Thoughts:
This is one of those books that makes me sad that make me sad that Good Reads rating system is skewed toward the low end. I enjoyed the book, but I wobble back and forth on how much. It’s a book that gets off to incredibly slow start. The beginning doesn’t tie into a bigger picture the way I like my books to, but I’m more than glad I stuck with it. Water for Elephants is one of those rare books that would be infinitely more entertaining on a second read. It’s a book that sticks with you after you’ve finished. You’d think picking up another book would help ease it from your mind, but there’s something so rich so enticing about the world that Gruen paints. If follows you around no matter how hard you try and shake it off. The second half of the book deserves at least four stars, while the beginning only two, which in the end leaves me with three and a sad feeling because that somehow seems unfair.
Captivate (Need #2) by Carrie Jones
2 out of 5 stars
Summary:
Zara and her friends thought they'd solved the pixie problem. And they did - sort of. The pixie's are all locked away, deep in the woods. But the king's needs grow stronger each day that he is in captivity, while his control over his people weakens. And it's enough to draw a new king into town. Astley claims he is different. He claims there are pixies who can live peacefully with humans, that it doesn't have to be all violence and nastiness all the time. Zara wants to believe him...until Astley also claims that she is fated to be his queen.
There is no way Zara would ever turn pixie. And she's got good friends who will make sure of that. Besides, she and Nick are so in love they're practically inseparable. But when they very thing Zara wants to protect most is exactly what's at risk, she is forced to make choices she never imagined
Favorite Quotes:
“Loving you is a full-time job. It's a great job, don't get me wrong. It's the best job in the universe. But it's not easy.”
“Reality isn‘t round, it‘s flat. There are edges where you can fall off and this October when I moved to Maine, I fell off one.”
My Thoughts:
I’m disappointed. I hadn’t expected this to be as strong as the first book but I’m still disappointed. Captivate lacks a lot of what the first book excelled at. It’s not a horrible book by any means- I’ve read far worse, but but it leaves me question whether or not I’ll be picking up the next book in the series. There is some interesting plot developments, although unlike Need, they revolve less around external forces or danger and spring mostly from relationships between the characters. Unfortunately this is where my biggest issue with the book comes into play. Zara is in love with Nick. She is obsessed with Nick. It’s over the top. It’s distracting. By the end of the book it’s turned something that could have been wonderful into something that’s mediocre. I have noting against young love, as consuming as it is. What I have an issue with are, like in the first book, the metaphors, and the insistence of forever, the constant need to swoon and remind the reader that they’re still in love just in case they’ve forgotten in the last five pages. It’s redundant, but worse yet, it’s disappointing.
