Craves The Angst: ARC REVIEW TOUR - HEARTSICK by Caitlin Sinead:

TITLE: Heartsick
AUTHOR: Caitlin Sinead
AGE GROUP: New Adult
GENRE: Mystery Romance
RELEASE DATE: February 16, 2015
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
FORMAT: eBook
PAGES: Approx. 224

COPY PROVIDED BY: Author
MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: 3.5 Stars
CLIFFHANGER: No

BOOK BLURB:
Quinn is looking forward to her senior year at Poe University. She has big plans to hang out with her best friend, flirt with a certain boy genius, party at her favorite dive bar and figure out what she’s going to do after graduation with her not-so-useful art major.

But that’s before she meets Luke, a hot townie who’s moved back home to help take care of his dying sister. And it’s before a weird epidemic sweeps across campus, mysteriously turning people’s eyes purple.

Is it an odd side effect from a new party drug?

Is it a rogue virus developed in a campus lab?

Is it the mark of the devil?

Soon the town starts blaming the university and the student religious group becomes frighteningly aggressive in their on-campus accusations. Quinn and Luke are caught in the middle—until a tragic accident forces Luke to reveal the one part of himself he’s kept carefully hidden. That he’s so much more than the happy-go-lucky boy next door Quinn had believed him to be isn’t a surprise…but this truth might be too dangerous for her to handle.

REVIEWERS NOTE: Heartsick is a New Adult Mystery Romance written by Caitlin Sinead. I was gifted a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review through InkSlingers PR.

3.5 Stars!

Mysterious and Intriguing! Great Debut Novel...

The Review:

Though this read took me a couple of chapters to get into, I really enjoyed it once the story started flowing and the characters were being fleshed out. There was a great deal of mystery surrounding the happenings at Poe College and the town of Allen, VA. and it kept me interested and eager to know how it was going to end. The hero was sweet and likable and the heroine, though she had a few quirks I didn’t like, turned out to be a solid and brave character.

This was this authors debut novel and thought there were some plot points and character actions I think could have been better, this was a solid, interesting story that ended on a great note and left plenty of room for more should the author decide to continue it.

Story...

Quinn is finishing up her senior year at Poe College where she’s studying art and dance. One night at a party seems to change everything, when her roommate and best friend, wakes up with purple eyes. One by one, more and more people start to turn up with this mysterious manifestation and soon it’s discovered the purple eyes aren’t the only affliction from this “disease”.

And what’s worse, some of the residence of Allen aren’t to happy with infected people roaming their streets and take up arms against those they deem evil.

This story spirals out of control really fast and about half way through the book, things pick up and don’t let up until the very end!

Characters...

Quinn wasn’t my favorite character. She was distant and definitely against any and all romance. And other than the one incident from her past, I didn’t understand why. I also didn’t understand all the secrecy around her parentage other than maybe she just didn’t want to be treated differently. She didn’t seem to have the best relationship with them but to me, it wasn’t explained clearly as to why they were so off limits. She also has a secret in her past that I wish had of been explored with her love interest. She never right out confesses to him why she’s so afraid and I felt that needed to be explored in order for their relationship to progress. They didn’t have a lot of “get to know you” time where their pains and pasts were divulged. But I did like how Quinn stood up for her friends and vigorously went after the truth.

Luke was a great hero. He’s moved back to the town he grew up in to help take care of his ailing sister. He also has a secret, though I’m not sure why his profession would scare off or reign in “certain” women, but he keeps that part of himself locked away from Quinn for the first half of the book. It was easy to guess. The author did a great job laying down clues for us to figure out. But Luke is still a mystery to me. I liked his character. He was sweet and seemed honorable and brave and the fact he came back for his family gives him extra gold stars in my opinion. But his past isn’t really explored. You never get a clear reason as to why he left town though you do get the impression he was desperate to do so and hated the fact he had to come back. And there seemed to be a desperation in his attraction for Quinn. There are several instances where he thinks she might be in danger and he’s almost frantic in making sure she’s safe, like perhaps he had a lost love in his past but that was never fleshed out or revealed. There just seemed to be more there that wasn’t spelled out.

There’s an intriguing cast of characters written in this book. Each one was distinct and well done and I loved the red herrings the author creates.

There was a wonderful mystery surrounding what was happening in Allen. I had my guesses early on and though parts of it were right, I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t able to guess it all.

The writing was in present tense and was a little shaky in some places. I stumbled over a few “quirky” lines that I didn’t fully get but other than that, it was well done and I loved the poetic beauty of the authors descriptive words. Well done!

The Wrap Up:

All in all, this was a really good read. I’d definitely be up for part two if the author decides to write more in this intriguing world she’s built. Heartsick leaves off in a good place but there is a ton of room for more and I hope to see the residence of Allen again in the near future.