Book Review: Captive of Raven Castle by Jessica Greyson

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Title: Captive of Raven Castle

Author: Jessica Greyson

Series: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Young Adult

~ MY REVIEW ~

**3.5 stars**

Captive of Raven Castle is Jessica Greyson’s second novel. After reading her first, Annabeth’s War (and loving it!), I was really excited to read this one.

Alexandra is going to be the next queen. But she is sickly, weak, never questioning … and believes she will live perhaps long enough to bear an heir for the throne. Then one fateful day, her carefully-laid-out life changes forever when she is snatched by one of the rebels from Raven Castle. There at the notorious fortress, Alexandra is pummeled left and right with things she just cannot comprehend. Could her whole life have been a lie? Could Aeric and Taleon actually be potential loved ones instead of foes?

Captive of Raven Castle started out fast-paced and exciting. I was quickly drawn into Alexandra’s world, and the sinister twists and turns going on. There were some mysterious revelations, and unexpected happenings. Love and poignant lessons abounded. Jessica Greyson writes in a more simple way that is mostly easy and fun to read. Her book has just a touch of romance, sweet and endearing; yet bears quite a few violent or gruesome scenes/conversations, so I would caution younger readers. I myself would prefer not to know how an evil guy is planning to kill someone … but yeah.

Alexandra/Cassandra was an interesting, even unusual character. I liked how she was so real! Not like some tough, I-can-protect-myself!, super heroine kind of woman, but instead a confused and rather frightened girl who is struggling to cope with the change being thrown at her, and with the courage to do what she utterly fears. All her spurts of emotion made her more life-like to me.

You’ll see in the end that the heroine of this story is sort of “let down” by those she loved. It was kind of hard for me to comprehend this. Could a father really choose something else above his daughter’s life? It kind of felt like there was too much weight put on being king. However, the reasons did become clearer and more sound as the story progressed. I suppose I would just have liked it if the father prayed, and then let his daughter go because he felt that that’s what God was directing him to do, and trusted Him to take care of her! Perhaps that’s what he did …

Anyway, an adventurous, surprising, and fun story overall. It did have a darker theme, but ended quite well. Captive of Raven Castle is a poignant historical of war, sacrifice, and joyous reunions.