Secrets of the Starcrossed (The Once and Future Queens) by Clara O'Connor

SYNOPSIS

In a world where the Roman Empire never fell, two starcrossed lovers fight to ignite the spark of rebellion...

Londinium, the last stronghold of the Romans left in Britannia, remains in a delicate state of peace with the ancient kingdoms that surround it. As the only daughter of a powerful merchant, Cassandra is betrothed to Marcus, the most eligible bachelor in the city.

But then she meets Devyn, the boy with the strange midnight eyes searching for a girl with magic in her blood.

A boy who will make her believe in soulmates...

When a mysterious sickness starts to leech the life from citizens with Celtic power lying dormant in their veins, the imperial council sets their schemes in motion. And so Cassandra must make a choice: the Code or Chaos, science or sorcery, Marcus or Devyn?

REVIEW

I was genuinely excited when I first read the synopsis to this story. It gave me so many Romeo and Juliet mixed in a fantasy parallel world vibes, which I thought to be quite an interesting take in the genre. I just wish that the story was able to follow through with this idea. How wrong was I.

I know that I am really going to regret this review, but sometimes honesty is the best policy...

For me, I felt like the writing style was quite immature for the set target audience. There was that constant will she or won't she? But in a way that gets old very quickly. It is one of those but you can't help but shout at the book, wanting the character to stop being so indecisive. It is so annoying and it does nothing to make them look any better.

Shall we really get into this? What is it about books who like to tease about a certain place in the universe that they have created, but somehow it doesn't appear, no matter how many times it has been mentioned? But somehow it still feels like the plot is stagnant and what really happened was that it was simply something to fill up the book? This is one of my GREATEST annoyances. If you're not going to do anything about it, don't talk about it. Simples *closes book with exasperation*. Oh, and to put another point forward, we all know what is really happening here, you're setting the book up for a cliff-hanger which we all predicted and was so easy to figure out. It's not cute. It's boring.

Time to move onto the main character. I'm only just getting started. Cassandra. Oh Cassandra, Cassandra. Where shall we start with you? You are vexing and childish and what is it about you ignoring people when they say no. No means no. Not probably no. Not they are actually saying yes. No is a determined response. Respect people and their boundaries. It's not hard. The love interest, Devyn isn't that much better either, with no personality and I don't get what it was that made him special. There just wasn't anything to him.

I don't know there isn't much that I can really say that makes this a book that I want to read again or recommend to a fellow reader and it makes me quite sad to think like this. I can only hope that the next book in the series is better and gets over those hurdles that it has created in the first book.

RATING: ** (TWO STARS)

WHERE TO BUY

Amazon: Secrets of the Starcrossed: The Once and Future Queen is an unforgettable dystopian adventure of scifi fantasy and forbidden romance (The Once and Future Queen, Book 1) eBook: O’Connor, Clara: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Waterstones: Secrets of the Starcrossed by Clara O'Connor | Waterstones

Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/3917/9780008407667

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