Every Last Kiss

Title: Every Last Kiss (The Bloodstone Saga)

Author: Courtney Cole

Publisher: Lakehouse Press (April 2011)

Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Chick Lit

Length: 252 pages

Synopsis: Macy, a modern teenager, receives a strange bloodstone necklace which turns her world upside down.  Suddenly she is no longer just a modern teenager but the only the newest iteration of herself.  She is a guardian of fate, reincarnated time and again, and each time with a destiny: somewhere in the world is a soul she is destined to protect at any cost.

My Rating: 2 Stars

My Opinion:

At the Decatur Book Festival, I was given a card for a free copy of the ebook.  A brilliant marketing tactic, this simple offer had me downloading the book at the next available opportunity.  I’ll admit, I had low expectations (after all, it was free), and I must say, I was not disappointed.  The idea behind this novel is good, brilliant even.  Destiny, fate, true love, secrets, loyalty, loss.  These are the components on which this novel draws, and though they offer the potential for a wonderful, complex, multi-layered story, the execution is rather lackluster.  For a historical fiction, the historical details are sparse and surface level at best.  Dialogue and character voice in particular read as modern, sometimes painfully so.  I find Macy believable neither as a 17 year old girl, nor as a timeless reincarnation of a guardian of Fate.  The pacing of the book is also off-putting.  Villains come and go, changing loyalties and timelines until readers are left wondering whose side they’re on.  Characters accept monumental revelations without batting heavily made-up eyelashes.  As a quick read, it’ll do in a pinch, but there are many books I’d recommend over this one.

Opening Remarks

I'm the sort of person who never just reads a book.  I try it on, sliding between the pages to get a good look for myself.  I pick them apart and compare them to one another (one of the reasons I spent four years earning a degree in English).  And you know what?  It's fun.  I love doing this.  But it's not as much fun to do in a vacuum.  What's the use of having an opinion if it's never expressed?  And thus was born this blog.  In a world where readers are more likely to pick their books by scrolling through screens than browsing through shelves, sometimes a review is all we have to go on to make our selection.  A good review can give the   reader a sense of the book, a feeling like hefting a new hardback, scanning the back cover, and thinking,   "Hmmm.  This might be the book for me."  I'm not saying that all my reviews will be so weighty, but I'd much prefer to write thoughtful reviews than cover blurbs.  What do I include in my reviews?  I'm so glad you asked.

Let me begin with what I do not (and never shall!) include: spoilers.  There's no fun in reading a mystery when the mystery's already given away!  I will, however, include the following information:

Title

Author

Publisher

Genre(s)

Length

Synopsis (spoiler free!)

My Rating (on a scale from 1 to 5 stars)

My Opinion (an in-depth exploration of what I did and didn't like)

I review books of all kinds on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for my latest remarks!