Review: Delightful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2013
I loved it, really. I must confess I wasn't sure I would like it. The school theme seemed too Harry-Potterish and lately I prefer older protagonists, but this love story was just... lovely! How many times have I said that?The story is based upon characters with different backgrounds falling in love in a world that frowns upon their relationship. Well, it's a world that frowns upon everything, really. So, Kiram is the first student of the Haldiim to be admitted into the prestigious Sagrada Academy, an institution of the ruling Cadelonian people. The Haldiim are a more sensual and less religious people and Kiram is regarded with a bit of malice and distrust. His very practical nature makes him the ideal guy to share the rooms of Javier, the Duke of Rauma, an older boy whose family is cursed. Javier can open the White Hell and very few people want to be near him in case the White Hell spreads out and engulfs them.There's a clear attraction between Kiram and Javier, and the teasing is long and delicious. Javier is a bit hot and cold with Kiram: he doesn't even know which word to use to define a man who loves another man. His social standing, his religious upbringing, his curse prevents him to openly acknowledge his feelings for Kiram. They are beginning to love each other, maybe they don't even know how to name what they are feeling, but a future together looks grim, and maybe impossible.The story is a bit dark, there are elements of violence, superstition, torture, but they're not on the page. We hear of them throughout the book, that was easy to read and entertaining and light, and I mean this in the best possible way. This is the first part of the story and it ends on a gloomy note that makes you want to read the second part at once, to find out what happens to our heroes and what's the curse that is haunting Javier. You also want to know what happens to the secondary characters: the boy-child Fedeles with his moments of dreary clearness amidst his near folly; Nestor, the boy who first befriends and Kiram and is dealing with his first love; Elezar, Javier's friend, who seems to secretly pine for him. So, buy the second part at once.This is not a story that will make you bite your nails and tear your hair, but it makes you really care for its characters and it's gentle, it's the best word I can find to describe it. But not sappy, no, no, no.