Author: A.J. Grainger


Thursday, November 12, 2015

Review: Captive by A.J. Grainger

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I received this book for free from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Captive by A.J. GraingerCaptive by A.J. Grainger
Published by Simon & Schuster BfYR on November 3rd, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Psychological Thriller, YA
Source: Simon & Schuster
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three-stars

When a teen is held hostage, her efforts to escape uncover a conspiracy that forces her to question everything in this psychological thriller with a twist of forbidden romance.

They told her not to worry—
because the man who shot her father was in custody.
They told her that she was safe—
because security had been increased.

All it took was one opportunity, one breach,
and then she was theirs. Kidnapped, confined, alone.

They told her she could go home when their demands were met.
That it wouldn’t take long, because she was the prime minister’s daughter.

But it has been days, and still no help has come.

She wonders when they will tire of this game and kill her.

She cannot wait around for that to happen; she will escape. She has to.

I always find it hard to review books that I have no strong opinion of either way. I didn’t really like this book, but I didn’t dislike it either. It was readable, but it didn’t make me NEED to keep going. The main character wasn’t all that interesting, but I did kind of like her… sometimes. As you can tell by the title and synopsis, this book is about a girl who is kidnapped because she is the Prime Ministers daughter. She is the leverage to get what they want. So of course, she is being held captive and we learn about her history through her wandering thoughts. We also learn about the conspiracy that got her to this place by one of her kidnappers. The book opens pretty cool, but then all the excitement and thrill are a bit lost.

Robyn witnessed her father being shot and almost killed, and now she lives in a pretty protective bubble. She is traveling with her mom and little sister to her grandparents house when they get ambushed and run off the road. That is when she gets kidnapped and held hostage. She is a smart girl, but she makes a lot of stupid mistakes. She also starts to fall for one of her kidnappers. He is different than the others. He treats her well, is nice, and has conversations with her. She almost escapes a few times, but it doesn’t work out. She becomes closer with Talon, but she still has plans to get out of there as soon as she has the opportunity. And she has learned enough about Talon to want to protect him too.

Of course there is a bit of a romance. I feel like it’s almost always a thing that has to be added in. Not that I don’t enjoy good ones, but this one didn’t do it for me. Yes, Talon was nice and he did try to help Robyn. He feels remorse for the things he’s done and he wishes he never agreed to things in the first place. Still, he’s one of her kidnappers and it just seems all sorts of wrong to me. I suppose that Robyn has led a pretty sheltered life, so I get it that she is falling for him because he actually pays attention to her and is nice to her. It really does cloud her judgment though, especially when it comes to her own life and safety.

Overall this wasn’t a bad book, it just didn’t have me absorbed in the story. How everything unfolded about why they kidnapped her was interesting. I did enjoy learning about her father and about her past. I liked learning about why Talon ended up in the situation he did being part of a group that kidnapped her, and seeing him start to crumble and realize what he’d done. This book didn’t have much emotional impact, or thrill with the exception of a few spots, but it was an okay read. I’m sure that others would like it much more than I did.

three-stars

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