The Jade Necklace by Jad Phillip is a fantasy romance that follows the characters Clara and Robin. It was an enjoyable read to me.

One thing I really loved is we had time to connect with Clara and Robin before their meeting within the book. You really got to delve into their character within their own worlds. Worlds in which there is diverse characters and backgrounds. You are along for their journey and what a journey it was.

If you are looking for a fantasy romance that has diverse characters and backgrounds with a slow build up, this book would be for you!

Let me start by saying the premise for this book was great. The story starts with Clara a normal but spoiled girl. Our first insite in to Clara's world is her complaining about the unexpected changes in her life. From this we gather that they've moved unexpectedly for some unknown reason. We soon find out that they're being hunted but we don't know why.

The book then goes to Badr a gargoyle in the 21st century. He's centuries old and seemingly the last of his kind. He's broody and cold but seems to have a heart, in that he suppresses his appetite for flesh and only feasts on those of ill intentions.

I thought both of these characters could of had wonderful arcs of growth throughout the book, but alas that wasn't in the cards. Clara consistently whines like a child and makes everything about her. She shames her friends for no reason but to be cruel. I never felt any sympathy or empathy for her.

Badr did a little better for me. His back story is a little more fleshed out. We get flashs back to when he was a child and how he first fell in love. It's really kind of sweet, but current Badr doesn't do it for me. He's got a huge supeority complex for no reason even when there's obviously much stronger characters in the book. He also far too irrational for someone hundreds of years old.

The multiple povs in the story felt disjointed and made it hard to follow along. I felt as though some of them could have been cut all together and could have been inserted as dialog with the main characters. This is one of those times that less could have been more.


I thank net galley for this e arc and this is my honest review.

I had to DNF this book. I tried several times to get into it, but something about the writing style isn't doing it for me. The sudden jumps between story arcs was jarring and disconnected. The third person writing style was also unusual in a way I can't put words to.

I really enjoyed it and once I started to read it, I had to finish it. I liked how the author gives you insight into the minds and thoughts of the main characters and their past self’s. There were so many twists that I didn’t see coming. This book is so refreshing, usually vampires or werewolves are the main characters but I haven’t read a book about gargoyles. There are so many different elements to this book and I can’t wait to see what happens in the second book. I would definitely order and sell this book in my store

I thought this was written really nicely however there are some things I personally took issue with
In the first few chapters and just throughout there was homophobia and fat phobia which put a bad taste in my mouth since they seemed completely unnecessary and added nothing to the actual story

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Haunted by memories, Clara couldn't make heads or tails of them. The only thing was her mom's jade necklace. She feels it holds the key to unlocking her past. Then Clara is pushed into a world filled with magic. Clara must unlock her secrets before its too late! Thanks #Netgalley and #Booksgosocial for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It was an interesting premise and the plot was engaging. However, any enjoyment I have is ruined by the unnecessary fatphobia in this book. It's 2025. There should be absolutely no excuse for this.

Unfortunately I DNF'd this book. I found the main character's fatphobia hard to get past. It felt misplaced and unnecessary and resulted in an unpleasant read despite Jad Phillip's otherwise captivating story telling.

The Jade Necklace is a fantasy story about a girl with powers and a gargoyle looking for her. The plot has some turns, but it felt a bit off to me—sometimes slow or messy. I liked the magic and their connection, though, and it kept me interested enough. It’s decent if you’re into fantasy, even if it didn’t totally win me over.

Creative and dark - gargoyles, witches, mage, and at the heart, obsession. Secrets and greed for power clash, while unrequited love batters hearts that start to break and a past that won't let go. Part of the story ends, and another begins ... a small cliff

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the Arc!

The cover and the premise of the book originally drew me in. At first, I felt it started out interesting, the life of a gargoyle and how he hunts a night was a bit gruesome in detail, but was still very interesting, as it had a strong beginning to let us know that Robin would be an imperfect character that could later on tackle his flaws and develop as a character. What ended up happening was that it went quickly to spiraling into a more adult route and that's where things became to follow. The perspective went to Clara who seemed hyper focused on her friend group and without a reason as to why aside from them all being friends. But it also didn't seem that way considering how all of them seemed all judgmental with one another, even fatphobic at times. I understand the authors intentions were to not be so light on the subject for 'Western audience', but i also believe that is also deterring away a lot of potential readers that might have been interested in reading the novel. The backstory of the main lead was also confusing, as is was plastered mid book that became difficult at times to understand who the characters in the backstory were, and if there were even relevant to the 'present' timeline of events, or if we would ever see them again.

Overall, the premise was interesting, but there is still many things that need to be formatted, clarified and elaborated on.

