Rating: 5/5+
Valentine is 25, living in the singles district, and getting increasingly lonely. She has taken over 60 readiness exams in preparation for meeting her match mate but she still is not being allowed to get married. She's never met her groom, but she does know that he has a tattoo that matches hers and is busy taking preparation courses and exams in order to be ready to marry her. Bliss Inc. has matched them using their 99% effective formula for love and happiness and only they can decide when Valentine and her groom are ready to be married. Will her groom be everything she expects? Will they be truly happy like the formula guarantees?
Let me start by saying that this book is one of the best I have read in a very long time. Kristy Nicolle has painted a beautiful and world with unique and sophisticated technology. The scenes are described with care and the reader is transported to a fascinating world of holograms, synths, and other advanced technology. For example, brides could virtually try on different hair and makeup options before their wedding. There were millions of options of clothing styles available to married couples at the touch of a button. There were even paving stones that lit up like fireworks when stepped on. Every single chapter just feels beautiful. Everything in the city of Monopolis is clean, pristine, and marvelous. The characters have depth with multi faceted personalities. And most of all, the character growth is phenomenal. Valentine's preconceptions and ideas of her world are constantly growing and changing. She starts out as a naïve girl and grows into a courageous and loving woman.
The author has done an amazing job of weaving together an engaging and exciting story. I rarely choose to pick up romance novels (just not my favorite genre) but this book sounded interesting and I am glad I gave it a chance because it truly blew me away.
SPOILERS AHEAD. I have thoughts on some of the plotline of the book but it might spoil some of the excitement of reading the story:
Obviously, the utopian sounding society of Monopolis, while mesmerizing, sounded too good to be true. I did wonder how society was "really" run. Bliss Inc. had set it up so that those accepted into the "Jigsaw" marriage and family project were the upper class. They had no wants, everything was taken care of and they had basically unlimited everything (except freedom to choose a mate, obviously). I really got caught up with Valentine in the illusion of it all and only about 30% through did I even really stop and think about how incredibly awful it was what Bliss Inc. was doing. If the marriages didn't work out (and the people had NO choice in who they were matched with anyway) then they were sent away, never to be seen again. This company ran everything and those deemed not worthy to be in the Jigsaw project were forced to live sexless lives as laborers.
I did wonder though why no major rebellions had ever happened. Bliss Inc. kept the upper class so spoiled that they never questioned anything? They kept the labor class so undereducated that they didn't know better? They did have a LOT of restrictions but it still seemed odd to me that no one had ever even tried to rebel. Maybe they did and it was just swiftly and mercilessly taken care of?
SPOILERS END
I would recommend this book to almost anyone from teenagers to seniors. As stated, I don't do romance but this book was amazing. The "mushy/wordy" romance scenes were few and the interactions between Valentine and Clark were more realistic than a lot that I have read. I would highly recommend this book! :-)
<3 <3 <3
Great job, Kristy Nicolle! I will definitely be reading more of your work!
Grammar/Editing: Abysmal/Poor/Needs Work/Good/Excellent- This was an ARC so I am assuming that some of the goofs will be fixed in the next round of editing. There were numerous punctuation errors (mostly comma misuse). There were some words that were misused here and there (like peak instead of peek). The main issue that I kept seeing was a different use of the word stood/stand. For example, it would say, "I was stood at my desk" rather than "I was standing at my desk." This appeared throughout the book. Even with the errors, I still absolutely adored this book! (The errors did not detract from the reading experience at all) **NOTE: I am from the United States and the author is from the UK so I realize that some of the things that seem like errors or issues to me may in fact just be cultural grammar differences!
Profanity: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme- The F-bomb was used a few times as well as "shit" and a few other words. Nothing excessive.
Violence: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme- There was really not much violence in this book. There are no guns. Someone suffers a self inflicted Sulfuric acid burn. There are other disturbing things that happen, but none are particularly violent.
Sexuality: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme- Although this book is a romance and has honeymoon scenes, there was very little sex in it. Valentine mentions other couples "basically having sex" in the spa. There is one sex scene but it could be compared to a PG 13 movie (not explicit at all). Everything was very mild - possibly could be considered sensual at most.
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