Blog Tour & Review: Captivate Me (Captivated #1) by S.J. Pierce

I am so excited to share with you the Blog Tour for Captivate Me and Fight for Me, a Young Adult Paranormal Romance series by S.J. Pierce. For this tour, I have reviewed the first book, and I will also share a giveaway, so stay tuned!

Title: Captivate Me

Author: S.J. Pierce

My rating: 3.5 hearts

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance

Pub. date: January 9th 2014

Synopsis: Captivate Me is Book One of The Captivated Series, a Young Adult Paranormal Romance

"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. 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 vying 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. (synopsis from Goodreads)

Purchase:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Captivate-Me-Captivated-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00IYW8OWC

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/captivate-me-sj-pierce/1118909220?ean=2940045762076

My thoughts: This wasn’t what I’d expected. I’m not sure what I had expected, but it wasn’t this. It wasn’t necessarily bad, just not what I’d expected. The characters were good, the plot was good, if a little slow-paced at times, and the writing was good.

   Let’s start with Kat. She’s a good enough main character. She’s loyal to her friends and caring, and she’ll do whatever she can to help them. But she was also pretty naïve and a bit too trusting. I mean, she goes into the woods in the middle of the night, which is bad enough as it is, meets a bunch of people who tell her she’s different, and that they are, too, and trust them? Just like that? No questions asked? Yeah, naïve. But apart from that, she’s a good character. Despite her paranormal-related problems, she also has normal problems that makes her relatable.

   And Gabriel is a good character, too, but I find his and Kat’s relationship so… well, stilted. I mean, I want some swoon, like any girl out there. I want the romance to feel real and tangible, not forced and, well, boring. I want to actually feel something when the couple kisses. And I didn’t.

   I was a bit hesitant about the whole “the one” thing. Insta-love isn’t exactly my thing, but I really hoped the author would make it work, and when I read the synopsis, I thought it would. But it felt to shallow for me to fall for it. The problem was that the author spent too much time convincing me that Gabriel was attractive by writing it, and too little time showing me by reactions and stuff. The main characters thinking “wow, he is hot” every time she sees him doesn’t make me believe it.

   I liked the idea with the school for kids with paranormal powers, though. The school, along with the plot, made the book worth reading. While the romance was disappointing, the idea behind the book was great, as was the plot. It was a little slow-paced at times, and there were parts that I had to force myself through, but there were also good parts when I couldn’t put it away.

   One good surprise was that there was less focus on the romance than I’d expected. I thought there would be more focus on the romance than the plot, but it was the opposite, thankfully. 

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