Cover Image: Lovestruck

Lovestruck

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Love mythology retellings. The story was fast paced and sweet. Well it's Cupid, so what I was expecting. I didn't have many expectations really, but it surpassed them.

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I absolutely adored the mythology used in this book. Kate cleverly weaves humor, romance, and Greek mythology in another amazing novel. She is an instant buy for me.

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Although the storyline was very promising (for a nerdy girl like me, who likes stories on Greek Gods) the book nearly ended on my DNF - pile. Since I was on holiday I decided to give it another go and I finally got to finish it.
If you are not familiar with the Greek Gods, you will probably have some difficulties in keeping up with the story, since a lot of them are making an appearance.
The main story is about Kalixta, a goddess who is in training with Eros (her father) to become a cupid.
Together with her friend Deya, they roam the Earth to ensure the best match between people, by shooting them with love arrows.
Only Kali accidentally pricks herself and so now she is stuck with a crush on the mortal boy
The only way to reverse the effects of the arrow is to go see the Fates, which is very dangerous.
But with the help of her friends, Kali makes it to the Fates, only to be given a riddle to solve .
While trying to solve the riddle, Kali, Deya and her aunt Artemis stay at earth so Kali can stay near Ben (the boy she is crushing on).
And although the storyline is very well written, funny and interesting, the long part in between
when Ben and Kali are all mooney eyes and lovey dovey are a bit boring. Furthermore Kali is a bit of an melodramatic teenager, grumbling about basically everything .
The best character in the story is actually Hector, Kali's best friend. He is just a great guy and very kissable (ehm...likeable).
In all, two and a half stars from me and a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

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What a cute story about young adults falling in love and trying to figure out life and their emotions. I loved reading this and getting to know the characters and the world they inhabited. This would be a great book for young adults and teens to read!

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I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I am always of for a myth retelling and this one was a little darker and heavy then a lot of other I have read. It get a lot of hopelessness from the characters in this book. Kali seems down and out for most of the book and she does not not treat the people around her very well. It does have a wrapped up ending, but I have to say I wanted something more from this book. Even if Kali is a cupid in training and falls for a an up and coming rockstar. She is all focused on herself we with all the support she has around her.

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You might think that being the daughter of Eros, Kali might be good at the whole cupid thing. Kali would be the first to disagree. After repeatedly making poor matches, she finally makes the worst mistake a cupid can: sticking yourself with an arrow. Now on top of trying to be a cupid when she actually wants to be a muse, figuring out what's going on between her and her best friend, Hector, she's also now in arrow-induced-love with a human, Benicio. Getting out of this mess will take power only the gods have.

What I enjoyed most about LOVESTRUCK is the humor and the fun. It never takes itself too seriously, and there are so many hilarious myth-related puns and jokes. It takes all the fun teen drama of new love and adventure and combines it with Olympian figures. Readers looking for something light and sweet with a dash of fantasy will adore LOVESTRUCK.

While the story was fun, I did have a hard time making a connection to some of the characters. I wasn't invested enough to want to stay up late reading and never *had* to know how it ended. However, I think readers who are looking for fun drama and romantic antics will still want to grab this one.

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Lovestruck in a nutshell:

- Kali is a Cupid
- Buuuut she doesn’t want to be! She’s not sure this is her calling.
- Too bad; the Fates decided
- Accidentally matches people - whoops!
- Accidentally matches HERSELF with a mortal - MAJOR WHOOPS
- Little love triangle but easy choice!
- Awesome to see parents and other adults prominent in the story
- THE ENDING IS THE BEST

So yeah, I loved it. I loved watching Kali struggle with her fate and feeling like she had little control over her life. This felt real for what teens experience IRL (of course, without the whole god and powers business). This is the perfect summer romance - fun with a side of seriousness!

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Not to sound biased or anything, but books based on Greek mythology are almost always enjoyable, and this one definitely is.
Reading Lovestruck was pretty much like watching a Disney movie. A girl is doing something she isn't enjoying while aspiring to be something else but is too afraid to go against her parents' wishes and decides to live the life that was set out for her. I truly liked reading this book and I would recommend it!

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Don’t tempt fate or you might live to regret it!

Sixteen-year-old Kalixta (Kali), a disgruntled archer-in-training and daughter of god Eros and Psyche, is angry at The Oracle and The Fates for calling her to archery camp, and has been (un)intentionally making bad love matches in the hopes of being kicked out so she can become a muse, her dream job. When you’re a god and accidentally prick yourself with one of the Erote’s (Eros derivative) arrows, you are destined to eternally love the first person you see Her best friend Hector, son of the god Apollo and Calliope, pricked himself at age 12 and has been in love with Kali ever since. For a brief time, she returned his love until The Thunderclap (something that is oft-mentioned but not explained until late in the story). Now she can’t accept that Hector’s emotions are true and doesn’t want to repeat what she sees as an enduring, but tragic love between her parents (who suffered the same fate).

