Capture

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

5 “Parker” “Sandeke” “closet” “sidekick” Kisses

Wow…it’s a miracle, but I survived Capture – do I get an award or medal of some kind? What about a t-shirt that says “I love Parker and Sandeke”? I’m really open to options here because I need some recognition…because that book put me through the ringer. Granted…I loved every second of it and can’t wait to listen to the audio books of the Chemistry Trilogy…but still. This trilogy was phe-freaking-nomenal. Off the charts…this trilogy blew the charts out of the stratosphere. They may have created their own universe…the universe of awesome. When I first started reading Attraction , the first book in the Elements of Chemistry Trilogy, I had literally no idea what I was in for…I knew it was Penny, so I was guaranteed to enjoy myself but holy banana’s – I was not prepared. I’m flooooored at what this series has done to me…the emotional journey that I have been on…the obsession with these characters…all of it is more than my brain can truly process. Now that I have just rambled on, if you have no idea what I am talking about…then stop all the presses because you need to read this series – The Elements of Chemistry trilogy M-U-S-T be read in order – so you start with Attraction, then Heat …and finally, Capture – the book that tore my brain and heart to shreds. But trust me, I loved it!

Kaitlyn Parker…oh my stars, this incredible, sweet girl – I could sing her praises all day long. She is my awkward duck dream come to life and I just want to hug her and squeeze her forever. I keep raving in my reviews about how much this trilogy is just about Katy’s growth as it is about her relationship with Martin and this book really drove that fact home. There was so much that happened with Kaitlyn and I loved seeing her practically transform before my eyes. She worked so hard on herself…on following her dreams and being who she wanted to be rather then what she thought she should be. Experiencing her enjoying the thing she is most passionate about, music, made me ridiculously happy for her. I know Kaitlyn is intelligent, that’s painfully obvious but seeing her truly enjoy something that she has a gift for was everything I could have hoped for. Even though it made things a little harder for her…even though her mother may have wanted a different career path…all the what-if’s and coulda-shoulda-woulda’s didn’t matter because she was living her dream and that was more important to her. I was glad she was done with hiding…because seeing this new version of Kaitlyn was the best thing ever.

‘I squinted at him, at his oddly polite words and tone. “Martin…?”
“Parker.”
“Is there anything else you’d like to say before we’re within the confines of your automobile? Anything loud perhaps?”
He shook his head and pulled his leather gloves out of his coat pocket, his tone soft, gentle even. “You should wear these. It’s cold.”
“You want to say something. What is it?”
“Weren’t you the one who always told me…”
Martin reached for one of my hands and I lost my breath when his skin came in contact with mine. I’m not going to lie, my pants went a little crazy, and my heart did a flip then thumped uncomfortably—all signs I was still intensely in lust with him. He hesitated, his thumb drawing a gentle line from my wrist to the center of my palm, then he slid the large glove over my fingers with more care than necessary. They were warm from his pocket.
When he’d slipped both gloves in place he lifted his bewitching eyes and finished his thought. “I can’t always have what I want.”’

Martin Sandeke…oh this man…this beautiful, amazing, wonderful man. I love him. Like LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE him. I’ve said it twice…so I’ll go ahead and say it again, I would kill to get into his brain! There is just something about him that fascinates me…a lot of it has to do with the way he treats Kaitlyn. The way she affects him and his behavior is truly fascinating to me…he is the same with basically everyone else (save for his father, who earns the most wrath), she is the exception. He makes an effort for her, because of her. Seeing his change in demeanor, seeing how much he cares for her, values her, it speaks volumes for his true feelings and I loved it so much. Since we aren’t in Martin’s head it made me pay such insanely close attention to his words and actions, I know I overthought them way more than was necessary, but overthinking is a skill I have perfected…and honestly, it was a pleasure studying Martin. I hate to play favorites with Penny’s characters, I love them all for many different reasons, but Martin Sandeke is a jewel and holds a particularly special place in my heart. I adore him…it’s as simple as that.

“Listen, I’m not here to take more than you’re willing to offer. Obviously you can tell me to go fuck myself. All I’m asking for is a chance to be your friend. Because, even though things between us didn’t end well, I still trust and respect you more than anyone I’ve ever met. You are,” he paused, gathered a deep breath, his gaze searching as it skated over my face, “Kaitlyn, you are incredibly honorable, and reasonable, and good. I could really use your advice. I could really use some honorable and good in my life.”

