🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis:
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and, for Ric and Avi, can lead to disaster in SHARED STARS, a murder mystery that’s a cross between 500 Days of Summer and a sexy Nancy Drew.
The young couple falls hard and fast during Roric Finnegan’s time in America as a foreign exchange student, with the impetus of Avelina Flores’s traumatic past with pedophiles and his determination to make them pay. Now back in Ireland, Ric, 16, is living alone in an RV and stalking Tim Maebry, the man who exploited Avi and escaped justice. A despondent Avi is dealing with losing the “beautiful boy,” she credits with her escape from the sexual predators and fending off everyone who tells her she needs to get over the Irish geek. When Tim is found dead in his castle from a vicious clubbing, Ric is accused of murdering him. Avi swoops in from Ohio Township, best friends in tow, to scour the internet and countryside, looking for clues, while the young lovers tell their story of love not lost, but in limbo. It’s the only way to save Ric and find the killer. Unless, of course, Ric is the killer.
I thought that the portion of the plot of this book that had to do with the sexual predators that preyed on young girls was intriguing. I thought that the book would focus heavily on the fact that Roric and others wanted to bring them to justice which it did but the book also focused on the relationship between Roric and Avi. This made for an odd tone to the story that made it difficult to read. i would have liked for the author to have focused on one or the other to make the story more enjoyable. Focusing on both made me feel like the author glanced over the topic of pedophilia. It made it seem like Avi and the other girls involved were not as impacted as a person can be that survives something like that. It might have strengthened the book to have had it be a romance wherein one of the main characters was abused in the past.
I also feel that this book should gave been shortened. I got tired of the flashbacks because some of them didn't even seem to fit with the tone of the story. It was a bit confusing because one minute the focus is on finding out who killed Tim and the next it is all lovey dovey between Roric and Ari. I'm not sure that liked the characters because they seemed immature and their parents seemed to be clueless. I felt like Ari and Roric's relationship was a bit unhealthy. He kept throwing her past in her face and basically blaming the victim. Then he would apologize and everything would be wonderful again.
There was something else that was confusing to me too. What is up with Avi? Why is she so irresistible to the opposite sex? Does she wear some type of pheromone to attract men to her? It just wasn't realistic for that character to attract the majority of the males in a book.
The young couple falls hard and fast during Roric Finnegan’s time in America as a foreign exchange student, with the impetus of Avelina Flores’s traumatic past with pedophiles and his determination to make them pay. Now back in Ireland, Ric, 16, is living alone in an RV and stalking Tim Maebry, the man who exploited Avi and escaped justice. A despondent Avi is dealing with losing the “beautiful boy,” she credits with her escape from the sexual predators and fending off everyone who tells her she needs to get over the Irish geek. When Tim is found dead in his castle from a vicious clubbing, Ric is accused of murdering him. Avi swoops in from Ohio Township, best friends in tow, to scour the internet and countryside, looking for clues, while the young lovers tell their story of love not lost, but in limbo. It’s the only way to save Ric and find the killer. Unless, of course, Ric is the killer.
*This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
I also feel that this book should gave been shortened. I got tired of the flashbacks because some of them didn't even seem to fit with the tone of the story. It was a bit confusing because one minute the focus is on finding out who killed Tim and the next it is all lovey dovey between Roric and Ari. I'm not sure that liked the characters because they seemed immature and their parents seemed to be clueless. I felt like Ari and Roric's relationship was a bit unhealthy. He kept throwing her past in her face and basically blaming the victim. Then he would apologize and everything would be wonderful again.
There was something else that was confusing to me too. What is up with Avi? Why is she so irresistible to the opposite sex? Does she wear some type of pheromone to attract men to her? It just wasn't realistic for that character to attract the majority of the males in a book.
No comments:
Post a Comment