Review: A uniquely fascinating story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 26, 2013
I was pleasantly shocked by this book. I bought it years ago but never got around to reading it until today. With that being said, it has the plot of Romeo & Juliet with a twist of Robin Hood added in for good measure.It's an adventurous story that follows the second son of the Dragon Triad, Lynx, as he accidentally meets the notorious 'Yoru Katana', the thief who is stealing from his family, and becomes infatuated with but who he doesn't know yet is Katana. Except, Katana is actually Orion, the supposed heir to the Phoenix Triad, the rivals of the Dragons. Orion believes completely in his mission to steal valuable meds from higher society and giving it back to the poor society. At the same time, he's also become infatuated with Lynx, putting more danger to his already dangerous missions especially when he not only has an intimate relationship with Lynx but takes him on a few missions with his team as well. However, that's not the worst of their problems and soon enough Lynx and Orion uncover a project that connects their family to something horrible that they feel needs to be stopped.In the beginning, Lynx is this depressed, innocent, naive and spoiled noble. He's scared to mingle with those on the Bottom Level because he's been taught that they're deformed freaks. Sadly, Lynx has taken those lies to heart and is scared of interacting with anyone but his own people on Cloud Level. It was interesting to see the development between Lynx in the beginning and Lynx in the end. It's a huge change because not only does Lynx become less naive but he also becomes more fierce and confident, as well as, more generous and open-minded to those beneath him. Orion is pretty intense. He lives a dual life as one of the elitist who doesn't have a care in the world and then a life as the most notorious thief, Katana. I loved that it was so easy for him to change into the different personas. Mostly, while their sudden need for each other is not technically explained, I loved seeing these boys fall hard and fast for each other to the point that no matter what, they couldn't stay away from one another for long. It was adorable, IMO, but I still enjoyed their attempts at making things less complicated.I think my biggest issue with this story is that it was too short. The world Ms. O'Shea created was phenomenal and interesting. It's slightly confusing at first but as the story progressed, everything made more sense. It was fascinating to see the world unravel and even more interesting to start to see how it got that way. However, because of the length, I felt like the ending was slightly rushed but, more than that, I'm left with a sense of incompleteness. I want to know what happens next, how Lynx and Orion will survive, what they'll do now. Will they continue with what Orion started? How will they be able to do that? So, I'm left with a bunch of unanswered questions.All in all, though, I adored the story. It's short but it's also fast paced with an entertaining set of characters (who get a lot of sexy time!) and an interesting plot with suspenseful conflicts. I'm hoping there's more to come of this story, though, because I'd love to see if their efforts paid off in the end.