Review: Hearts at Stake, by Alyxandra Harvey

Hearts at Stake, by Alyxandra Harvey

Publisher: Walker

Pages: 248

Overall Rating:

On Solange’s sixteenth birthday, she is going to wake up dead. As if that’s not bad enough, she also has to outwit her seven overprotective older brothers, avoid the politics involved with being the only daughter born to an ancient vampire dynasty, and elude Kieran Black—agent of an anti-vampire league who is searching for his father’s killer and is intent on staking Solange and her entire family. 
Luckily she has her own secret weapon—her human best friend Lucy—who is willing to defend Solange’s right to a normal life, whether she’s being smothered by her well-intentioned brothers or abducted by a power-hungry queen. Two unlikely alliances are formed in a race to save Solange’s eternal life—Lucy and Solange’s brother Nicholas, and Solange and Kieran Black—in a dual romance that is guaranteed to jump start any romance-lover’s heart.

This was a cute story, though at times the similarities to Twilight were a bit much. I understand it's about vampires so of course there will be some similarities. However, there was a vampire Edward, Victoria, the main girl is squeamish at the sight of blood, there's a treaty, the person on the other side of the treaty's last name is Black, the treaty says they can't eat humans, so the family feeds on only animals unless they're too weak and human blood is a must. Just to name a few. There are a lot of huge differences though. (If you're thinking "oh geez thanks", you can rest assured that I really wasn't giving a thing away by telling you that.)

I loved the relationship between Lucy and Nicholas, though I still think it was lacking some heat. There was a lot going on in this book so I don't feel like I ever really felt that relationship wrap up. As for Solange and Keiran, I didn't see much of a relationship to begin with. There were a few sparks, but other than that, their relationship didn't register on the romance scale for me. I think calling this a dual romance is an overstatement.

The characters were very well written. It bounces back and forth between Solange and Lucy's point of view, and I was happy to see that each character had her own voice. Solange is laid back and caring, wild Lucy's snarky and quite amusing.

The plot was well written--despite some things that screamed Twilight. The differences did make it feel like it was it's own story.

Overall, I enjoyed this quick read. It held my attention, I didn't get bored, but the ending didn't pack enough punch to push it to the fifth star for me. I'd recommend it for someone looking for a fast, fun read.

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