12926767Title: Romeo Redeemed

Author: Stacey Jay

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 2012

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Paranormal

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book Two

 

 

Synopsis found here.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

So…

Yeah. Mild spoilers ahead.

The story from Juliet, Immortal continues in Romeo Redeemed. At the end, Romeo is given a choice- to rot in his disgusting corpse or switch sides and work for the powers of light. Romeo chooses to switch sides, receiving a near impossible task of getting April to fall in love with him in three days. April, the girl’s body who Juliet was borrowing. April, the girl whose body Romeo slayed.

I confess it has been over a year since I read the Juliet Immortal and while there were some things that irked me, overall I enjoyed the new twisted tale. So I was interested in reading the follow up, especially after how the first book left me hanging. What happened to dear, evil Romeo?

Nothing good apparently.

The second book picks up where the first left off. Romeo is thrown into another body and sent to woo April. Romeo is a pretty interesting character. We know he’s a lover, a betrayer, a threatening character. We know that he loved Juliet and killed her. We know that the redemption he seeks is a selfish one. His character journey was by far the most interesting than all of the characters, yet there was so much about him in this book that fell flat. Such great potential in Romeo, his redemption, his flaws. But in the end, the chemistry between him and April felt more like insta-love. They leaned towards each other too quickly, too deeply. Which may not be too hard to believe when raging hormones are involved, but add in the fact that Romeo is in a mean kid’s body (the same mean kid who made bets against April) and that she is super suspicious of everyone, especially him, it all felt too contrived.

Then we have April, who is a very insecure and whiney love interest. There was very little interesting about her. Her anger and rage, the evil inside that one side wants to take advantage of, seemed too extreme and without cause. She was pretty annoying and when it switched back to small narrations of Juliet’s character, the voice didn’t really change. So then there were two annoying females in the book, each at the mercy of others.

I’m sorry but I just didn’t like the book.

The writing was  good. I enjoyed all of the descriptions and the tone was perfect in a dark tragedy sort of way. And really that kept me reading because I almost put it down a couple of times. I am not sure if I was annoyed with the characters, or the plot, or the back and forth, back and forth of who is working for who and who is betraying who. None if made a lot of sense in the end.

Sadly I was deeply disappointed by this sequel. I had such hopes for Romeo and his happy ending.

Rating 3 Not My Cup Of Tea