Monday, September 24, 2012

Romeo Redeemed - Stacey Jay

Synopsis: All will be revealed for fans who have breathlessly awaited the sizzling sequel to Juliet Immortal. This time Romeo takes center stage and gets one chance, and one chance only, to redeem himself.
Cursed to live out eternity in his rotted corpse, Romeo, known for his ruthless, cutthroat ways, is given the chance to redeem himself by traveling back in time to save the life of Ariel Dragland. Unbeknownst to her, Ariel is important to both the evil Mercenaries and the love-promoting Ambassadors and holds the fate of the world in her hands. Romeo must win her heart and make her believe in love, turning her away from her darker potential before his work is discovered by the Mercenaries. While his seduction begins as yet another lie, it soon becomes his only truth. Romeo vows to protect Ariel from harm, and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. But when Ariel is led to believe his love is a deception, she becomes vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her own inner darkness may ultimately rip them apart. (From Goodreads)

I'm SO bummed. I loved Juliet Immortal mostly because I've always hated the story of Romeo and Juliet. Two idiot kids who think they're in love can't be together and kill themselves. Yeah, that's dumb. So I was excited when someone came along and reiterpreted it to turn Romeo into a bad guy who basically dooms Juliet on purpose. I love thinking of Romeo as evil. But he's repentant in this book, and he acts like a victim, and he gets a chance to be happy. And now I hate this Romeo.

I have a lot of issues with this book actually. First, it was way weird that Romeo is falling for Ariel - the girl whose body Juliet last inhabited. That gave me the heebie-jeebies. And to be honest, I kind of hated Ariel too. She's almost too full of teen angst and in the beginning it seems like she plays the pity-me card more often than she needs to. More than once I wanted to tell her to get a grip.

And I was so not okay with their relationship. Romeo is all - I've done bad things, I don't deserve this. And Ariel is all - I don't care what you've done, I just want to be with you. UM. You should definitely care what Romeo has been up to the last few centuries. Maybe people deserve second chances, but if someone I had just started seeing told me he had a shady past, I'd defintely want to know what I'm dealing with. Plus, Romeo is sticky sweet - I rolled my eyes so many times a the words coming out of his mouth. I know his life depends on making her fall in love, but come on. Although she does fall for it - which kind of makes me think she loves him just because he's giving her attention.

Ugh, I sound so cynical. Sorry for the rant. There are a few things I liked - the best parts of this book were the moments Juliet got. I very much enjoy her - probably because we're both a little cranky and completely hate Romeo. I think it's really cool how everything ties back to the initial incident in Verona and the Shakespeare cast of characters makes some sort of appearance. It was also interesting when Romeo would talk about his Verona family and his memories before he became a Mercenary.

So yeah. I'm really sad that Romeo Redeemed didn't live up to Juliet Immortal. I really wish she had stopped after Juliet. I kind of want to pretend this book didn't happen and pretend this story ends with the ending of Juliet Immortal, because that makes my cyncical self so much happier.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Romeo Redeemed - Stacey Jay

Synopsis: All will be revealed for fans who have breathlessly awaited the sizzling sequel to Juliet Immortal. This time Romeo takes center stage and gets one chance, and one chance only, to redeem himself.
Cursed to live out eternity in his rotted corpse, Romeo, known for his ruthless, cutthroat ways, is given the chance to redeem himself by traveling back in time to save the life of Ariel Dragland. Unbeknownst to her, Ariel is important to both the evil Mercenaries and the love-promoting Ambassadors and holds the fate of the world in her hands. Romeo must win her heart and make her believe in love, turning her away from her darker potential before his work is discovered by the Mercenaries. While his seduction begins as yet another lie, it soon becomes his only truth. Romeo vows to protect Ariel from harm, and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. But when Ariel is led to believe his love is a deception, she becomes vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her own inner darkness may ultimately rip them apart. (From Goodreads)

I'm SO bummed. I loved Juliet Immortal mostly because I've always hated the story of Romeo and Juliet. Two idiot kids who think they're in love can't be together and kill themselves. Yeah, that's dumb. So I was excited when someone came along and reiterpreted it to turn Romeo into a bad guy who basically dooms Juliet on purpose. I love thinking of Romeo as evil. But he's repentant in this book, and he acts like a victim, and he gets a chance to be happy. And now I hate this Romeo.

I have a lot of issues with this book actually. First, it was way weird that Romeo is falling for Ariel - the girl whose body Juliet last inhabited. That gave me the heebie-jeebies. And to be honest, I kind of hated Ariel too. She's almost too full of teen angst and in the beginning it seems like she plays the pity-me card more often than she needs to. More than once I wanted to tell her to get a grip.

And I was so not okay with their relationship. Romeo is all - I've done bad things, I don't deserve this. And Ariel is all - I don't care what you've done, I just want to be with you. UM. You should definitely care what Romeo has been up to the last few centuries. Maybe people deserve second chances, but if someone I had just started seeing told me he had a shady past, I'd defintely want to know what I'm dealing with. Plus, Romeo is sticky sweet - I rolled my eyes so many times a the words coming out of his mouth. I know his life depends on making her fall in love, but come on. Although she does fall for it - which kind of makes me think she loves him just because he's giving her attention.

Ugh, I sound so cynical. Sorry for the rant. There are a few things I liked - the best parts of this book were the moments Juliet got. I very much enjoy her - probably because we're both a little cranky and completely hate Romeo. I think it's really cool how everything ties back to the initial incident in Verona and the Shakespeare cast of characters makes some sort of appearance. It was also interesting when Romeo would talk about his Verona family and his memories before he became a Mercenary.

So yeah. I'm really sad that Romeo Redeemed didn't live up to Juliet Immortal. I really wish she had stopped after Juliet. I kind of want to pretend this book didn't happen and pretend this story ends with the ending of Juliet Immortal, because that makes my cyncical self so much happier.