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

Disclosure: If you buy books linked to this site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

The Heir by Kiera Cass

Sorry for the whole, leaving it for a month sort of thing. I've had a lot happening this past month, some more life-changing compared to some. So writing on this blog was put on a back burner for a while. This is also probably going to become a little bit of a thing though, now having so much more to cope with in my own life. Therefore i have been debating as to whether i should only post every fortnight. Because then not only will i be a bit more reliable but also, on some occassions there may be a bit more content compared to the weekly posts. I may even be able to talk about more than one book - if you are really lucky! Anyway, let's get onto the review that you have been waiting patiently for! This time i have been going back to my high piled TBR list and i picked a favourite as to which i have been wanting to read, since it was first published in May. I love the cover itself. It is so individual to the protagonist of the story. Especially when this is the second p...

Just the Two of Us (Book 2) by Ryu Hyang

SYNOPSIS Soohyuk, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist, came to Korea in search of his birth parents, wanting to sort through the muddled darkness of his past. When he met Yuna, an anxious cook, he didn't expect to fall in love. Yuna has struggled all her life to trust men after an incident in her past and spends all her time doting upon her nephew and pursuing her one true love: cooking. The last thing she expected when she met Soohyuk was that she would want to move in with him. Both took a leap of faith and found happiness. Now, it seems certain they were meant for each other. Yet, navigating the twists and turns of a real relationship proves more difficult than either of them expected. Yuna fears what her brother will say when he finds out she's living with Soohyuk. and she grapples with the changes brought on by her young nephew's recent medical diagnosis. Meanwhile, Soohyuk is tied up working hours on end at S University Hospital, fending off the hospital direc...

Midsummer's Bottom by Darren Dash

Hello everyone. This week I am going to be reviewing a book which is a little bit more light-hearted and hilarious to the point that chaos ensues. It is based on the work of William Shakespeare, to the point that the original characters such as Puck, Oberon and Titania have roles, but there are new characters which act out the story, but in the way that the originals believe to be the best. However, these new characters do not know anything about this, which makes the twists and turns of chaos to become quite entertaining. First of all, for those who know of Darren Dash's other pseudonym which deals with children's books should not read this book. The content is for the mature reader, it is clearly shown how it has been written. I think that the best part about this book is that when starting to read it, having no previous knowledge about the certain Shakespeare's play of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I thought that I would be put off the concept. However, after a fe...