4 out of 5 I must say that this book completely shocked me. I truly enjoyed the very unique twist on underwater worlds. In this world; Miranda Sun travels to South Coast NSW, Australia with her older sister Lauren and Grandparent's to escape the haunting memories of her parents' death. Everything is going according to plan when she is kidnapped during a midnight swim and brought to an underwater haven called Marin hidden in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Miranda won't go down without a fight and physically tries to get home when she wakes up in a foreign castle. She quickly learns she has been taken to a city protected under a sunlight dome, where air is plentiful and the women are barren. She is told she is to marry Marko; the king of Marin to provide him with an heir before his evil brother Damir takes over the throne. Miranda quickly befriends her guard Robbie in an effort to escape; until she starts to see the good side of Marko and why he wants to protect the people of Marin. |
I really enjoyed this book, I loved the descriptive way Miss Garden pulled you into her unique world, and I found 'Captivate' to be an extremely individualistic and refreshing read; which took a very left-sided view on mermaids and if they really exist.
I extremely loved the realness of Miranda and her kick-ass attitude to the various difficulties she was presented with from fighting to return to her family to protecting the new people she has come to love as family. I find that Vanessa Garden expertly captured the reality of romantic relationships and showed through the difficulties Marko and Miranda faced that it isn't always sunshine and lollipops and that it does have bumps and holes in the road - making the outcome all that much sweeter.
I was constantly LOLing at Robbie and Sylvia and their hilarious antics that made the story a bit more airy at some of the more deep and serious points of the book. The ending of this book had me almost in fits of screams yelling for more pages to answer the unanswered question I NEEDED ANSWERED !!!
I will most definitely be reading book 2 when it FINALLY COMES OUT
Highly recommended
Hayley XX