Her current case is Ben who she’s been observing for five weeks, making sure that she finds the perfect match for him. Her friend and aunt Deya (by way of Aphrodite) senses that it has more to do with a crush Kali has on him rather than a strong desire to get it right. When she accidentally pricks her own finger as she and Ben make eye contact, Kali is faced with a very difficult choice: spend a human lifetime in the mortal world (much shorter in god time) or try to reverse the spell so she can remain on Olympus. And why, if a shot from an Erote’s arrow is supposed to mean eternal love, is she having second thoughts about Ben and unwelcome thoughts about Hector?

Watson has deftly woven the stories of several of the gods and goddesses who inhabit the beautiful Olympus into a humorous, touching YA romance with strong secondary characters. This is a love story for the ages that will be enjoyed by teens who have outgrown Rick Riordan’s books.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Flux through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

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This was an e-ARC I received from NetGalley, Flux publishing and the author and I would like to thank them all. I read this book in April but am now writing my review on it.

This is a teenage romantic story in which we find a teenage Erote (or a Cupid in training) Kali constantly misadventuring on her attempts to lead human couples to fall in love as part of her training and which eventually leads her to pricking herself on her arrow and falling in love with a human teeenage boy Benicio who happens to be a musician and a romantic at heart. Whats more, Kali hates being a Erote since she has always wanted to become a muse like her best friend Hector and is furious with the Fates and the Oracle who she believes are responsible for condeming her to this profession.

So this book was well cute and quirky. Like I have said many times in the past, I love Greek and Roman mythology and will read anything even remotely related to it and the gods and goddesses that make up that myth world.

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Lovestruck has struck my heart! I am a sucker for anything greek mythology related AT ALL. This novel is definitely YA, so be aware that this is written in an easy, fast paced and fun way.

That being said, let's jump into it!
Kali is an Erote, a Cupid since renamed by the Romans after they hijacked their religion and decided to rename everything. As we enter the story, Kali is questioning her calling of becoming a cupid. To make matters worse, she's Eros' offspring, so she's got some obligations to fulfill.

Along the way, Kali makes huge errors until she ends up sticking herself with an arrow and matching herself up with a mortal, which of course is a no no.

The plot is a typical YA romance, and the book plays out much like a YA contemporary - with a spark of a twist of course.

Kali was a MC that i could support. She was headstrong, willful and out to set the world straight. I am always out for more of those in the world for our girls. The combination of Greek Mythology, LOL moments and a heartfelt story make this novel a great one for anyone wanting a quick escape into a world not quite our own. I gave this title an easy 4/5 stars!

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Greek myth in a contemporary setting? Cupid in training? Bands and music? Archery? Main character named Kali (aka like my cat)? Sign me up!

I was instantly drawn into this book and fell in love with it almost right away. I adored Kali and most of the other characters. It was funny and clever (oh, Gaia, it was so clever), and the story was actually interesting.

For some reason, it took me forever to finish reading this book. I took a few weeks in between and almost everything changed.

When I came back, even though the book was exactly the same, I felt differently about it. The characters seemed annoying and the story so predictable (acutally, it was predictable before but in a fun way), and I mostly lost interest. The end was a bit disappointing, not because of what happened but because of what lead to it.

One thing it bothered me was the lack of "lgbt representation." One of my favourite things about greek myths is how even the gods themselves were involved in same-sex relationships. However, there's no mention of that in this book at all (full disclosure: I did skim a bit at the end). Futhermore, there's no mention of matching people in homosexual relationships. It was all boy/girl, boy/girl, boy/girl. Even boy/inanimate object at one point. But no same-sex couples. Just a little thing that bothered me cause again it was one of my favourite things about greek myths that personally helped me see things from a different perspective.

There were also things that I liked about the book, mostly phrases. Cursing Romans, for Gaia's sake, what the Styx?, to name a few.

I think this would be an extremely enjoyable read if you like greek mythology, music, and archery! I truly believe this would've been a 4 stars, maybe even 5 stars, read for me had I not taken so long in between reads.

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Dnf'ed at 55%. I tried everyday to read a little bit of this book but after halfway it was just a struggle. It was an interesting concept but I just found it quite boring and had to push myself just to read a chapter at a time.

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I LOVE Greek mythology so I was really excited for this book! I will automatically love the book if it has ANYTHING to do with it. This book is a solid 3.5 because it was short and light-hearted although I wasn't a huge fan of the writing. I still thought it was a good book and would love to see either Kali's story expanded or some of the side characters!!

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A Netgalley requested arc.

I quite liked the resolution that put into words what I have always felt about why the Moirai weave fate, in that there are multiple ways to achieve fate's end rather than something of a fixed destiny.

Kali has fallen out of love with making mortals find there after love, because she believes at first that it's fixed and can't be changed. Not until she finds herself lovestruck by her arrow accidently, now she's compelled to love and miss for mortal Ben. She and her cousin and Artemis, all immortal, now find themselves in the midst of mortal high school and bands and archery contests!

