Romeo Redeemed (Juliet Immortal, #2)
Author: Stacey Jay
Purchase on Amazon
and Barnes
and Noble.
Synopsis: 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 and get her to fall in love with him.
Ariel doesn’t know it, but she holds the
fate of the world in her hands. She’s at the center of a power struggle between
the Mercenaries, who fight to destroy love, and the Ambassadors, who try to
keep it alive. If Romeo can win Ariel’s Heart and make her believe in true
love, she will turn from her darker side once and for all. She’ll no longer be
a threat to the Ambassadors or to the world—and Romeo will be guaranteed
protection from the wrath of the Mercenaries.
The seduction begins as a lie—Romeo is
only out to save himself. But little by little, be finds that the lie has
become truth: he’s in love with Ariel, just as she is with him. So Romeo vows
to protect her from harm and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. When
Ariel begins to suspect that Romeo’s love is a deception, however, she becomes
vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her inner darkness may tear them
apart.
Brought to you by TeamNerd Reviewer
Annabell Cadiz
Warning: Expect spoilers. This happens
when I can’t keep myself from ranting in outrage.
Review: I had read Juliet Immortal and my original review for the book had given it praise
but after some retrospect and remembering everything that happened in the
story, I realized I didn’t like Juliet
Immortal nearly as much as I had thought. Romeo Redeemed faltered the same way Juliet Immortal had: the first half of the book was good but the
second half failed to deliver.
Romeo is
approached by the same Ambassador of Light that had taken “care” of Juliet (for
the life of me I cannot remember her name) and is given the chance to be freed
from his rotting corpse to return back to living a normal life if he will go on
a mission for the Ambassadors of Light first. He has three days to convince
Ariel Dragland (the girl Juliet had taken over on her mission in Juliet Immortal) that true love is real
and fall in love with him. Romeo starts off the journey determined to gain his
freedom and is incredibly surprised to find his heart opening to Ariel. Soon,
his loyalties shift and he will do whatever it takes to protect Ariel from both
the Ambassadors of Light and the Mercenaries.
I liked the way
the book started off. Romeo is on a mission to gain his freedom. He isn’t
worried about how he’s going to falsely seduce Ariel or how she’s going to fall
for a guy she’ll never get to be with. He just wants a way out of his personal
hell and if he’s got to work for the opposite team to get it, he’ll do whatever
it takes. Romeo is the definition of bad boy: seductive and alluring in the way
he speaks and behaves, good looking, ridiculously charming. I liked Romeo in
both Juliet Immortal and Romeo Redeemed. BUT I liked him more in Romeo Redeemed. He’s broken and desperate
and afraid. It’s a different version of Romeo from Juliet Immortal where he came off really angsty and melodramatic. BUT
I did hate how often Romeo kept referring to sex. I mean, I guess being alive
for seven hundred years and never being able to feel aroused, then suddenly
getting a body where you can feel desires, would make any man hunger for lust
times ten. But it was creepy and just too much.
Ariel was a
character I am so-so about. She’s completely broken, distrustful of people, has
lost faith in herself and anyone, and doesn’t believe she’s worthy of love. I
liked how her character started in the book. She’s has all her walls up and
could kill you with a look. She isn’t as weak or easy as Romeo assumed she
would be. I liked that, at first, she fights off his advances and puts him in
his place. But then Ariel lost the depth to her character. She discovers her worthiness
after she learns that Romeo thinks she’s worthy. What the friggs? Why can’t she
find out how valuable she is WITHOUT a guy telling her she is?? She finds out
the truth about Romeo and after a few sentences of disbelief, decides she
believes him after all. After that, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at her. She
makes INCREDIBLY stupid decisions. Her level gullibility in trusting the WRONG
people made me want to slap her. I could understand her loved-starved heart
NEEDED someone to love her and Romeo is definitely good at seducing, but in the
scenes with Gemma (Did I mention Gemma—the CRAPPEST best friend a girl could
EVAH have, returns? Ugh), Ariel just falls hook, line, sinker. She just let’s
Gemma come back into her life and manipulate her from the beginning.
