Sweet Oblivion (Sweet Series, #1)by Bailey Ardisone
Self-published
Paperback (received from author, thank you!)
YA, fantasy, romance
When two worlds collide, nightmares become reality. And some secrets...are best kept in Oblivion.
...Until there is hope.
Have you ever wanted to forget? Nariella Woodlinn has. Many times. Especially when her already frustrating life gets turned upside down by a mysterious boy who randomly shows up in her small town. And she can't seem to understand anything about him, despite how much she tries.
Nari hates everything about her life, except for her best friend Rydan, but now that they've been separated during their senior year of high school, she has to learn to make new friends without him. When strange, unexplainable phenomena start becoming an every day part of her life, Nari struggles to come to grips with reality. And with love.
~
Naminé has responsibilities. Duties. It is her obligation to fulfill all that is asked of her by their King. But when a glimmer of hope is introduced to her by a prisoner she tends to, it means life or death for her and her people. She does all that she can to turn that hope into reality, and finally end the vicious war that has been ensuing since she was born. Even if that means keeping it secret from her King. Even if it means carrying out the biggest betrayal against the King ever seen during her time.
She has hope. She will fulfill her duty. She will not let her people down.
I had high expectations when I started reading Sweet Oblivion and I was really excited. My expectations and all I thought I knew about the book turned upside down but in this case it wasn't a bad thing. I enjoyed reading the story and especially towards the end it got really intriguing and I was left yearning for more.
There's two different point of views in Sweet Oblivion. Even though every other chapter is narrated by Naminé, they're extremely short when compared to chapters narrated by Nariella. That's the main reason why I won't give all the stars to this book. Nariella was good, solid character and I liked her chapters but Naminé's chapters weren't that good - mainly because they were so short. First I yearned for those chapters so I could learn more about Naminé and her world but eventually I became dreading them, because I couldn't follow what happened there and they seemed more like snippets than chapters. It felt like Sweet Oblivion was more of Nariella's story than Naminé's and I have high hopes for the sequel - I do want to learn more about Naminé and her story.
As character, Nariella was really different from other YA female main characters and I was glad because of it. She wasn't afraid to cry or show emotions. Her life wasn't easy but she wasn't hardened because of that and she wasn't trying to be stoic and unemotional. It was great! Besides these two main characters there sure was swoon worthy characters, especially Mycah and yes, even Rydan stole my heart. They were both wonderful in a different ways and the big reveal in the end of the book, let me just say, it was mind-blowing!
Sweet Oblivion was a great start for series but at times it was a little bit too slow paced. There was a lot happening there and getting to know Nariella, her friends, Mycah and Rydan, and there even was some serious action but overall there happened very little in almost four hundred pages. It was kind fresh for a book because the big secrets weren't revealed until the very end instead of middle of the book like many YA stories do, but at times I got a little bit bored with all the contemporary stuff. I wanted the fantasy stuff to happen! Hopefully there'll be lots of fantasy elements and action during the sequel, at least Sweet Oblivion's ending suggest it.
Overall Sweet Oblivion was a great story but Naminé's small role and a little too slow pace at times eats away some stars from my rating. I'll still recommend highly this book if the synopsis sounds even a little bit intriguing because it's a good book. And I'll definitely dive in the sequel with pleasure and hope for more of Naminé!
3 of 5 stars.
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