Mythology and soul mates? Give me please!
I liked the fact that from the beginning it is explained that soulmates can be consisted in a female pair, a male pair or a mixed-gender pair of soul mates. But even though that possibility is explained, at no time is a pair of soul mate of the same genre mentioned. I would have liked it even more if, instead of explaining it, it showed it.
The contextualization of the Hellenicus world is very well planned and, without a doubt, it is what I liked most of the whole story. The fact that the protagonist is against everything related to finding her soul mate gives the feeling that this is going to be the center of the conflict in the story, but the conflict goes further (and is too predictable).
The author drops clues from the beginning about what is going to be the center of the conflict (which will subsequently put the protagonist in danger, of course) and which also explains some of the unknowns that arise in the story (from why her parents don’t care about her to the dreams or why she got sick the first night of the Gathering), although more than clues they are huge (and predictable) arrows.
And the main characters? Well, any of the characters is well developed. Although they are psychologically defined, they are still quite flat characters; even the female main character, Avery, is not developed even when the narrative is from her point of view (so many arrows and she lets them pass without second thoughts…).
As for the love triangle (because spoiler alert, there is a love triangle), it is also seen coming from afar. The only thing that I liked about the relationship between the three main characters is the final unknown of why this love triangle was formed, which is not resolved; I suppose it will be left for the second book.
The end is very abrupt and leaves several unknowns without solving, which makes you want to read the next book, which until now is only available on Wattpad.
The only thing not at all predictable in all of history has been everything related to the Faction. At least, I was personally surprised.
What I liked most, without a doubt, is the whole contextualization of the Hellenicus world, it is a really original concept. For the rest, it is an entertaining and enjoyable story that is worth it if you like stories with a mythological contextualization.

Do I recommend it? Yes.
Am I going to read the next book? Obvs yes!

I really wanted to like this book, since on the surface it sounds great. However, I found it really hard to get invested in it. The beginning is a massive and clunky info dump that failed to hold my attention, and it was pretty downhill from there.

I found I couldn't connect with any of the characters and none of them had any real depth. Great potential, but I wasn't really feeling the execution!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This review has been posted to Goodreads and will be submitted to Amazon after release.

It seems that I am on a roll to not liking anything this week. This one has the issue of having every cliche that ever was. It was way to predictable and really didn't feel like it was very well done. I think that if the author goes back and redoes the story with better edits I would totally give this another try.

Avery never understood the way things happened around her. People being treated differently based on their ranks and the way her own parents treated her for reasons she will never know.

All of the Hellenicus are destined to meet their soul mate and recognise them through a click. The soulmates can read each other’s mind. The whole concept makes Avery sick. She goes to the awakening ceremony only for her best friend Kris Ambrosia and for Carlo, whom she has met once and their friendship through phone has become something more. But she didn’t know life was taking serious turns and things will never be the same before.

Avery is physically attracted to Adrian Ambrosia, Kris’s cousin but her heart ache for Vladimir Ambrosia, Kris’s brother. Her two teenage crushes whom she hasn’t met in years. Her feeling are divided and she don’t want to her decision will hurt their feelings. Three days before she officially gets awakened she is exposed to the biggest secret of her life and now her whole existence is under threat.

I totally loved the story. I have never read anything related to Greek mythology before and this book was so new and refreshing. The writing was not exactly the best but the story and the characters were good enough to cover that. And me being me didn’t know this was a series and now i cant wait to read the second book! The secret in the end was something i kind of hoped/ guessed to happen and maybe it is something so common but still the story was interesting to read! A strong, bold and food loving female lead is just a character anyone can connect to! There is a queen and a princess but there is no mention of a King, now this might be a missing part or maybe i should read the second book to know!

This is getting 4 stars for the sheer fact that it's exactly what I wanted and needed. A story about descendants from the Greek gods going through a ceremony to find their soulmate and one girls finds herself in the middle of a love triangle and a mystery. Yes please.

Pure Royals - descended from Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades
Royals - descended from any of the major gods on Mount Olympus (Ares, Aphrodite, etc.)
Regulars - descended from the minor gods

This is exactly the kind of crap that I lap up because I LOVE IT.

I'm gonna be honest though - the character work was not great. There weren't layers to any of the characters, the love triangle was predictable, and the best friend didn't really have a role other than that of best friend.

