Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

This was a fun read for Halloween! It has all the “monsters” you can think of: dragons, unicorns, were-tigers, centaurs, gargoyles, faeries, goblins, the list goes on and on. Lily Carter has always wanted to follow in her grandfathers footsteps by attending Princeton University. She has done all the right things, good grades, lots of extracurricular activities, helped run her grandfathers flower shop, etc. Every year her grandfather attends Reunions Weekend at his Alma mater, only this year he is bring Lily and her mother along. Finally Lily will get to see her dream school first hand and her grandfather promises a big surprise is waiting for her there.

She has been selected to take the super secret Legacy Test. If she passes its automatic admision to Princeton. All she has to do is find the Ivy Key! Only....what is the Ivy Key? Shortly after she sets off on her hunt she is joined by Tye, who claims he is her guard. Soon the trail leads her to things she never imagined existed. There are two Princetons - one she has always known and a magical one. The Ivy Key opens the gate between the two. Just when she thinks she has lost her mind she discovers shocking secrets about her family and her destiny.

This book was full of twists and turns: family secrets, betrayals, and two hot college boys who have more in common then Lily's affections. I really enjoyed reading this and I recommend it to someone looking for a quick fun read.

Captivate by Carrie Jones

This book was good but frustrated me. This is a series and so I should expect that the perfect relationship that Zara and Nick start at the end of Need will have to be shaken up a bit throughout the series but grrrr! I love Zara and Nick together and this book changes things A LOT. I am going to try not to give any spoilers away for Captivate in this review but if you have not read Need then you might not want to read this because I guarantee their will be Need spoilers to follow.

In the first book (read review here) we find out that Zara is not your average teenage girl. She is half pixie and there are those out there that would like to make her their Queen. Sounds good right? Wrong! The only ones standing in the way are Zara’s friends and her grandmother. Who, by the way, are Weres. Shape shifters who protect the town from the evil pixie population.

In Captivate, Zara and her friends think they have neutralized the pixie problem. They may have confined the King and his people but there is a new King in town, Astley, and once again he has his sights set on Zara. After something happens to Nick, Astley may be Zara’s only hope of saving him. But can she sacrifice her humanity for the one she loves? Astley swears that he and Zara are destined to be together and that he is one of the good guys. Can a pixie ever by trusted?

This book leaves you with MAJOR cliffhangers but I guess that can be expected. The third book in the series (I think their will be four books) will be out January 2011 and it is titled Entice. Captivate was good but it is really a filler between Need and Entice. Nothing is really resolved in this book and things just get more complicated.

Need by Carrie Jones

I read this back in December and was pleasantly surprised with it. It was not what I was expecting. I must not have read the synopsis very well before I bought this book and to be honest I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I had known that it was about evil Pixies. I have read a lot of different young adult books (my favorite genre) but I tended to steer clear of book that I considered "fantasy" and pixies/fairies fall into this category in my mind. I love supernatural books but Pixies just didn't sound scary or all that intriguing....until Need. Anyways, the moral of this story is dont be so quick to judge because this book was really good.

Zara White has a strange fixation with phobias that serve as chapter headings and provide additional humor into the story. Since Zara's stepfather's death a strange man keeps appearing, Zara may be the victim of a stalker and she soon decides to relocate to Main. Her grandmother Betty lives there. Turns out the semi-stalker is not a figment of Zara's overactive imagination. In fact, he's still following her, leaving behind an eerie trail of gold dust. There's something not right - not human - in this sleepy Maine town. Its also seems like her friends (including the sublimely hot Nick) as well as Betty know more then they let on. They also might have some secrets of their own.

I was truly excited to continue this series when I was done. The next book "Captivate" continues the story about Royal Pixies, Weres, and the war that is brewing...