Sasha Gould

This book was by far better than [b:Cross my Heart|10801027|Cross My Heart (Cross My Heart, #1)|Katie Klein|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327886049s/10801027.jpg|15714317]. When I read Cross my Heart I felt like something was lacking in the story--I liked it an everything, but it was just missing that umph that would make it a 5 star book. This book, Heart of Glass had it all.

Overall, I'd say this book took the first one up a level. I really like the character we have in Laura now. She has really grown from the naïve convent girl in book 1 and has become a strong, intelligent and independent woman. More-so in this book than the last book I see the connection between her and Roberto.

I really liked the plot of this book. I was constantly guessing and re-evaluating my theories as I read. It wasn't totally predictable which was great!

I'm not sure if there will be a third book, but if there is, it is going to have a tough act to follow with this one!

Check out more book and series reviews (including this one!) on my blog SERIESous Book Reviews as well as book recaps!… (altro)

Read my overall review of the whole series here! Spoiler Free!

I read this book as soon as it came out but before I started the second book, [b:Heart of Glass|18667292|Heart of Glass|Christy Hayes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381714109s/18667292.jpg|16801498] I decided to reread it because I couldn't remember what exactly had happened.

I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book. The mystery element is a nice feature and I find I don't often read books that are mostly a mystery plot so it was a nice change.

As you can see from my overuse of the word "nice" that's all I can really think to summarize the book as: it was a "nice" easy and quick read. While I think there is enough going on plot-wise, it still felt like something was missing from the book. I don't know what it is but I think it is just missing that little something that would make it a 5/5. Perhaps it was a little rushed in how the plot progressed? But I'm not sure if that was really it.

I also think the romance is a little lackluster--I don't really get their connection so I would have appreciated a little more romance there.

Overall: A decent start to a series that was fun to read but needs just that little bit more. It's sequel on the other hand is a completely different story!

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!


… (altro)

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould is a historical fiction/mystery and is perfectly styled towards its target audience of ages twelve and up. While I enjoy historical fiction with a lot of historical details, I am not convinced that a younger audience is always looking for the same thing in that area, so I find this nicely balance. The setting is historical, but Sasha Gould has done a wonderful job in creating characters and a suspense story line that are more in-depth than the historical piece itself. She manages to keep a nice writing style while keeping it MG/YA. I am always happy to read a book for a younger reading audience that isn't trying to eek out good reviews by writing for their adult reviewers.
The beginning of the story lays the groundwork for the protagonist, Laura, where the reader gets familiarized with her circumstance of living in the convent, her family relations, and then the tragedy that changes everything. From that point on, the suspense builds and romance buds.
This is a mystery, so the suspense element is built better than the romance piece, but I would have liked to have seen a few more real and intimate moments between Laura and her love interest before love was declared. I did love the suspense portion, it is done in a way that leaves the reader unsure of which characters can be trusted until the end, and plenty of unexpected turns that keep the pages turning, which is why I enjoyed this read as much as I did.
I found a lot of pleasure reading about all of the interesting characters that are involved here. One minute I was sure that the Segreta, the secret society, was responsible for the death of Laura’s sister, and the next minute I thought that it could be Laura’s love interest, who is full of his own secrets. I am not going to give anything away here, so if you enjoy MG/YA suspense, give it a try. I hope that you enjoy it.… (altro)