Kaleidoscope Hearts (Hearts, #1) by Claire Contreras Published by Self-Published on January 20th 2015
Pages: 300
Amazon
He was my older brother's best friend.
He was never supposed to be mine.
I thought we would get it out of our system and move on.
One of us did.
One of us left.
Now he’s back, looking at me like he wants to devour me. And all those feelings I’d turned into anger are brewing into something else, something that terrifies me.
He broke my heart last time.
This time he'll obliterate it.
**This is a full-length, standalone, contemporary romance.**
Kaleidoscope Hearts reads very much like the type of New Adult novels I try to avoid—a whole lot of drama over nothing.
As adolescents, Estelle and Oliver share years of flirting and then occasional make out sessions. Oliver is known to be a player and Estelle repeatedly states she’s only interested in “having fun” with boys while at college. Estelle’s brother—who happens to be Oliver’s best friend—makes it clear that Estelle is off limits to his friends so they keep their attraction a secret. Right before Oliver leaves for grad school, he and Estelle finally get together, and let’s just say they don’t part on the best of terms. When he leaves she’s devastated because she loves him. Of course, in typical New Adult fashion, she couldn’t possibly tell him her true feelings. Estelle spends years trying to pick up the pieces of her broken heart, so when Oliver comes back to town she is understandably reluctant to reestablish a relationship with him.
Although kind, Oliver comes across as selfish and rather immature at times. Estelle is compassionate but somewhat weak. They’re both in their late twenties but spend the entire book going to great lengths to hide their relationship from Estelle’s brother. It just seemed unbelievably unnecessary.
If you like the brother’s best friend trope it is fairly well written. And although I was frustrated at times, I was able to enjoy this as a second chance love story. The epilogue was especially sweet.
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