** *My FIRST blog post...Squeee!!!!***Hush (A Lakeview Novel #1) by Stacey R. Campbell
Release date: January 23, 2013
Publisher: Green Darner Press from Gemelli Press LLC
Source: Ebook from NetGalley
Buy it at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound
*I received this ebook from Green Darner Press through NetGalley, but it did not influence this review in any way *
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Summary (from Netgalley):
What if your entire life was a lie?
When her adoption was finalized Blakely Henry’s parents swore to never question the origin of her birth. But after Europe’s favorite monarchy is killed in a single act of terrorism questions arise.
Max Ryder thinks he knows the truth.
Sworn to secrecy, Max is admitted into an exchange program halfway around the world with the sole purpose of finding out if he’s right.
When a stolen email surfaces, Blakely’s life is threatened and Max start to question what he is really after.
From the exclusive rolling lawns of Canada’s most prestigious boarding school to the University of Saint Andrews’ hallowed grounds, Hush weaves a tale of suspense and romance that is as addictive as any real-life royal scandal.
Let me start by saying that I absolutely love the IDEA of the story! I just wish the author had handled the plot line leading up to the climax a lot better. Hush offered a potentially good story that I feel the author could've made great.
Sadly, though the idea was great, the writing wasn't. There were just too many factors getting in the way of this book.
First off, there seemed to be too many "unique" names. I know, it sounds silly, but when you read a book and your main character has such a unique and beautiful name you can't give all the supporting characters unique names as well. The main character's name is Blakely. That's a great name, but the rest of the supporting cast have unique names too: Tyson (girl), North (boy), Riley (girl) and of course Blakely (girl)
I feel like I couldn't fully appreciate Blakely because there were too many other names competing for attention.
Also, another peeve I had with this book, is that there were way too many POV changes randomly throughout the chapters. Sometimes I didn't realize right away the change had occurred. It definitely threw me off a bit.
So overall, I think this book had a great premise, just not well executed. Too bad too, because it truly had hope of being a great story and THAT was the only thing keeping me reading the whole way through, the HOPE that it would be as great as I imagined!!!
Side Note: Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book through Netgalley
