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.