Official Review: Captivated (Affliction book 1) by E.M. Jade

[Nina B]

“But still I asked myself…did she remember me?”
So I just finished reading Captivated by E. M. Jade, copyright February 2014. This book is a paranormal fantasy novel, much like nearly every other young adult fiction novel that has come out since the Twilight series. While this book falls prey to nearly every YA paranormal fantasy stereotype as well as a slew of other clichés, I must say that this book actually worked. I feel like this book is what Twilight could have been if it hadn’t been geared towards thirteen year old girls.
The story starts off when Mindy’s best friend, Dean, finds his parents’ bodies after they are murdered in their own home. Dean shuts her and everyone else out of his life and she learns to move on. Years pass and Mindy and her new best friend, Markus, are starting their senior year in high school when her entire world changes.
While at a club, Markus sees Dean kill two people in the alley. He tells Mindy, but she doesn’t believe him—partially because the bodies disappeared. Markus knows that he can’t go to the police because he has no proof so he starts following Dean around. Markus warns her to stay away from Dean, so naturally she starts going out with him. Mindy is convinced that Dean is a vampire, but she couldn’t be farther from the truth. Dean wants only to protect Mindy, but it’s already too late.
I feel like the author did a really good job writing her characters, they seemed like they could be actual students in any high school without being boring or super generic. I especially liked the main character, Mindy. She seemed very real, or as real as a fictional character can be and she actually reminded me a lot of my younger sister who is a senior in high school this year. That being said, I personally connected more with Mindy’s dorky best friend, Markus. Markus was a dork with weird quirks and weird OCDs, that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book more than I had expected to. The book worked really well in its genre and I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys paranormal fantasies and or teen romance novels. I would rate this book a four out of five because it was fairly well written and interesting enough that I enjoyed reading the book and would enjoy reading the sequel.

[Kourtney Bradley]

I was a total Twilight junkie when it was first released, so this sounds like something that would be right up my alley! Glad you enjoyed it!

[Annelore Trujillo]

I was also a fan of the Twilight series. I might just have to read this. Thanks for the great review!