Not until Kali goes to the Oracle and the Moirai does she find there is a way to stop being lovestruck for a mortal, and get her life back, but the answer to if can she trust in love knowing that her immortal lover Hector (not the mortal hero of Troy, but a son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope) was lovestruck too finds a interesting answer?

It was interesting to see a modern day Olympus filled with both ancient and modern gods like Kali, Deya (a daughter of Aphrodite), Cosmo (son of Hephaestus), Hector, Theresa (a daughter of Thanatos) and a few others that we meet. I wish we'd met other Erotes than Eros and his brother, we also see a lot of Apollo and Artemis and something of Aphrodite too, but Zeus and other gods are only mentioned. It would have been interesting to meet Eros and Psyche's other children, we're told that they have had hundreds but Kali seems raised as a only child.

Some sayings and slang of Olympus was amusing (rolling your eyes is pulling a Hera) and mortals are called morties were two of the most memorable. I was not as charmed with Artemis and Tony's ending as I perhaps could have been.

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Please note: I received an advance digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinions in any way.

2.5 stars
Kali is an Erote (think Cupid) who’s tasked with matching people. While out on an assignment, she accidentally pricks her finger on her own arrow and finds herself falling madly in love with her target, a mortal named Ben. But because she’s still in-training, the match could be reversed, right?
Wrong.
A match with an immortal cannot be broken, even with a training arrow. Now with her free-will and sanity on the line, Kali will stop at nothing to break her the arrow’s magic.
I liked how Kali knew how the arrow took away the agency of the people who are struck and was against that. She valued being able to choose your match either than having your match chosen for you by divine intervention or by the fates.
Despite this, I found her extremely unlikeable. Although she is an immortal, Kali acted very immaturely. She even came off as superficial, selfish, and arrogant at times. That made being in her head frustrating, which was whole length of the novel. But I did like how her friends, Hector, even the narrative called her out on her actions, that it wasn’t brushed aside or ignored.
I think I could’ve forgiven the above, if she hadn’t lead two boys on for the duration of the novel.
That’s right, there’s a love triangle here.
Ben, who she falls for thanks to the arrow, is an indie rock singer, who‘s sweet, but insecure. <spoiler> He’s feels inferior to Kali in every way and it quickly turns their relationship toxic. Kali senses this, and yet does nothing to smother her arrow-induced feelings. Which frustrated me when her initial plan was to fight to end arrow’s magic. </spoiler>
The other is her childhood friend and ex boyfriend, Hector. After Kali broke his heart, <spoiler> believing his feelings were the result of arrow magic, </spoiler> he pushes his feelings aside to continue being her friend and support her through everything. <spoiler> I’ll admit it: I hated how she dismissed Hector’s one-sided love, but also had the nerve to get jealous when he start spending time with another girl, calling her all sorts of names. Hector deserved so much better. </spoiler>
I should also mention Deya, Kali’s best friend. She’s bold, loyal, determined and I genuinely liked her side-plot. I ended up enjoying her character arc a lot more.
The world building in this novel was very well done, cleverly integrating the Greek mythology into modern day. I also liked how we’re given a rundown when a new Greek goddess/god is mentioned or make an appearance so we all know who’s who. That was very helpful. My only gripe was with the lack of diversity, with all the matches being with hetero couples only.
All in all, the premise of this book intrigued me, but I think this book was geared towards younger readers.

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What a nice find. This was the first book I've read from this author and I really enjoyed it. The story was different from anything I've read recently and really captured my attention. It was so well written and the characters were fantastic.

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**FULL REVIEW**

What a super-cute story!

Taken from a cupid spin-off, Lovestruck had me smiling and swooning while learning more about Greek Mythology.

Finding love at a young age seems like a natural thing for Cupid's daughter but despite her natural calling to help others fall in love, she is determined not to fall victim to the same arrow-pierced fate. A typical teenager, unhappy with the gifts she has; instead, wanting to be something or someone she's not, goes on a journey of self-discovery and ultimately, finding love...right where it's been all along.

I found myself completely enraptured in this story. From the beginning to the end, I found myself pulled to turn the page. The multiple storylines that entwine kept things interesting during the low parts of Kali & Ben's relationship. Her friends, her family...even her parents and teachers.

The intricacy of this story made it fly off the pages and had me thinking about it even when I couldn't actually read it. All the events that lead to an ending that gave me every warm and fuzzy feeling...I actually will be reading it again!

I want to see if I missed anything the first time in my race to see what happens--sometimes the Fates play tricks on you, and sometimes, they lead you exactly where you're meant to be.

**4 Calling of the Heart, Stars**

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I love books that have elements of mythology in them and was immediately interested in this read.
Kali is the daughter of Eros and Cupid in training who struggles with that destiny and choice believing that the fates control everything and out choices don't matter she doesn't take her job that seriously. When she accidentally gets struck by one of her own arrows and falls for human things take an interesting turn.

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I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoyed reading this. An interesting story with fun characters. Well written.

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