Reviews

Review: Captured

11:42 Tinkernote K 0 Comments

Series : Divided Realms, #1

“Reality washed over her. This wasn't a game. It was deadly real."



Fifteen-year-old Willow Kingswell has been listening to her Nana's tales of faeries and enchanted kingdoms for as long as she can remember. But when she is magically transported to the realm of Mistolear, she is stunned to learn that the stories were true, and that she is actually a princess. Suddenly, Willow has to fit into a royal family she didn't know she had, deal with customs she doesn't understand and sort out her feelings for Brand, the handsome knight who has sworn to protect her.

On top of everything, she may also be the key to saving Mistolear from a terrifying spell. The nefarious faerie prince Nezeral has pitted two kingdoms against each other in a life-or-death chess match, in which people are the game pieces. As a pawn, Willow now glows with the light of the game and must find the courage and cleverness to battle Nezeral before her loved ones fall. Could a meager pawn really be the most powerful piece on the board? "Captured" is the first book in the thrilling Divided Realms series.


Like Anna, I usually judge books by their cover style, and quite frankly this didn't look like a very good story. It's drab and grey; I thought the girl and white chess pawn in the middle were completely random compared to the atmosphere of the rest of the picture. However, as I read the book I realized that the cover totally makes sense and I shouldn't have even questioned the book's quality in the first place. Honestly, it was better than I thought it would be... yet unfortunately not quite 5 stars. 



I immediately liked the book because the story didn't take a long time to develop at all. While the first few pages set the scene for the characters, I learned about the whole plot of the story in pretty much the first 3 chapters. Sometimes I felt that the information was coming too fast though; there was a lot to process and the author could have taken more time to explain things rather than rush along unnecessarily. As for actual content? This book must have been covered in super-glue because I just couldn't put it down. The fast paced storyline made me want to read it all in one sitting (which I almost did but there's something called sleep). The descriptions were really astonishing and they helped me get clear visualizations of characters, settings, and objects. Maggie L. Wood did a great job on keeping them brief! Although the descriptions were short they had just enough detail that I didn't get bored with endless flowing paragraphs of adjectives:

"The upper stories leaned together like bookends while the lower levels shouldered the streets like cliff sides. The long narrow streets and squeezed-together houses choked out warmth and daylight."

"The costume clung to her skin, giving faint curves to her lean body. She slid delicate fingertips over the soft, ruby red folds. The colour deepened her hair to a shiny copper. She felt beautiful in it. Like a real princess." 

"She opened the dented lid and took out a necklace. Light flickered along the thick gold chain and the delicate white enamel swan that dangled from it." 

"The ripe smell of churned soil and farm manure drifted in with the cold air. A dog yelped and then she heard the indignant pig squeals. Children's raucous laughter echoed up to her."

The idea behind this book was pretty unique: Have you ever read a story about a kingdom who's survival depends on a game of chess? Where all the pieces are actually real people, and the last hope is a lowly pawn? This intrigued me so much that I found myself reading the book non-stop just constantly wondering what would happen next. From a crucial chess game to unlikely alliances throughout the mystical kingdom, I didn't know what to expect at some points and that's what made the book so interesting. Something else I liked was the different array of characters, each with a distinct personality. It brought variety to the book without becoming too quirky and intentional. 

Although the idea was great, parts of the book were cliché: mainly the romance between Willow and Brand because it distracted from the main idea of the book toooooo much. 

Captured reminded me of some other books, like Wildwood and Dragon Moon because they all follow the adventures of an underdog set off on an impossible task. Surprisingly,  it's sort of similar to Lord of the Rings because Frodo has to travel through the land disguised, just like Willow does in this book (This was the only similarity between the two books though; LotR was long and descriptive while Captured was super fast-paced and quick).

In conclusion, Captured by Maggie L. Wood was a good book that I'd totally read again, but it's not memorable and sometimes it was reaaaaally cliché which subtracted from the overall plot. It could have been better. Maybe the second book is more exciting?