The romance
between Romeo and Ariel starts off well-enough. It’s believable because Romeo
is his usual self but can’t crack through Ariel’s armor. He really has to let
his guard down to get to her. It made sense that Romeo would start to develop
feelings for her because he was ACTUALLY letting her in. It also made sense
that Ariel would start developing feelings for Romeo because he was slowly breaking
down her resolve, slowly getting to know her (at first, until he finds out he
only has three days to court her into true love). But then the romance aspect
of the story speeds up times 100, has them declaring they are madly in love
with each other, having sex, and Romeo fighting off the Ambassador of Light to
stay with Ariel. The reader is barely given enough time to comprehend the
characters are bonding before they just can’t live without each other (You
would think, from how many times I have rolled my eyes when reading books, they
would have gotten stuck somewhere in the back of my head by now).
Then there’s
Juliet. Did I not mention Juliet returns? Is this really shocking to anyone? I
had to put the book down the moment Juliet’s mini-chapters started and laugh.
Why the heck was Juliet coming back?! She doesn’t really play much of a role
except to be stuck inside a tomb for most of the book until the end. She had NO
REASON to be back in the story.
Here’s the thing
about Romeo Redeemed that you won’t fully
notice until you finished it: Nothing much happens in the 363 page book. There
is just a lot of expository writing and inner-dialogue and melodrama. I know
that “Young Adult” is the genre known for overdramatic, melodramatic, cliché insta-love
stories (and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Young Adult genre) but there’s only
so much a reader can swallow before he or she feels like he or she is
suffocating from it.
The third half
of the third half of the book (meaning closer toward the ending) was so utterly
ridiculous I could not stop laughing while reading. I had to put the book down
a few times. The episode with Ariel and Rosaline. Juliet suddenly appearing and
getting, yet again, a happy ending. Romeo and Ariel’s happily ever after with a
kid they decide to name Gemma (Seriously?? Why would you name YOUR kid after
the best friend who treated you like CRAP for so many years and has no
redeemable qualities??). The truth about the Ambassador of Light (the one that
betrayed both Juliet and Romeo) and the Mercenary (the one Romeo originally
working for) came so far out of left field I didn’t even understand where it
came from. I laughed the hardest at that.
I’m not sure if
I will be able to read anything else written by Stacey Jay. Yes, the woman is a
talented writer. Yes, she can create good romance stories and even really good,
relatable characters. But she often leaves MEGA plot holes in her books. There
were SO MANY things in both Juliet
Immortal and Romeo Redeemed that
NEEDED to be explained but never were.
I don’t remember
everything from Juliet Immortal since
a bit of time has passed but as for Romeo
Redeemed:
--Why did Romeo
need to make Ariel believe in true love? The Ambassador of Light, on more than
one occasion, states Ariel will play a BIG role but NEVER says what that role
is or why it’s so important.
--Why was it
necessary that the play written of Romeo and Juliet be taken out in the present
time? That didn’t affect what happened in the story. Why was that even
important?
--How could
Juliet survive inside a tomb for THREE days without water or food? Survival
Skills 101: Human body dies three days without water.
--If the Mercenaries
are supposed to be the ULTIMATE bad guys then why are they always standing
around and just talking? Why did they never attack Ariel or Romeo?
--If the
Ambassadors of Light are supposed to be the “good guys” then why have murdered
so many people and lied and cheated and manipulated? And why is Juliet’s nurse
the only Ambassador of Light readers ever meet? Who does she report to or is
she the boss?
--The time
travel/alternate reality thing in both books didn’t make any sense. How did
Juliet travel back in time to be with the 1304 version of Ben? How did Ariel
get to travel back in time with Romeo and suddenly become Rosaline? How does
Juliet get another shot at a happy ending? Did she go off to a different time
with Ben? Does that mean there are several dimensions/realities where Ariel and
Romeo can exist at the same time?
These books
offer stale and confusing storylines. I may give Stacey Jay another try if she
stays clear of trying to recreate, yet another, starcrossed-lovers love story.
Until then, I’ll
stick with the original Romeo and Juliet tale.
About the Author: Stacey Jay is a recovering workaholic (or at least working hard at recovering) with three pen names, two small children, and a passion for playing pretend for a living. She’s been a full time mom-writer since 2005 and can't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Her former careers include theatre performer, professional dancer, poorly paid C-movie actress, bartender, waiter, math tutor (for real) and yoga instructor.
Where to Find the Author
No comments:
Post a Comment