Review: Captive by Aimee Carter

Title: Captive (The Blackcoat Rebellion #2)
Author: Aimee Carter
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Source: Harlequin Australia via NetGalley
Goodreads

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark more than ever.

But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.

As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?

Review by Nara

After the incredible book that was Pawn, I unfortunately found myself rather disappointed with Captive. What looked to be a very promising, fresh dystopian series quickly turned into another generic "oh let's take down the government with the help of the local rebellion group while at the same time being trapped in a drama filled romance".

There was definitely a bit of Second Book Syndrome afoot, with the plot not really moving forward as much as I would have liked. There seemed to be a lot of foolish decisions and unnecessary drama throughout the novel, when really I would have preferred things to be tied together a bit more neatly. The main factor contributing to this slow growth was probably the lack of development of Kitty's character. While she was a fantastic lead in the first book, she became a bit disappointing in the sequel. I feel like she was still a relatively strong-willed, courageous character, but she lacked that spark from Pawn which made her such a great narrator.

All this being said, I will definitely still read the third book in the series, because I want to give myself a bit of closure about what happens to the characters. I'm still invested enough into the story to care about where the characters end up. The characters and plot weren't as fantastic as I expected given how much I liked the first book, but they were still acceptable enough that I liked the book overall.

Liked it

Ratings
Overall: 6/10
Plot: 3/5
Romance: 2.5/5
Writing: 3.5/5
World Building: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 3/5