Kaitly and Martin did not make this easy on me. The angst was real…and true…and pure…and it hurt. I mean, I welcome the pain because I’m angst whore and this kind of angst is what I live for…but stilllllll. I don’t know if I will ever be able to properly convey how much I love and value what Martin and Kaitlyn have. I know every couple is special and unique in their own right but there is just something about them that makes them extra special in my book. They had all of these amazing small moments, just randomly thrown in there but the impact that it had on my heart was astronomical. There’s one scene at Kaitlyn’s job where Martin makes a funny face at her…it’s small, it’s silly, it doesn’t mean anything monumental to their relationship (except for being a call back to a scene from Attraction) and yet when it happened I wanted to cry because of how happy it made me.

“Yes. Exactly. I like the idea of expert unbiased input.”
His smile widened again as his gaze skated over my face, his eyes were positively glittering. “That’s a very Kaitlyn Parker thing to say.”
Of course I returned his smile, his happiness for me was heady and infectious. “So you mean it was an awesome thing to say?”
“Exactly.”

Penny Reid’s genius never ceases to amaze me…if anything it grows exponentially every time I read one of her books and fall deeper and deeper in love with her talent. She has this ability to effortless weave a story packed full with insanely amazing characters, an engaging plot, all the emotions I could ever dream of and topped off with brilliant writing. Like…does it get any better than that? Cause I don’t think it does. And what she has done with this trilogy is literally everything!!!! The way that she developed the characters…had the plot flow from one book to the other…the build of the emotions…it was all perfect. I didn’t need another reason to fall more in love with Penny’s writing, but The Elements of Chemistry definitely achieved that goal.

“Is that supposed to make me feel special? That you deem me worthy of kindness?”
“Yes.”
The doors opened and Martin grabbed my bag, hoisting it to his shoulder and leading me out of the lift with a hand on my lower back.
“Well, it doesn’t,” I said tiredly. “My self-worth does not rise and set based on your treatment or opinion of me. I want no special treatment, I insist you treat me like you treat everyone else.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t answer at first. In fact, he didn’t speak for so long I started to think he wasn’t going to respond. He guided me out of the building’s main entrance to where his car was waiting. A man stood next to it, like a valet or a guard and had been waiting for us. Martin opened the passenger door for me, took my hand, and helped me inside.
But right before the door closed I heard him say, “Because you’re Kaitlyn.”

The ending was…a lot. I was holding my breath through 75+% of the book so by the time the ending came I was thankful my prayers had been answered. I really do love Penny’s endings though…she has a way of tying up everything so perfectly that although I never really want to say goodbye to characters, it makes it a little bit easier to let them go (for now). If I’m being truly honest I would have liked a teeny-tiny bit more…even if it was just an epilogue to kind of soothe all the angst that was the rest of the book, but that’s me being needy and demanding and always wanting more – especially when it comes to Penny, Martin and Kaitlyn. While Elements of Chemistry is complete…I have something exciting to look forward to – the next set of books…the Laws of Physics Trilogy! And even better…it involves Abram, a super sexy, broody bassist who totally got my spidey senses going and ooooooh boy I cannot wait to see what happens!

Six months ago Kaitlyn broke up with Martin. She gave him an ultimatum. To help her find a way to keep his father from ruining her mom’s Senatorial career or they were done. She hated that his determination to ruin his father by waiting out the four months until his twenty-first birthday was keeping him from doing the right thing.

Six months that she hasn’t spoken to her mom for putting her in this position to begin with. Part of it had to do with her not wanting to see her mom’s disappointment that she had changed her major from chemical engineering to music. Because Martin was right about one thing she had to follow her passion.

It was nine months since she had broken up with Martin and as she is playing the piano at an event she has the sense that she is being watched and tries to discreetly check out the crowd. And then she sees him staring a hole in her…Martin.

When Martin shows up at the coffee shop she works at to help with living expenses she is confused when he wants to negotiate for them to be friends. Confused because he made it clear he could never be friends with her if they ever broke up. She was even more confused when he got angry that she hadn’t read any of his interviews since they broke up.

I loved this book! It was the perfect ending to Kaitlyn and Martin’s story. The characters are all well developed so you feel you personally know each of them. The storyline for this trilogy catches you from page one in the series and flows smoothly from book to book through all their trials to get to their HEA.

This book is sexy and the sex is smoking hot. Kaitlin’s insecurities with her appearance, sexual experience and her music is endearing. Martin is plain out sex on a stick with an attitude. I can almost feel Martin’s teeth through the pages. I’m glad he didn’t grow up to be a douchebag considering you monsters he called a mother, father and stepmother.

Please don’t be put off that this is a three book story because it is amazing and so worth reading. I will definitely be reading more books written by Penny Reid!