As for the plot, I did enjoy the overall story because it wasn't just about finding one's soulmate. It was about a girl who wanted to give up on soulmates and choose to live her own life without being entwined. There was also a subplot which ended up being the bigger plot of the story (and therefore, much more intriguing) about royal bloodlines being murdered by an organized group of assassins. All fun things!

Is this the best thing I've ever read? No.
Did I enjoy it immensely anyway? Yes.
Will I read the next one? ABSOLUTELY.

Entwined was such an interesting book to read. I thought the idea /plot was very intriguing. I didn’t really like the main characters much but the story was overall good.
The writing style was very easy to follow. I would definitely recommend for people to read this book.

Entwined by A.J. Rosen
Omg I could not put this book down nor did I want to!!! I have completely fell in love with these characters and have been mesmerized every Since! They way she speaks is saying that I say on a daily basis! I am so ready for the next book I can not wait!!!!

5 stars

Twin Souls and mythology came together and gave rise to this magnificent book.

Entwined was a pleasant surprise. I expected a typical cliché soulmate story but it was none of that.
It's much more than that. The beauty of the book is in the unique world that the author created. The author played a lot with emotions, there were funny and fun moments but also sad and tense moments.

The characters are all well developed and are identifiable characters. Avery is persistent, Vlad is stubborn and Adrian is bold and high-ego just like me.

The ending is incredible, full of twists and revelations that I did not expect.

Entwined is a fun, addictive and must-read for fans of YA romance.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a digital Arc in exchange for a honest review.

When I first came across Entwined I was really drawn to the soulmate premise of this novel. Before I get into more detailed thoughts, I want to start off by saying that OVERALL, I enjoyed this story.

The first thing I noticed was definitely the writing, in particular, the conversations. They fell short and were, for a lack of a better word, cringey. I want to make it clear that I think it's super cool and pretty amazing that Wattpad now publishes its stories, and that this is one of them! I also want to make it clear that I don't think Wattpad stories are any less legitimate than other published stories, but in this case, I found the conversations unnatural.

This story is a fun greek mythology, love triangle, romance novel. However, it comes off a bit predictable and I think it would be much more suited for more of a middle-grade audience than a young adult audience.

That all said, I finished reading Entwined in ONE sitting. As a first novel, I can see there is room for improvement, but also it's a debut novel!

In a secret society of humans descended from Greek deities, Avery's birthright is that of the lesser gods. Unlike her best friend Kris (descendant of Aphrodite), Avery is considered to be a Regular - better than someone strictly human, but still less than her Royal peers. On the eve of their 18 birthdays, Avery and Kris must attend a month-long gathering where they give praise to their ancestor and be Awakended - a ceremony that will open their psyches to finding their soul-mates - their perfect partners who will understand they completely and be able to read their minds. Kris anticipates the Awakening but Avery, who has seen potential harm of the bond, longs to escape their society even if it means living separately from her family. What happens at the gathering will change both girls forever.

Entwined had an interesting premise that was quite different from other novels in this supernatural subgenre. The characters were fleshed out and I enjoyed Avery interactions with everyone. It was a fast-paced read and I look forward to the sequel.

Thank you Smith Publicity and Netgalley for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

To begin, I really wanted to like this book, I thought the premise was cool and I was down for a good love triangle. I know wattpad writers tend to get a lot of flack simply because of the site they emerged from, but having grown up a wattpad reader, I know that there are some amazing books on there. Unfortunately this book didn’t live up to my expectations.

I never want to be too harsh in my reviews, because simply writing a book is hard enough, and everything is a matter of opinion, but I also want to be honest about the areas I really struggled with in Entwined. So let’s get to it: (spoilers ahead)

1. Avery
This line from the book perfectly describes my thoughts on Avery:
“She turned the page, murmuring just above whispering level, “How can you be his kid and be this foolish?””

This was probably my biggest issue with the book in general because it affected nearly every area of the story, but for real, Avery was a hard character to support mostly because she was (and I really hate saying this) dumb.

There were all of these weird things going on around her, from people watching her, to her parents weird behaviour, to Eulabeia’s comments, to the NDA, to her dreaming real places, to weird phone calls, to people trying to kill her, to mention of the faction, and yet she almost NEVER thinks about anything that’s happening. Like, she is so distractible that all it takes is someone mentioning food for her to dismiss all the weird things happening around her and not put ANY thought into it. This was incredibly frustrating as a reader because it’s so obvious that somethings going on, and pretty easy to piece certain things together, so you’re left screaming at her for failing to put any thought into anything. At the most basic level, this type of an issue that transcends the entire book means one of two things, the plot and her character is not realistic, or her character is intentionally (and again, I really hate saying this) dumb. Like it’s a problem if readers can figure out what’s going on well before the MC in a first person perspective book.

