I had a goal to go digging with something nice and romantic for the Valentine’s Marathon and I realized that I had stopped downloading romance books in a while. The only one that I found which I believe I had found fairly recently was this one called A Stone in the Sea which is the first book of the Bleeding Stars series. Never heard anything about this but then with movies, books and games, it is best to go in blind.
Let’s check it out!
A Stone in the Sea
(Bleeding Stars #1)
by: A.L. Jackson
Sunder lead singer and guitarist Sebastian Stone has everything—fans, fame, and fortune. He also has a heart full of bitterness and a reputation for a short-fused temper. But an outward reputation rarely reveals the true man inside. Facing assault charges after trying to protect his younger brother, Sebastian is sent to Savannah, Georgia to lie low until the dust settles in L.A. Shea Bentley is beautiful, kind, and hiding from the very lifestyle Sebastian has always embraced. When the mysterious, tattooed stranger begins hanging out at the bar where she works, Shea is quick to recognize he is nothing but trouble, but she’s helpless to the way her body lights up every time his intense gray eyes tangle with hers. They both soon find themselves drowning in a sea of desire and passion that won’t let them up for air. –Goodreads
Its been a tough ride of this genre of books of late. However, A Stone in the Sea is definitely a step in the right direction. The characters have some depth and back story. There are some very nice moments where other characters come into play to enforce a scene’s effectiveness. It banks a little on the sex scenes but that goes with the genre and those are quite well executed. What I did like the most was that one of the main characters, Shea was written quite self-aware of the normal tropes of the lady in this genre of books however, the frustrating parts is sometimes she will fall into those tropes and written as being irresistibly connected or in love with this mysterious Sebastian fellow. What does save the book a lot is the book structure which works in both Sebastian and Shea’s point of view. For the readers, we get the full picture and this helps us to accept situations as they occur and see how the characters react to know them a little better. At the same time, the supporting characters were quite unique and it would have been nice to have seen them get some bigger arcs as well.
Sadly, A Stone in the Sea was quite decent about halfway until things start getting on the repetitive side in the second half. Plus, a great deal of these books is buying into the characters and their scenarios and being able to imagine it. And in some of these, I’m not sure even my fantasies would wander in that direction and be okay with some of the heartbreaking moments. It hints at such a bad scenario that I wasn’t too fond of when the conflict broke the characters apart and the dialogue of the reconciliation. There were also these weird repeated words that popped up of their emotions or something that maybe reflected their feelings but it didn’t seem to do much for myself.
Overall, A Stone in the Sea is an average book. It works for the most part particularly in the first half. The second half becomes less intriguing to read due to distaste for certain characters and their decisions and the repetitive scenarios and dialogues that seem to dawn on the characters. The finale was also fairly easy to figure out before it ends in somewhat of a cliffhanger after a big reveal which as most of you know, I’m not a big fan of books that aren’t self-contained.
Tranquil Dreams 