OK, I admit this book is not targeted to me, a straight white man in his 40s, but it sounded intriguing enough when it popped up on Netgalley (plus I quite liked the cover of the sequel). This book is very immature YA fiction. That being said, it should still be well written and have a decent story with engaging characters. This book has none of that. The writing is appalling, with a far-too-serious tone (everything is "to his very core" or "every fibre of his being") and there are so many passages of thick exposition it really was a chore. Thankfully the book is fairly short so I could chip away at it and not feel bogged down.
Most of the story follows two main characters - "Badr", possibly the last remaining gargoyle (basically a vampire but one that turns to stone in the daylight, but of course he doesn't because of plot) who eats people and is a sex pest, but one with rock hard abs of course. He frequently morphs into "his bestial self" (an ugly giant bat basically) and we are repeatedly reminded how beastly he is, but wait ... he isn't all that bad deep down. He happens upon a beautiful woman and becomes embroiled in her world of ... I dunno mages or something I think. And despite being over 1000 years old, of course he refers to people as douchebags.
We then have Clara, supposedly a college student but with the emotions of a 13 year old as she is obsessed with her friend who has a toxic relationship, and rock hard abs, She vaguely knows she grew up in Geneva and someone rescued her from someone bad and now she's in Beirut - though her life is a painfully stereotypical American college life that I kept forgetting that. Despite us having been introduced to her and her friends with descriptions of their eye colours for some reason, there was nothing to give me any insight into a young person's life in Lebanon, unless it really is like an episode of Dawson's Creek. Anyway, she also starts to discover that she's magic or something (the phrase "astral project" is used a lot so she can spy on people to move the plot along), but as always with YA books written by a man, she doesn't really get directly involved in any conflict despite her training.
The plot centres around the beastly Badr gradually telling us about his upbringing in long rambling flashbacks (badly written ones where we're not sure when they ended) but then we just get massive info-dumps to move it along, and he starts to soften. And Clara just repeatedly angsts about he friend and why doesn't he love me. And that's about it.
The author mentioned in the preface that they wanted a book that showed his background rather than American/European ones. Well if he did that, then Lebanon is like a badly dated version of America in the 90s, with no apparent movement in attitudes towards homosexuality or obesity, or just non-typical beauty. The only characters that show anything interesting are pushed into the background and told to shut up.
I got an advance copy from Netgalley and this is the honest review they wanted in exchange. I shan't be reading the sequel.

So sad to see this premise not being executed as it deserve. The pacing is off, the characters are two dimensional and the writing is sadly not that great.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Did not read for not downloading the ARC before the archive date. Which breaks my heart because I was incredibly excited to read this book. Nevertheless, here's a 5 star rating for compensation. I do apologise for the inconvenience and the unprofessionalism; best of luck.

I liked the writing style. It drew me in. The storyline is really unique and I was entertained. I enjoyed this and would recommend it! Special Thank You to Jad Phillip, BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

No me gustó.

Intento pensar en algo positivo que decir, pero no se me ocurre. Fue como eso trabajos que te dejan en equipo y todos se reparten lo que harán y final se junta, pero en el resultado es muy obvio que diferentes personas lo hicieron. Pues así me sentí no que lo hiciera otra persona, sino que tenía dos ideas para libros diferentes y al final decidió juntarlos y esperar que resultara en algo bueno.

The book's premise sounded quite interesting, but sadly the book didn't live up to the premise.

The writing was all over the place, it kept jumping around so much my head was starting to spin. The back and forth without knowing what was happening made the plot feel fragmented and incomplete. They style is not fluent and it truly was a struggle to get to the end.

The fight scenes were boring, the character development wasn't there and I truly didn't feel anything for the characters. The Author also included many fatphobic, sexist, and homophobic statements within the first chapters which were unnecessary to the story and gave me just made me feel less interested in the writing.

I actually put this book down and contemplated not finishing it but I couldn't do since it was an advance copy. Unless changes are made to the story format I for one won't continue on with the story. Mostly because I simply don't care enough about any of the characters to want to know what happens.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book. Unfortunately the actually story failed to live up to the initial promise

Trama/Plot 1
Personaggi/Characters 1
Stile/Style 0.5

I chose this book for the cover, which has its own charm, and for the plot, which seemed promising... instead it was a flop... almost 250 pages of nothing, the plot is far too fragmented, the style is not at all fluent (it was a struggle to get to the end), I did not like the characters at all and, in many cases, you can notice a basic misogyny and fatphobia that border on rudeness. One star is even given away.
***
Ho scelto questo libro per la copertina, che ha un suo fascino, e per la trama, che sembrava promettente...invece è stato un buco nell'acqua...quasi 250 pagine di nulla, la trama è fin troppo frammentata, lo stile non è affatto scorrevole (è stata una fatica arrivare in fondo), i personaggi non mi sono piaciuti per niente e, in molti casi, si nota una misoginia e una grassofobia di fondo che arrivano a sfiorare la maleducazione. Una stella è addirittura regalata.