Book Review: Lovestruck by Kate Watson
Title: Lovestruck
Author: Kate Watson
Publisher: Flux
Pages: Paperback; 300
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Source: NetGalley / Publisher
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Content Screening: Nothing of note.
HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart
Recommended to: Readers who enjoy lighter reads with great messages.
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Sixteen-year-old cupid-in-training Kali is in an Olympus-sized mountain of trouble. Rule number one in arrow-toting matchmaking: don’t stick yourself. But accidents happen, and Kali instantly falls hard for her indie rock, bass-playing target, Benicio.
The God of Love is going to kill her. Even if he is her dad.
Being the daughter of Eros isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For one thing, a girl can get jaded when her parents have the most beautiful and fatalistic love story in history. For another, immortality royally sucks when the Oracle condemns you to eternity in the wrong profession. Do the Gods care that Kali wants to ditch the love stuff and be a muse?
Nope.
To reclaim her heart and her destiny, Kali is left with no choice but to defy the Gods, tempt the Fates, date the mortal love-of-her-life, and hope she doesn’t lose her best friend, Hector, in the process.
Where to start with this book? I should start with the fact that I do love stories about Gods and Goddesses. Their personalities, their whims, the fact that they’re all powerful, it all wraps up into something that has me firmly invested in books revolving around them. So when Lovestruck appeared on my reading list, I was pretty darn excited. As a Cupid in training, and a reluctant one at that, I hoped that Kali and I would get along swimmingly. After all, who doesn’t love a story about star crossed love?
I’m going to start with the honest fact that Kali and I didn’t get along as well as I’d hoped. While I absolutely understood that this is a YA story, Kali’s character felt really young to me. The fact that Kate Watson set Kali on a path that she wasn’t 100% sold on, really touched my heart. I felt hopeful and anxious right along with her, as she tried to figure out how to get around her supposedly inevitable fate. However I also felt frustrated with her, a lot. Her attitude towards her friends, and her inability to see how selfish she was being, made me want to smack her more than a few times. I did feel like she ultimately learned and grew up by the ending, but Kali isn’t an easy character to love. That might be rough for some readers.
Still, the story that Watson weaves around Kali’s fate fueled dilemma is an excellent one. She perfectly weaves backstories for each of the Gods and Goddesses who are featured, without it ever feeling like something overwhelming. I loved watching Kali interact with all of them, and giggled quite a bit at the parent/child relationships in this book. It should be noted that there are also really excellent messages woven into the tapestry of this book. Watson touches on familial relationships, one-sided friendships, and (best of all, in my opinion) on what a real romance looks like. I can’t count the number of times that I found myself nodding my head along with Kali’s realizations that the relationship she was in might be toxic. Oh, to have read this book as a teenager.
Lovestruck also has its fair share of laugh out loud moments! The interactions between godly brothers and sisters had me cracking up. I love that these ethereal beings are just as silly and petty as all of us here on Earth. This book moves so quickly, and 300 pages all but flew by. Overall, I had a really good time with this book. It might read a little younger than I’m used to for YA, but it has a ton of heart. For that, I happily award it 3 stars.
FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.
