Review: Romeo Redeemed

Title: Romeo Redeemed
Author: Stacey Jay
Date Released: October 9th, 2012
Pages: 394
Rating: 3 out of 5

Description:
Seductive companion to the popular Juliet Immortal, in which former lovers—Romeo and Juliet—meet, not as true lovers, but truly as enemies.

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. Unbeknownst to her, Ariel is important to both the evil Mercenaries and the love-promoting Ambassadors and holds the fate of the world in her hands. Romeo must win her heart and make her believe in love, turning her away from her darker potential before his work is discovered by the Mercenaries. While his seduction begins as yet another lie, it soon becomes his only truth. Romeo vows to protect Ariel from harm, and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. But when Ariel is led to believe his love is a deception, she becomes vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her own inner darkness may ultimately rip them apart.

Review:
I never reviewed Juliet Immortal, the predecessor to Romeo Redeemed, but I remember really liking it and gave it a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.  However, I wasn't exactly feeling Romeo Redeemed.  I like the whole twist on the tale of Romeo and Juliet and how Stacey Jay weaved magic and supernatural elements into the story, but the characters faltered a bit in this story and it was just too much of wanting one another and confusion that I didn't enjoy it as much.

This time, the point of view is from Romeo.  He was given a so-called second chance by the Ambassadors to make Ariel, who Juliet formerly inhabited in Juliet Immortal, fall in love with him in three days, and in return he would join the Ambassadors and leave his decaying Mercenary body behind.  Eventually, the two fall in love (as is evident on the cover), but forces try driving the two apart to create a different outcome.

I really liked Ariel in Juliet Immortal, but I guess that's because it was actually Juliet who was just merely using Ariel's body.  Ariel is a rather strange person, and I guess I can wonder why her classmates call her a "freak".  When she gets angry, she becomes murderous, which was the exact opposite of what she seemed like the other half of the time, which was sweet and loving, although a bit mistrusting, especially of Dylan/Romeo.  I did like Romeo's improvement as a character.  He became a lot more kind and was very sweet caring of Ariel which definitely made me fall for him, despite his tumultuous past.

The overall story line did seem to drag on for a bit.  Mostly it was just made up of, "I need her", "I love him", skipping school a lot to be with each other, and just a lot of mushy stuff like that.  You do see the development of the relationship, but it was just too much and actually started to get a little bit boring!  And I'm a sucker for romance so that was saying something.  The book then finally throws something else to the reader, which actually confused me for the remainder of the book.  The magical elements definitely come in at this point, which left me confused and not understanding why there was a sudden switch in personality in Ariel and finding it rather odd.  I will say that the ending was pretty cute.  It was a bit confusing, but it was definitely a twist to the story that ended off on a sweet note :)

Romeo Redeemed seemed like such an intriguing follow up because it wasn't necessarily continuing the events of Juliet Immortal, until you reach the ending, but could almost have been a stand alone since it was told in a completely different point of view and had a completely different story.  However, the story didn't really capture my attention once I realized it was just solely about Ariel and Romeo for a majority of the book, and Ariel didn't really win me over either.  I still did like the romance, to a certain extent, and Romeo was pretty cool throughout the story.  The ending was probably one of the cutest endings I've ever read and it definitely left me satisfied, although I had one huge question, but that would spoil everything ;)  If you're into romance and magic, then you should definitely try out Juliet Immortal and Romeo Redeemed!

Cover Review:
This cover is definitely says a lot about the book.  There is a lot of kissing and stuff like that, but it never happens on the beach.  Although, it does give a romantic setting  and they are situated in California close the ocean.  My parents would probably definitely question what I was reading if they saw this cover.  But, I do like the blue, which kind of emphasizes that this is about Romeo since blue is just stereotypically associated with guys, and the typography adds to the romance that's going on on the cover.

Cleo :)

*Description and cover from goodreads.com
**Review copy borrowed from library.