Book Chat | Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz

Blurb:

For Noa and Callum, being together is dangerous, even deadly. From the start, sixteen-year-old Noa senses that the mysterious transfer student to her Monterey boarding school is different. Callum unnerves and intrigues her, and even as she struggles through family tragedy, she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Soon they are bound by his deepest secret: Callum is Fae, banished from another world after a loss hauntingly similar to her own.

But in Noa’s world, Callum needs a special human energy, Light, to survive; his body steals it through touch—or a kiss. And Callum’s not the only Fae on the hunt. When Callum is taken, Noa must decide: Will she sacrifice everything to save him? Even if it means learning their love may not be what she thought?

Goodreads | Amazon 

---

My Review:

Hello bookworms and welcome back! Today I am finally bringing you a book review. I feel like it’s been an age since I last did one of these, so I apologize if I’m a little rusty! 

I’d like to thank the publishers and Netgalley for giving me the great privilege to read and review this book.

Today, I will be doing a review of the new novel by Lauren Bird Horowitz: Shattered Blue.  Shattered Blue is a new contemporary fantasy/paranormal novel that explores a bright new approach to the Fae concept.

For the most part, I enjoyed Shattered Blue. I love this novel for it’s new approach to the Fae concept and the inclusion of complex and lovable characters such as Judah and Sasha. However, it took some time to get to know this book for me to fully appreciate it. Me and Shattered Blue have a pretty slow-burn relationship. This was a potential DNF, thanks to the slow and somewhat action-less first half of the novel, however, after sticking around past the half-way mark, things really begin to pick up. 

With all it’s positives, there are also negatives. Sadly. I was extremely unconvinced with the romance, which was a terrible case of insta-love (in my opinion), and at times, dialogue seemed slightly awkward. The plot was indeed fast-paced but sometimes it felt as though all the events didn’t do a good job of blending together and adding up seamlessly. Overall, I enjoyed this book for the most part, so if you’d like to know more, keep on reading my precious bookworms! 

You all know I love to talk about my characters first. So let’s do that! Our main protagonist in Shattered Blue is Noa. She recently lost her sister, an event that haunts her and has put her mother into a state of depression. Yet, Noa finds comfort in the poems she writes and in her younger sister, Sasha. Unfortunately, I couldn’t connect emotionally to Noa’s character. Even after finishing the novel, I feel like I still don’t know much about her as a person. And yet, not feeling an emotional connection to the main protagonist didn’t make me want to quit the novel, because other characters made up for this. 

Sasha is Noa’s little sister, the sister in which Noa describes as a wild creature, a girl of pure intensity that was full of joy and love. And that is exactly what she is. I adored Sasha just as much as Noa did, and enjoyed most scenes with her in it. She’s a sweetheart, innocent and such a pure little girl. 

Callum, Noa’s love interest and Fae, is an interesting one but yet again, I could not find any emotional connection to his character either. I felt like his character was slightly underdone. There was potential for him to be complex, with the hint of a balance of good and also dark parts of him, but I never found out anything in depth about him. Many of his actions  which were later explained, just did not seem justified to me. 

But here’s where everything changes. When Judah enters the scene. Judah, Callum’s little brother who I found to be incredibly complex and wonderful. After finishing this novel, I find myself infatuated with him and I don’t know why! Honestly, Judah was the only upside in terms of characters here. I think Lauren Horowitz really did a marvelous job in writing his character, because I enjoyed and savored every moment of his POV. He’s snarky and mischievous (honestly this might be the only reason I love him. Gosh, I seriously love the snarky bad-boy types, don’t I?), but yet, there’s this dark side to him that takes a toll on his heart. He’s bitter over family issues and experiences and over guilt and I love this part of him because it adds to the depth of his character. He’s probably the character I know the most and the only character I’m attached to right now.

The plot was easy to follow, yet, it was slightly shaky. The first half of the book was a huge let down for me. Nothing seemed to happen and I was very tempted to give up and read something ‘more worth my time’. But alas, I stuck with it and was full of glee when the pace finally picked up. It was like, once I got past 50%, the intensity and pace of the plot just kept building and building up until the crescendo at the end, which surprisingly, made me crave for the next book! 

I felt as though, although the plot was fine, the events that occurred over the course of the novel just didn’t seem to blend in with each other well. It felt detached. The romance between Noa and Callum was pure insta-love. They went out together for one day and it was like suddenly they knew they were star-crossed lovers. Sometimes insta-love doesn’t bother me, but this one just made me feel uncomfortable. It felt wrong and unnecessary. This was further proven when I read on and near the end, began to ship Noa with a different character altogether. (Seriously, I ship them and I wish I could talk about it, but I wont. But… UGH, JUST KNOW I SHIP NOA WITH SOMEONE WHO IS NOT CALLUM). 

The writing style within Shattered Blue is fairly average and does a lot more telling than it does showing. At times I felt as though it was quite clumsy and it made reading the book a little harder. In addition, the dialogue within the novel made me feel awkward at moments. The characters saying “‘rents” instead of “parents” made me feel very weird. Slang such as that doesn’t sit well with me and in this novel it just felt very forced and not natural.

---

However, with all it’s flaws, Shattered Blue was an entertaining read that presents a very different concept of Fae which was constructed well and the ending was full of so many twists and action that I’m very excited for the next book in the series! If anything, I would say, read this book to meet Judah. I adore Judah. (okay, I should stop now, right?)

Do you think you will pick this book up?

Or have you read Shattered Blue? If so, tell me your thoughts in the comments!