Book Review: Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz

Shattered Blue

by
Lauren Bird Horowitz
Genre: Romance, Fantasy and Paranormal
For Noa and Callum, being together is dangerous, even deadly. From the start, sixteen-year-old Noa senses that the mysterious transfer student to her Monterey boarding school is different. Callum unnerves and intrigues her, and even as she struggles through family tragedy, she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Soon they are bound by his deepest secret: Callum is Fae, banished from another world after a loss hauntingly similar to her own.

But in Noa’s world, Callum needs a special human energy, Light, to survive; his body steals it through touch—or a kiss. And Callum’s not the only Fae on the hunt. When Callum is taken, Noa must decide: Will she sacrifice everything to save him? Even if it means learning their love may not be what she thought?


What I liked in Shattered Blue:

*Cover. That impressive cover got me wanting to read this book so bad.

*World building and Plot. Aurora,(the Fae's realm), fascinates me so much. I wanted to know more about their politics and history. The idea of color-coded Fae was absolutely brilliant, neat and amazing!

Now that I really think about it, Shattered Blue appears to be my first book about Fae's, and it was... Ok. Actually, this book has a LOT of potential.

But...


The characters were annoying as fuck. They just have to ruin everything for me. Too bad for this book, those were what can make or break a YA book for me.

"That's when the boy walked in.
He was someone Noa had never seen before, and an eerie prickle ran down her spine. She instinctively took a step back, yet couldn't look away. The boy was towering atleast 6'4", and moved like liquid. His skin was deep olive, as if from some far away, sun-baked place; his hair unkempt, tossed in downy almost-curls of mahogany and browns[...]In that moment, Noa had an odd compulsion to touch his curls, even as a strangeness spun inside her."

Fuck. Not this again. Insta-love...

Look, I'm sorry Ok? I hate to come out as a whiny reader, but in my defense, I don't really automatically hate Insta-love and love triangles(Yes, there's one here too). Hey, I love to pick out teams in a fandom, so love triangles work perfectly fine for me sometimes, it just depends on how believable and tolerable they are, and in Shattered Blue, it was frustratingly annoying, well Callum and Noa was. It seems that it(The insta-love) was deliberate for the story plot, but I just can't accept it, I thought the book would've been so much better without that overly cheesy part.

Then there's Noa. Noa who's broken and haunted by the unexpected death of her sister. Noa who act like everything is her fault. Who think she should have died, the loser sister, instead of her ever loving sister. Who thinks everyone was better than her, but everybody seems to love.

"Noa looked at the gorgeous girl, whose dark, full eyes were narrowed sharply, and she remembered the spark she'd sworn she'd seen when Callum and Leticia had touched. Noa didn't want sit across from her like some childish little girl."

I'm sorry but I just can't stand her. I tried, really, but then she does something idiotic like this..

"I just followed the ghost of my dead sister across the city in the middle of the night, and she is telling me, commanding me, to drive this knife through my heart, and I will do it!"

Yep, she's willing to die just to know Callum's secret, I understand her curiosity, but seriously girl? You have enough of a problem on your plate already, aren't you taking it a little too overboard?

Callum is no better either. He's too damn boring and dramatic for my taste. I don't want to give out any spoiler, so I can't say everything he did that annoy me to no end. He just have to make everything complicated and dramatic. While Judah, The "bad" brother who always make pranks that hurt people around him, is the only interesting character I like here. The only realistic one at that too. Then he just had to fell for Noa too. **SMH**

This book is also told into three POV. It was great that it was not told solely on one person's POV, but it was confusing on the third part because we also get a glimpse of someone's POV like Miles and Olivia.

Also, seriously? What is it with that ending wanting everything to be dramatic? Am I supposed to be amazed and cry? Crave for the next book because of that cliffhanger? Nice try, really, but it's too chaotic! Everyone was yelling and everyone has their own secret they need to spill and I was like...

STOOOOOOOOPPPPP!!

If a good world building and plot are enough points to make a good fantasy read for you, then this will definitely work for you. Insta-love, love triangles and the overly dramatic characters just.. turned me off. It was my own, complaint as a reader. But just like what I said, this book had a lot of potential and despite the low rating, I'm still looking forward into reading the next book.

**I received Shattered Blue from Skyscape via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.**

Book Links:

(Amazon | Goodreads)

Lauren – or ‘Bird’ as she is often known – is a screenwriter and novelist lucky enough to call both Los Angeles and Kauai home. Bird also counts herself lucky that writing exists as a profession—how else could she share the crazy, fantastic worlds in her head? Bird studied writing at Harvard University with novelist Jamaica Kincaid, where she won several prizes including the Edward Eager Memorial Prize for fiction. She’s a proud member of the Writers Guild of America.

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Book Review: Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz