Sweetheart: Part One

So....you know that feeling you get when you watch a live action adaptation of an anime that you know really well and just adore, and well it's just...well... kinda weird?

Like seeing a giant CGI Ryuk floating behind a super normal looking guy at the supermarket or a dude wearing an outrageously styled wig doing fight scenes in modern day Tokyo? Or dialogue that seemed absolutely perfect in the context of an anime, but then feels awkward with scenes that feel overacted as real people desperately try to translate an animated world into a live setting?

That's kinda what Marie Mackay's writing feels like to me sometimes. Both this and Havoc Killed Her Alpha suffer from this, for lack of a better term context-content mix match which is, again for lack of a better phrase, more than slightly cringe inducing at times.

Like the description of the heroes is a bit fantastical and they feel like characters you might see in an anime, and the alphas fight with auras, again feeling kinda like something that would be in an anime, but the setting and social dynamics of the society kinda feel like something analogous to modern day LA.

Then why am I giving this 5 stars?

Because, damn can she write a compelling story with a super intricate plot line. It's been a while since I've been so excited to read something that made me want to pause real life to finish it, but this certainly got me there. The cliffy has me absolutely salivating to get my hands on the next book.

The fact that I absolutely loved this book, despite it's awkwardness, actually has me wondering if Marie Mackay's writing style is a bug or maybe it's just a feature?


(As an aside: I also loved the honoring of the perfection that is Pack Darling. I know now that Marie has excellent taste, and giving respect to the giant in this way was very cute)