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photogcourt 's review for:
Blackhearts
by Nicole Castroman
Blackhearts was among one of my top anticipated novels for 2016. I was very excited when given an advanced reader's copy, from the publishers through Edeweiss.
I'm actually surprised by how lackluster I found Blackhearts to be. The description promises to "set the world ablaze" and yet I kept waiting...and waiting...and waiting for something other than the typical historical romance fair. I will admit that the whole "prologue" idea to famous pirate Blackbeard's life was a splendid one but it was not as red hot as I was promised. Nothing in this book was anything other than standard, maybe even cliche. The "maid" who is not really a maid, falling in love with the employer's son - who is engaged to be married to someone else. There have been many romance novels written with this similar plot-line. In fact the only reason I knew this wasn't published by Harlequin Romance was that there was entirely no sex in the book at all - just a few kisses here and there.
I question that this is marketed as a young adult novel. Although the female protagonist is 16, I think a lot of teenagers would be bored with this. In the time of deeply thought provoking contemporaries, cute romances, and action packed dystopians, this hardly seems alluring. Perhaps that is why the description is overdone.
The most redeeming quality is that Nicole Castroman really is a very good writer. It is just too bad that her original idea couldn't have been made into something more vibrant. Instead it's fairly normal. Although I wasn't bored, and I liked reading it, I didn't love it. I was not impressed, and I hoped for something more but it never came, sadly. If you like reading historical romances, you probably will enjoy this quite a bit. If you want something a bit more grand, and adventurous - turn elsewhere.
I'm actually surprised by how lackluster I found Blackhearts to be. The description promises to "set the world ablaze" and yet I kept waiting...and waiting...and waiting for something other than the typical historical romance fair. I will admit that the whole "prologue" idea to famous pirate Blackbeard's life was a splendid one but it was not as red hot as I was promised. Nothing in this book was anything other than standard, maybe even cliche. The "maid" who is not really a maid, falling in love with the employer's son - who is engaged to be married to someone else. There have been many romance novels written with this similar plot-line. In fact the only reason I knew this wasn't published by Harlequin Romance was that there was entirely no sex in the book at all - just a few kisses here and there.
I question that this is marketed as a young adult novel. Although the female protagonist is 16, I think a lot of teenagers would be bored with this. In the time of deeply thought provoking contemporaries, cute romances, and action packed dystopians, this hardly seems alluring. Perhaps that is why the description is overdone.
The most redeeming quality is that Nicole Castroman really is a very good writer. It is just too bad that her original idea couldn't have been made into something more vibrant. Instead it's fairly normal. Although I wasn't bored, and I liked reading it, I didn't love it. I was not impressed, and I hoped for something more but it never came, sadly. If you like reading historical romances, you probably will enjoy this quite a bit. If you want something a bit more grand, and adventurous - turn elsewhere.