Her character also suffered from the novel “says your one thing but acts another way” virus. Avery would make statements about how she proven herself capable, how she’s not a damsel in distress, and essentially, how she’s an independent woman. Yet, in practice she didn’t do any thinking on her own and some of the decisions she did make on her own were just not smart (like approaching the table of myrmidions when they could possibly be the ones doing something sketchy). This is something I’ve seen in a lot of books, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s an inconsistency at best.

2. Predictable
There were lots of stock characters. I mean the parents are either “Cinderella’s step mother” bad in Avery and Adrian’s case, or perfect and kind in Kris’ case. The royals are all depicted as the same brand of shallow ladder climbers unless they are one of the main characters. Worse still is that Avery’s friends are literally described as being “different,” which implies that there is some norm to all the other Hellenicus. Therefore, instead of them being a diverse group of people with unique characters as it would be in reality, they’re all painted with the same brush and it makes the book feel unrealistic.
I already mentioned this in the last section, but the plot itself was also (sadly) predictable. While having a book that doesn’t pull things out of nowhere is awesome, it becomes problematic when the readers are not on the same page as the characters. By this I mean, if you’re halfway through a book and can already recognize the truth of her parentage but she’s still unsure about everything, the book doesn’t progress for readers and it makes it boring to read because you’ve already “solved the problem” so to speak.


3. Let’s talk about love
As I said before, I was intrigued by the premise of this book, and how it took such a cool position on the idea of true love, however even in this regard I don’t think it lived up to its potential.
Her and Adrians experiences and opinions could have made such a beautiful statement about love. How it’s not the solution to everything, how it’s not the ultimate key to happiness, how there is a beauty in getting to choose it for yourself, etc. but everytime they got close to talking about why they reject the bond they would tack it onto such superficial reasoning that doesn’t transcend into the real world. Often they would say it’s better than being stuck listening to the thoughts of the other person the rest of your life -which in that world makes sense, but if it’s only that superficial of a reason then this book really lacks the depth it so easily could have had. It also constantly looked at love as though it was something doomed to fail, which wasn’t good either. Does this book reject the idea of true love, or just love in general? Because it wasn’t clear.
Also if this series -which focuses so much on this topic- ends with her continuing to participate in the system she so wholly rejects -for good reasons- then this book is yet another situation where the characters have no backbone when it comes to their emotions. It doesn’t matter how cute the romance may be, if you spend an entire book emphasizing the issues with this so called “happily ever after” don’t try to tell me they got just that and not acknowledge or fix the issue. I think if this series can end strongly however, it can redeem itself though.


4. Alaska in December
I’ve never been to Alaska so maybe I don’t know their weather super well, but being from central Canada has given me a keen knowledge of what winter looks like in December and I gotta say, this isn’t it. The road conditions are never brought up, the snow always seems like a light dusting, and they willingly spend SO much time outside, often without the proper winter layers. I even looked up weather in Alaska to be sure I wasn’t judging this too harshly, and I suppose if they were in southern Alaska that weather would be possible, except that it took them 3 hours to get to the beach. So unless they drove unnecessarily past a bunch of other beaches to get to that one, there is no way they can be anywhere but Alaska’s interior, which would have significantly worse weather. As a Canadian I had a really hard time accepting this setting as realistic for that reason, but please correct me if I’m wrong.


5. The world building itself
I already mentioned Alaska, but this is specifically in reference to the Hellenicus. Not only does it not make sense that they somehow keep the court (which is likely a giant compound in Alaska) a secret from the world, but even the event itself seems like a logistical nightmare. I get that they built this huge to hotel basically to house a bunch of people, but everyone coming and living there for a month is no small feat. Based on the numbers we’ve been given for even the smaller family lines, that’s a lot of people. It could MAYBE be reasonable if it was just the new 18 year olds, but it’s not, it’s them, their parents, their siblings, and anyone else who is still looking for their match probably. Then we have to account for the fact that they all basically stay in these multi-room suites -so this isn’t like a conference, it’s like moving a small town in for a month and yet also turning it into this wild camp-like match game. Another big issue with this world is the way it’s policed. I mean, I get they don’t want violence, but it makes absolutely no sense for someone to be arrested for a week for punching someone. Like, actually, if anyone is supposed to believe this world is realistic, it’s punishments need to be consistent with the act because the sentence Avery got was not. I will concede that this may just be a matter of opinion though, so I don’t want it to be given too much authority but I felt that it needed to be said.


