Secret Circle, Volume II: The Captive

By: L. J. Smith

Narrated by: Devon Sorvari

Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lured into the most popular in-crowd imaginable, Cassie is intoxicated by her newfound strength. Caught between two members' consuming desires to use the coven's mysterious forces, Cassie turns to one of their boyfriends, Adam - and falls captive to her own dangerous love.

©1992 Lisa Smith and Daniel Weiss Associates (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

Was PLEASANTLY surprised! Really good book!

Ok... So the first part of the series was pretty good but I was disappointed to say the least as to how I saw the love dynamic played out between two of the major characters in the book in the first series. I was going to give up on the book after that first one to be honest... but then the second part came and I decided to just continue seeing that the story was honestly quite good and I saw the potential of it being a great listen.

I know I was a bit hard on the narrator before, but this time around I am thoroughly convinced as to the narrator's ability to truly describe the feel of main character, Cassie, in the book. She did a very good job and portraying the feeling and the thought processes of the main character. Her tone was clear and the inflections in her voice was spot on. The voice portrayal of Faye as opposed to Cassie and Diana were well done and you generally had no problem with noting the differences between them. The story-line really did fall in line with the narrator this time and they provided a nice air of mystery, mysticism, realism and a taste of youthfulness to the whole book. The only 'qualm' would be that for the other members of the circle, you had a slight issue differentiating between them.

The story was just plain good. I was unhappy in the last book as to how the story was leading but then this second book even though it built quite well from the first book, did not fall into the trap of becoming a love obsessed story of forbidden teen love like most stories in this genre turns out to be at times. This book was able to sidestep that genre and replace it with a book filled with sheer intrigue. You understand and empathize with the main character in the book and the situation that she got herself into and how she seems to dig herself deeper and deeper into the hole and the subsequent consequences of it. It's shocking in the end how the book concludes, but it is also quite exciting and fitting I believe and leaves you almost drooling to start the next book. My Advice: Don't finish this book unless you have the 3rd part of the series in your library, because it ends on a cliffhanger and it would almost be torture to not just pick up where you left off.

Overall.... Downright great! Loved it!! I can't wait to get to the third book!

24 of 26 people found this review helpful

Loved it, bomb author, narrative and series.

Beautifully narrated, beautifully told story. In depth character development. My name is Cassie, not a common name, and I have red hair - ginges hardly ever get a good rep, but thanks to this series I feel more confident and love Adam.

Love this book!

L. J. Smith is my favorite author. Devon Sorvari did a decent job. I'd listen again.