Arrowheart Review

Title: Arrowheart
Author: Rebecca Sky
Series: Love Curse #1
Publisher: Hodder
Publication Date: 14 June 2018
Source: Pan Macmillan South Africa
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Rating: 4 Stars
Reading Timeline: 20 February 2019 - 21 February 2019

Goodreads Synopsis:

Kiss the boys and make them cry...

The gods are gone. 

The people have forgotten them.
But sixteen-year-old Rachel Patel can't forget—the gods control her life, or more specifically, her love life.

Being a Hedoness, one of a strong group of women descended from Greek God Eros, makes true love impossible for Rachel. She wields the power of that magical golden arrow, and with it, the promise to take the will of any boy she kisses. But the last thing Rachel wants is to force someone to love her...

When seventeen-year-old Benjamin Blake's disappearance links back to the Hedonesses, Rachel's world collides with his, and her biggest fear becomes a terrifying reality. She's falling for him—a messy, magnetic, arrow-over-feet type of fall.

Rachel distances herself, struggling to resist the growing attraction, but when he gives up his dream to help her evade arrest, distance becomes an insurmountable task. With the police hot on their trail, Rachel soon realizes there are darker forces hunting them—a group of mortals recruited by the gods who will stop at nothing to preserve the power of the Hedonesses—not to mention Eros himself, who is desperate to reverse the curse...

Rachel must learn to do what no Hedoness has done before—to resist her gift—or she'll turn the person she's grown to love into a shadow of himself... forever

Book Review:

Pre-reading Thoughts:

I remember seeing this book making its way around bookstagram last year and I kept thinking that I need to read this book as soon as I can. I was so happy to see that the wonderful people over at Pan Macmillan sent me a copy last year. I am so excited to jump into this book.

Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan South Africa for sending me a copy! Just a small disclaimer for those reading this review, I have received this book for free. Please note that this does not affect my opinions in any way. All thoughts are my own.

Writing Thoughts:

The writing was easy to get into. It was light and the pacing was well done. The dialogue flowed naturally and kept the reader entertained throughout the book. The writing carries a lot of the emotion that our main character, Rachel feels. This is definitely the case when it comes to her thoughts surrounding her gift and her emotions towards other characters. 

Plot Thoughts:

The plot starts off slowly by introducing us to the mechanics of the powers that our main character has along with some world building. There was a great balance between the explanation and information about the gifts and the history and the actual story. The plot seems to revolve around not the main characters actions but rather her reactions to her best friends actions. It is through these reactions that we see the tension between who Rachel is expected to be and who she wants to be. We follow our main character trying to not only protect herself but also to protect her loved ones from being affected by her gift.

Character Thoughts:

Rachel is introduced as this imperfect or flawed character which instantly makes her accessible to all readers. She happens to be running late when we meet her and she immediately contrasts her best friend Marissa. As readers, we are unable to connect to Marissa. This automatically makes us distance ourselves. Her personality and behaviour contrast Rachel's to the extent that readers don't like her. Rachel is seen as this character who to some extent is selfless and a true believer in pure love. This calls to our own romantic side and our own dreams or hopes of finding the one.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I really liked this book. It was fun and entertaining. I definitely couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what happens next. The questions; does Marissa turn more boys or does Rachel do the one thing she cannot bear to do. It makes for a book that just keeps turning the pages. The writing made the book fly by because it was light and easy to read. The plot was engaging and pulled me right in. The characters were diverse and we could see this tension between Rachel and Marissa that truly made things interesting. I definitely cannot wait to see what happens next. Be warned, the ending is not one that you will see coming. Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan South Africa for sending me a copy of this book!

Yours in Reading,

Melleny