Reviewed by Dee
TITLE: Jaden’s Heart
SERIES: Jaden’s Journey #1
AUTHOR: Melanie Jackson
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 426 Pages
BLURB:
Deserted, lonely, and disconnected from humanity…
Attempting to hide from the binding chains of responsibility to her human facade, Jaden wanders the alleyways of Los Angeles, feeding on the city’s homeless. Within these backstreets, she never expected to find her heart. Alexis, a homeless teen running from a painful past, captivates her.
Love blossoms and passions ignite.
However, nine centuries after she disappeared, Jaden’s former lover and creator reemerges, bringing grave news. The assassination of an Immortal Council member forces Jaden to leave Alexis in L.A. to attend a summit in France. Here, she must fight temptation and lust as unknown assassins lurk in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
REVIEW:
Two of the quickest ways to kill a story for me is to give me multiple point of views and for it to be peppered with errors, that is unless the plot is strong enough to override my pet peeves, thankfully this one was – to a point.
I will admit I was apprehensive about agreeing to review this story when I first laid eyes on the cover. I am not a huge fan of young adult stories and the seated girl looks extremely young. Despite that, the blurb was intriguing enough to entice me to do so. Thankfully the story does not read like young or new adult. In fact the content is very adult and not for the faint hearted. Jaden is over 900 years old and Alexis comes across as far older than her years, not surprisingly given her hard start to life. Her father is a vile man, of the worse sort. There is a scene in this story that I’d caution readers sensitive to rape and/or incest to tread with caution. It is mostly off page, but detailed enough to know full well what occurred.
A number of things in this story took me by surprise, some I would have liked more of. A few things were introduced then dropped out again. For example, the first sex scene featured the heroine and two of her male friends, and occurred in a BDSM club. I wrongly thought it was setting the stage for more kinky delights, however nothing of the sort reoccurred. There were a few hot, albeit brief scenes, between the two ladies, but they too faded to black as the story progressed. Not that I’m saying that’s a bad thing. Believe me, there’s plenty of other things going on to keep a reader turning the pages.
I enjoyed going on this long ride with Jaden and Alexis, and found myself rooting for them all the way. Annora was a mixed bag and even though her point of view was slotted in here and there, I never got a grasp on her character. I thought she’d create a lot more mayhem than she did. There are constant references to the time Jaden was her slave, but again it was a gray area, something left for the reader to surmise about.
The ending, well I don’t know what to say about that or how I even feel about it. Anyone needing a HEA won’t find it here. I could say it was a HFN, but then no it wasn’t that either. Was it a cliffhanger? No, not strictly speaking. The book really came full circle and the girls basically find themselves back where they started. I know that sounds a little cryptic but I can’t say more without spoiling it for others.
For most of this story I thought I’d give it 4 stars. Then around the 85% mark Alexis Tanner all of a sudden was referred to as Alexis Turner, numerous times. For an author to forget their character’s name is one thing. For two editors to miss it as well is something else. I guess this could be seen as a lesson to indie authors to thoroughly do their homework before enlisting the service of a small editing service.
RATING:
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