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Monday, May 4, 2015

Broken Juliet (Starcrossed #2)

Broken Juliet (Starcrossed, #2)Broken Juliet by Leisa Rayven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh Cassie, you really are a seriously screwed up Juliet, aren't you?

This sequel to Bad Romeo reveals more of the details of the college romance of Ethan Holt and Cassie Taylor. Now in their mid-20's, they've been cast in a Broadway play after a bad breakup at their graduation from drama school. The book alternates between present day and 4-6 years earlier, and talk about a mess of a relationship. Ethan's back to regain the trust of the love of his life. But trust is a difficult thing to re-establish when you've been a jerk. And Ethan Holt has been a colossal jerk.

Not that Cassie's handled the breakup much better, sleeping with anyone and everyone in her continual attempt to get over Ethan. She's a strong, centered girl in college that has since become self-destructive. She's having a hard time getting over the love of her life, even questioning whether he really was.

Ethan's character has serious issues but they're never really defined. All we really know is that he was adopted and has a bad relationship with his dad. He's got a great relationship with his sister and he's a talented actor, so what's the real problem here? There was a lot of back and forth with him deciding what was good for Cassie and what wasn't (namely, him). Angst abounds. Someone needed to tell this guy to just get over himself.

This story was difficult to read with all the ups and downs of the relationship essentially based on great sex. It has it's redemptive qualities in the present day telling, but overall it was really sad. Even with an unlikely-in-real-life happy ending, it's a good account of what not to do in a relationship. The ups and downs, bad choices and actions and two people who hurt each other was almost too much. The college scenes were a little too graphic. The author uses an education in drama and acting to include homosexuality and promiscuity. These seemed like gratuitous plot devices, given the physical relationship between the two main characters. It could have been better.

Everyone benefits from therapy, but having a character go from night to day like Ethan did was a bit of a stretch. It was a little too extreme, especially on the "I'm all better now" scale. Cassie's hesitance to trust him got to be almost a way to punish him for his behaviour in their earlier years. Both of them needed to get over themselves.

The book was narrated on audio by Andi Arndt was average. I didn't care for her voicing of Ethan, although the emotional detail she gave was good. This was a rare occasion when a book with a female lead might have been better narrated by a man. It would have lent weight to the story.

This series is slated to include a companion novel focusing on Ethan's sister Elyssa. Given Rayven's tendency to go heavy on the drama and sex, it's a specific flavor and not for everyone. Maybe it was the drama school setting, but this one just didn't do it for me.

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1 comment:

  1. I'm so sorry you didn't like it a lot :(
    I really enjoyed the 1st book in the series and I already have the 2nd on my shelves, hopefully I'll like it a bit more! :)

    Frannie @ http://frannieinthepages.blogspot.com/

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