Penny Reid’s writing continues to astonish me. She writes such complex characters. Kaitlyn & Martin are two of my favorite characters of Penny’s. This series has been my favorite so far. That is saying something as I loved The Winston Brothers series. I couldn’t wait to start the next book. Luckily I didn’t start reading till all books available. It would have been so hard to wait for the next release. Note the love story is not resolved till the end of 3rd book in the series.

Gah! I rounded up, but this was really 3.5 stars. It ended well, but took WAY too long, especially considering it was a trilogy. I *love* the quirky heroines that Penny Reid does *so* well. Quirky MCs period she excels at. And Kaitlyn was adorable in the first two books of this series. However, in an effort to lengthen the story she stops becoming the blunt/open woman we met and dives into purposefully assumptive and obtuse in order to keep us in suspense. Unfortunately, it just started to become tedious. The first book was 5 hours, the second was 6, but the third slogged on for 8 hours and it was just too much.

I don’t regret listening to the series, but I’m glad I borrowed it from the library. I loved KITC & Winston Bros so much I own both series ~ but EoC isn’t something I could see listening to repeatedly.

4.5+ Stars

Let me clarify, right now, the reason why Capture doesn’t have a 5 stars rating— there’s no freaking epilogue. NO EPILOGUE, PEOPLE! I live for epilogues. Epilogues complete me. I would marry romance epilogues if that was a thing.

But let’s start from the beginning. After Attraction led to a hurried one-clicking of Heat so I could determine what the heckerino was going to happen with Martin and Kaitlyn, I thoroughly enjoyed their shenanigans. That is until the second cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers happened and my heart shattered into a million pieces along with Martin and Kaitlyn’s. So yeah, not a happy ending. This was immediately followed by the hasty one-clicking of Capturewith the hope of it living up to its title and an HEA in the near future. (Which it does and there is, so go read it at ease)

There is much personal growth here for both Kaitlyn and Martin. Kaitlyn pursuing music as a career leads to a new self-awareness and the need for some changes. I really enjoyed witnessing these new developments but also loved that she maintained her quirky, nerdish core personality.

Martin was dreamier still (and I’m still pretending he is in his 30s so I can lust after him without feeling like a cradle robber), having worked through a lot of his issues. Kaitlyn’s decision to ignore everything Sandeke-related and her obstinate obtuseness regarding Martin’s actions toward her, made me want to shake some sense into her while consoling Martin (if only he were interested). At times, it also made me want to tear out my hair and fling my kindle across the room… Fortunately, for my overall outward appearance and the physical integrity of my e-reader, I was able to abstain. But it was “this” close.

Regardless of my impatience with their lack of openness about their feelings, I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish. Their chemistry and connection ensured that I felt every feeling along with them. And let me tell you, what a freaking ride!

As I uncharacteristically read these out of order (the Hypothesis Series), I loved that we got to see a bit of Abram. I’m thinking the time frame puts this after Motion but before Space. This also means that even though I’m completely flabbergasted with the lack of an epilogue (as previously mentioned) I remembered that there are little Kaitlyn and Martin sightings in Motion (which you’ll be guessing correctly is what I’ll be rereading next).

Full of humor, sweet romance and nerdiness, Capture was a total win. Though I was left wanting for a little peek inside Martin’s mind, this whole trilogy is going to my favorite reads of the year. I literally couldn’t put it down since I started the first book and it had me feeling all of the feels you can feel while reading. Ms. Reid really knows what she’s doing with this writing gig for reals… although, you know… epilogues.

Entertaining, NA, with smexy moments and too much over thinking and not communicating drama. It was better than book two. I still have a problem with the female MC’s personality flip flop. She goes from super upfront talkative educated woman to closed mouth hide her feeling drama ridden girl. Oh and the male MC wasn’t much better, but he never claimed to be an out in the open type. Is it just this NA thing ? I don’t get it. I just wanted to slap them both and tell them to just talk already. The stupid silence “what will he/she think” drove me nuts ! More ridiculous angst drama than a YA read. I gave it three stars because the author was skilled enough to made me finish the book even when I wanted to through it across the room.
This is the 4th time I’ve read a NA book and I had the same reaction. I am not a good fit with this genre.

Capture is the wonderful conclusion to the Elements of Chemistry series. Penny wraps up the story in the best way, with both of the main characters growing and learning from their past mistakes so that they can finally come together in all the right ways. Martin, although still fierce and passionate, has learned to let go of a lot of anger and he sees the future in a whole new reasonable light. Katy is finally pursuing her passions, and just adding more passion in general to her emotional skill set and it is glorious! She’s standing up for herself more and hiding less. I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this series. Penny Reid surprises me every time. 5 captivating stars for Capture!

finally the book where the characters finally have their HEA! YEYE