Captivated by You

by Sylvia Day

OK, so the wait has been insufferable, and the addition of the extra books to what I had always thought was going to be a trilogy came at me from left field but this is Gideon Cross – hell, I named my kindle after this man!  And he can do no wrong in my eyes, but  that though is not to say that I feel that Sylvia Day has hit the nail on the head with Captivated by You, because if truth be told the book fell below what I come to expect from what, for me is a phenomenal series.

I think the book was a little more filler than I would have liked but I got that it was laying the groundwork for what I hope and expect will be an explosive final book when “One with You” is released.

Gideon’s past is playing catch up and the volume of spite and vitriol from those who have an axe to grind with the man himself that is seeping forth is staggering but their focus is not Gideon, its Eva, his Achilles heel – his love for her means that others see this as his vulnerability, something they have never experienced before with Gideon Cross, but what they fail to realise is that yes,  she does make him weak but only in relation to her, her love for him has him dumbfounded and that is what makes him weak at the knees and he will do anything to protect her from the pain of his past but despite his best efforts something’s refuse to just go away and in a break from his normal operating system, he has to share his feelings and fears with her.

Keeping her cosseted and the dangers hidden from her is not what she wants, she wants a partnership, to support him like he does for her.

And I bloody well love the attitude that Eva shows when faced on more than one occasion with a husband that is struggling to know how to keep his past from causing her pain.

“The hits just keep on coming don’t they?”

I looked over her head and out of the window beyond at the world that waited for us once we stepped outside.

“Let’em Come”

She exhaled roughly.

“Yeah, Let’em Come.”

They are working hard in therapy on their relationship, they are trying to find their compass, the focus that is stable enough to ground them together, to keep them on their own much needed even keel. But when you have as much baggage as this pair, middle ground is not easy to come by. And for Gideon, having someone on his side is alien territory!

“My wife would fight the world for me. It was miraculous to know that. When no one else had fought for me, I’d somehow found the one soul who would.”

“She wasn’t like any woman who’d come before her. Not just because of who she was, but also because of who I was when I was with her.”

There are aspects of the book that I really liked, I liked that at times we got to see the lighter side of Gideon, I mean where in the first three books would you have ever considered the fact that Mr Gideon Cross would sign karaoke – hell, didn’t see that coming!

I liked the fact that he was vulnerable at times, insecure with what he should be doing and regretful when he gets it wrong, he is so desperate to make sure she will always be his, that he forgets that she already had his ring on her finger, Eva loves him and that is a new concept for the formidable Gideon Cross

“Gideon brought into my life. The acceptance and the love. The safety. Gideon had given me my freedom back, a life without terror. Giving him vows in return was too simple a repayment for that.”

This pair is never going to be normal, they have proven that time and time again but what always remains beyond reproach is the depth of feeling that runs between them and the lengths to which they are prepared to go for each other.

I think this is one of the main reasons I have taken to the whole series, that despite the money  and power, they are human beings and ones that have experienced some of the most painful aspects of human nature, aspects of life that no-one should ever have to face but aspects that have shaped and formed them into who they are but it is something that they are unwilling to accept, the inference that they can be nothing else, they glove up and set about showing the world that while separately you may have had a shot at taking them down but now, try and come between the indomitable  Mr & Mrs Cross  and you are playing a whole different ball game!!

They wanted the world to see that no matter what shit and nonsense may be published, what vermin and scum may appear out of the shadows, Gideon and Eva have one thing that they will never give up – they have each other and together they may shake but they will not break, they’re better than that.

    "You can tell yourself that Eva and I are incompatible," I said tightly, "That we're either fighting or fucking with nothing of substance in between. But the truth is that she's the other half of me..."

So did I like the book, I suppose I am a little agnostic about it, I loved reading about Gideon and Eva again yes, but I would have like a bit more of a punch, a bit more substance and a bigger step forward. The book stagnated a little for me it didn’t really go anywhere and left we with very few questions and with another book to come I wanted to have the WTF moment at the end, the suspense of wondering what was going to happen in the next novel.

I have concocted what I think will happen in my own head now, to tide me over – I only hope I get half of what I imagine and the Mr and Mrs Gideon Cross get flip the doubters the proverbial bird as they build their life together and make lots of little Cross’s.