Official Review: Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)
Posted: 08 Jan 2014, 12:51
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)" by Light and Lowell.]
We start off our story at Vardel Academy where there are two types of students, the normal and the gifted. Rome Navarro (our resident bad boy) has received a scholarship to the illustrious school and is sure that they have made a mistake. Within only a few hours, he has made two life-altering acquaintances. Ariahna VayRen is a petite redhead that is entirely out of his league but brings out Rome’s protective instincts. Not to mention that he immediately feels the connection between them. And then there is Kaleb, half vampire/half witch and the heir to the King of the Vampires. Kaleb is strange in more ways than one but seems to have a thing for Rome.
Throughout the story we come to find out that there are six families that are the most prominent to the supernatural realm. Rome, Ariahna and Kaleb are descended from three of them. Also Dallas (Ariahna’s best friend and neighbor) is another descendant along with a couple of other less important characters. The problem is that the Navaros and the VayRens are cursed to love and lose each other. There are several other prominent characters that bring a lot to the story line. I’m not really sure how much more I can say without spoiling the story.
As far as how this book was written, it’s a superb job! I only noticed one or two typos and the grammar and story line flows excellently. I love the formatting of the book and the chapter heading that they have in place is beautiful and goes perfectly with the story. The character development was great, you really felt connected with all the different people. They did a great job of pulling them all together.
For me, this story was very difficult to get through. I had no idea that there was such a strong m/m theme in this book. The book summary didn't hint at it at all. I would strongly suggest putting something in there to let people know that it does lean heavily on the gay side. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was going to be so prominent until about half way through the book. I contemplated putting it down at that point but decided to go ahead and finish. For me, it left a very bad taste in my mouth because of how strong it leans on that. Also, there is the fact that the main characters are either having sex, talking about sex, or thinking about it 90% of the time. Add to that, they are only 15 or 16 years old. Yes, I know that teens have sex, but seriously, it was a little off putting to realize that our main heroine (15 years old) is having sex with someone she barely knows. Also, all of the sexual situations were very close (in my opinion) to rape. They almost always started with one person being very aggressive and demanding and the other one asking them to stop and not wanting it but not really having a choice either. For me, this was not right. I would have loved this story if it had been about Rome, Ariahna and Christian. I thought it would be so much better if Kaleb wasn't in the story. To me, that really threw everything to a weird angle. That being said, I’m sure that this story will appeal to a certain genre. Definitely not my type, which is sad because I was really looking forward to reading this based on the book summary. As I've already stated, please put something in the summary so that people know that it is very strong on the m/m relationship. I have one more thing to add. The amount of vulgarity and cursing in this book was astonishing. Seriously, how many times can you say the “f” word? And then to think that they are all high-school students. Wow. If this is where our teen society is at, it says a lot about who we are as a country. I thought there could have been a lot more in the story plot if they would have taken out some of the cursing and sex. Basically it felt like a teenage, hormone-driven fantasy. Not at all what I expected from the summary.
With all of that being said, I am giving this a 2 out of 4 stars. Not my style but the writing was good and will most likely appeal to a certain genre of readers.
***
Buy "Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)" on Amazon
We start off our story at Vardel Academy where there are two types of students, the normal and the gifted. Rome Navarro (our resident bad boy) has received a scholarship to the illustrious school and is sure that they have made a mistake. Within only a few hours, he has made two life-altering acquaintances. Ariahna VayRen is a petite redhead that is entirely out of his league but brings out Rome’s protective instincts. Not to mention that he immediately feels the connection between them. And then there is Kaleb, half vampire/half witch and the heir to the King of the Vampires. Kaleb is strange in more ways than one but seems to have a thing for Rome.
Throughout the story we come to find out that there are six families that are the most prominent to the supernatural realm. Rome, Ariahna and Kaleb are descended from three of them. Also Dallas (Ariahna’s best friend and neighbor) is another descendant along with a couple of other less important characters. The problem is that the Navaros and the VayRens are cursed to love and lose each other. There are several other prominent characters that bring a lot to the story line. I’m not really sure how much more I can say without spoiling the story.
As far as how this book was written, it’s a superb job! I only noticed one or two typos and the grammar and story line flows excellently. I love the formatting of the book and the chapter heading that they have in place is beautiful and goes perfectly with the story. The character development was great, you really felt connected with all the different people. They did a great job of pulling them all together.
For me, this story was very difficult to get through. I had no idea that there was such a strong m/m theme in this book. The book summary didn't hint at it at all. I would strongly suggest putting something in there to let people know that it does lean heavily on the gay side. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was going to be so prominent until about half way through the book. I contemplated putting it down at that point but decided to go ahead and finish. For me, it left a very bad taste in my mouth because of how strong it leans on that. Also, there is the fact that the main characters are either having sex, talking about sex, or thinking about it 90% of the time. Add to that, they are only 15 or 16 years old. Yes, I know that teens have sex, but seriously, it was a little off putting to realize that our main heroine (15 years old) is having sex with someone she barely knows. Also, all of the sexual situations were very close (in my opinion) to rape. They almost always started with one person being very aggressive and demanding and the other one asking them to stop and not wanting it but not really having a choice either. For me, this was not right. I would have loved this story if it had been about Rome, Ariahna and Christian. I thought it would be so much better if Kaleb wasn't in the story. To me, that really threw everything to a weird angle. That being said, I’m sure that this story will appeal to a certain genre. Definitely not my type, which is sad because I was really looking forward to reading this based on the book summary. As I've already stated, please put something in the summary so that people know that it is very strong on the m/m relationship. I have one more thing to add. The amount of vulgarity and cursing in this book was astonishing. Seriously, how many times can you say the “f” word? And then to think that they are all high-school students. Wow. If this is where our teen society is at, it says a lot about who we are as a country. I thought there could have been a lot more in the story plot if they would have taken out some of the cursing and sex. Basically it felt like a teenage, hormone-driven fantasy. Not at all what I expected from the summary.
With all of that being said, I am giving this a 2 out of 4 stars. Not my style but the writing was good and will most likely appeal to a certain genre of readers.
***
Buy "Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)" on Amazon