Captive is a New Adult/Fantasy novella featuring elven warriors, mythical monsters and a brush of magic. 

When Novikke, a human in the Ardanian Army, is captured by Night Elves, she is certainly bound for interrogation and death. Making a slow journey to the Night Elves with her captor Aruna, they find themselves inextricably pulled to one another, the consequences of which neither is prepared to trust nor accept. 

The world-building in this novella was great. We get a good glimpse into the Night Elves, the Sun Elves and the humans and their intricacies and conflicts with one another. I liked the forest that Novikke finds herself in and its mysteries. The inability to speak each other’s language and relying on other means to communicate was a great touch to the believability of the world.

While I liked aspects of the plot, at times I found it somewhat predictable. This can be both good and bad. Some predictability and use of tropes in Fantasy is good because it grounds the reader in a world not too far from their own. Too much though, and it becomes easy for readers to know what comes next. For my taste, there was a little too much predictability. I still enjoyed the novella, but it made reading drag on a little.

One thing I found hard to move past were some of the early intimate scenes between Novikke and her love interest. At times, I found this progression to be incongruent with the broader plot and would have preferred some of the descriptions of attraction/intimacy were avoided until later. My main issue was that it didn’t feel true to Novikke’s situation as a soldier and captive behind enemy lines.

On the whole, I did enjoy this book. There were definitely some aspects that could be better built upon, but I can also understand that this is a novella and it can be harder to progress the plot without moving too fast.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.