Review Tour for Capture by Penny Reid #Giveaway #Playlist

”Perhaps love is simply finding that one person who sees you clearly, cares for you deeply, challenges you and supports you, and subsequently helps you see yourself. Love, I decided, is being a sidekick.”

**THIS.WAS.FABULOUS.*** And I am not just talking about this book. I mean the whole series.

As this is about the third book from the Elements of Chemistry series, I feel it best to warn you to proceed with caution as you read this review, because I know I can’t review it without revealing some semi-spoilers. You MUST read the first two books, Attraction and Heat before reading Capture.

Penny Reid has taken her first jump into NA and has done so brilliantly! Kaitlyn and Martin have purpose and reason. Something missing in NA these days. The conflict produces not OTT, but growth – refreshing, huh?

What Reid did with this book, though as she beautifully and magnificently tied the series together, was she made her characters human. Okay, that sounds strange, but she made them real. They were perfectly flawed. They had heart, emotion, humor and problems that they worked out. I took so many notes while reading that I confused myself while trying to read my “short hand”. My pages are color covered with highlighter.

We see Kaitlyn and Martin navigate through the awkward phase of first getting to know each other in Attraction, then in Heat we see them learning what it means to navigate relationships and family, as well, they begin thinking about tough life choices that could potentially change the rest of their lives. But it is in Capture that these two actually face “coming into their own.” That was what Capture was about for me. Growth. Coming into your own. Finding yourself. Being happy with who you are.

I remember this time in my life. It was exciting, but it was not easy! It was confusing, because it was fun and frightening! Worrying if you were going to make the right choices, if those choices were going to disappoint your family, if they were going to screw up the rest of your life. These were the same things going through Kaitlyn’s mind. But ultimately she had to do what was right for her. What felt good to her, what was going to make her happy.

And Martin, he became a man. Throughout this series, we saw him struggle with fighting to break away from his father and doing so in away that he would not lose Kaitlyn. Ultimately, he was faced with choices we are all faced with daily, he had to decide how to get what he wanted without hurting others. Or if hurting others was worth getting what he wanted.

One thing to note here, a “reading pet-peeve” of mine and one that is common in this genre, is miscommunication. And while there is some in this series, it is one-sided. And the fact that the characters grow independently as a result of this (or so it seemed to me) the miscommunication didn’t bother me as it normally would have. Instead, it had a positive effect, rather than just a plot device.

This series was initially one large book, which Ms. Reid felt it wise to break it into three separate books for the benefit of her readers. Let me say, where she decided to break the books up was perfect! The cliffhangers are not too much to make you feel like you want to jump off a cliff, but they leave you wanting more. But, the next time I read them – and there WILL be a next time. I will read it as a whole. Because I don’t need a break in this beautiful story!

If you haven’t checked out Penny’s playlist on Spotify for this series, you can listen here. I listened while I read each book.  I love when authors provide playlists, it adds so much to the reading experience.