7. Consistency
Finally, there are a few main areas I saw consistency errors that just didn’t make sense. For example, one day they’re saying Avery can’t be alone and insist on Vlad “babysitting” her, and then literally the next day no one continues doing that. It’s not until a couple days later that they even bring it back up again, but even then, they barely do it. Even Avery is inconsistent. Like she starts the novel saying she doesn’t want to escape alone, and finds comfort in the fact that people (specifically Vlad and Adrian) aren’t leaving her alone, but the minute people bring up that she should have someone with her she complains. Maybe that could be chalked up to her not knowing herself well, but it doesn’t really seem like that’s what’s trying to be communicated so it just seems like a character inconsistency.


All that being said, this book was NOT terrible. It’s still a really interesting concept, and there is a chance I would check out the next book simply just because I want to know what happens next (which really says something given the aforementioned list). However, the issues I mentioned really kept me from truly enjoying the book the way I should (the first one in particular -that one REALLY got to me). I also want to recognize that the entire plot was not completely predictable. I didn’t anticipate the reveal about the Myrmidions (even though there were signs of it throughout the book) and I think it would have been really interesting to have had them actually try to piece together what is going on and get it wrong just as I did. That probably would have led to the same conclusion without making me (and probably other readers) question the intelligence of Avery.

Anyways, I think this book -as it at the moment- is fine, and younger teen readers would probably enjoy it (12-15 maybe). I’m sad that I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to, but I’m sure others might.

A breathtaking read. The pure beauty of this book lies in the well woven unique world and the play of emotions. The author successfully managed to keep me glued till the end, sucked into the web of words. I really love the story.

A really fun and interesting read. I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day!

I received an ARC of Entwined and read it in a day. I could not put it down. My only complaint is that I have to wait for the sequel!!! Or figure out WattPad. 🤔 Either way I’m really excited for Enamoured!

Vampire Academy meets Circe with a touch of fate and magic. Truly amazing and I highly recommend to anyone looking for the ultimate slow burn!

Excellent read, I was hooked and wasn’t able to put it down! However it’s a bit hard to follow, all this information was thrown at us within the first 6 chapters and it was tricky to keep up with, world building is a hard thing to do and I just don’t think it’s for everyone. The story was great but all the pivotal information should of been spaced out a little more so we don’t read new details before remembering the last bit.

Entwined had me hooked from the start, is it a little predictable? yes, but it still managed to keep me on my toes. Avery is a well-balanced character she is very grounded which makes her the ideal lens to experience the court through. The cliff hanger has me thinking about downloading Wattpad so I can find out what happens next. Rosen is clearly a very talented writer and I can't wait to see what she does next.

I received a NetGalley arc in exchange for an honest review.

Entwined is A.J Rosen's first novel and it is a fantastic read. It's full of passion, romance, angst, soulmates, gods, angst. Very easy to connect with characters. It's everything you want in a YA novel.

Well, here we are, ladies and gents because this book was fab!
As some of you know, as a fellow Wattpad author I am first there on NetGalley requesting those arcs. I will show support to any of my fellow Wattpad authors and this goes without saying, especially when I saw Agatha was getting her book published.

To sum it up, I freaking loved this. If you follow me on Goodreads, you will know I adore anything about Gods/mythology related etc and this did not fail. I thought the entire concept was fun, quirky and the market for it right now really just works. These books are 'in' at the moment!
- I love AJ's writing. I literally could devour ever morsel she has ever written because she is so talented.
- Loved, no I adored Avery. She was exactly the female lead I wanted to read about and I felt like she was well developed. I also love my little baby Vlad. He has a special place in my heart. (Avery I am praying to the Gods you end up with him).
- Honestly, the story moved at exactly the right place. I was never bored or rolling my eyes at a filler chapter. It all seamlessly flowed together.
- AND THAT ENDING. Holy lord, I never read on Wattpad anymore but I might have to make an exception to get my hands on that sequel.

If I am being analytical, I think the only downside of this book was the predictability. However, I don't necessarily think this was a bad thing. It worked for this book and it sure as hell made my heart burst. But I could understand why some may find it tedious.

Overall, a definite recommendation. Well done and congrats Agatha, you deserve it!
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.