I received this book for free from The Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Torn by Natalia Jaster Series: Selfish Myths #2
Published by CreateSpace on June 20, 2019
Genres: Fairy Tale Retelling, Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, New Adult, Mythology, Retellings
Pages: 308
Format: eARC
Source: The Author
Goodreads
Reading Challenges: New Release 2019, Retellings 2019
Could you break someone's heart to save your own?
Anger is an exiled god. Banished for rebelling against the Fate Court and jilted by the goddess he can’t forget, he prowls the mortal realm with a bitter aftertaste on his tongue.
But Anger’s not as alone as he thinks.
In a celestial city where the stars shine brightest, immortal outcasts reign.
Merry is one of them.
She’s like no one Anger has ever met—a starry-eyed misfit hiding just as many forbidden secrets as he is.
As a revolution simmers between renegade deities and their ancient rulers, Merry is the key to Anger’s retribution. She’s the only one who can help him defy the Fates and reclaim his magic.
According to a dangerous legend written in the stars, she also has the power to mend his broken heart.
The price: In order to do that, he must break hers.
I am very lucky to be on Natalia Jaster’s ARC team but I honestly wasn’t expecting to get the chance to read Torn ahead of its release date (June 20th) because for some silly reason, I had it in my head that I was only on the team for her Foolish Kingdoms series! So when this little beauty found its way into my inbox last month I may have screeched and jumped around a little (it wasn’t pretty!)
Torn was one of my most anticipated reads after finally reading (and loving) its predecessor Touch (my review for this was posted yesterday – I can’t believe I forgot to write one when I read it! *face-palms self* I was going to do my utmost to get this review out on release date but since I had to scramble and get Touch up, I’ve decided to hold off until today (it’s only a day late after all).
Anger was one of the most intriguing side characters in Touch and his unrequited feelings for Love made my heart ache. When I found out he was getting his own story; I was overjoyed. He definitely deserves a happily ever after of his own.
my review of torn by natalia jaster
After the events of Touch, Anger has been left in a difficult position. Although his own feelings for Love were very strong, he still did everything he could to secure her future with her lover Andrew even if it meant giving up on her himself. He still cannot forget that trouble-making former goddess even though she no longer has any memories of him. Torn between his feelings of love, and also no small amount of bitterness at the predicament he has found himself in (exiled among the mortals but not one of them), Anger stews.
Merry is an aberration. A discarded goddess who was deemed to be a failure and cast aside without the chance to ever wield her own bow and arrow. She lives among the mortals, unseen, spending her days whimsically exploring on her trusty skateboard with the earbuds in her ears an almost permanent fixture.
Merry isn’t the only exiled outcast though and not all of the inhabitants of the celestial city where she dwells are friendly. After accidentally encroaching on another cast-off’s territory, she catches Anger’s eye and he feels compelled to help her fight Malice, who has issues with Merry even as he has schemes of his own.
Merry is instantly taken with Anger, immediately infatuated. Anger finds her to be somewhat lacking but ends up spending a great deal of time in her company when Malice tells him there may be a way to return to his celestial home in the sky. The only problem is, in order to do this he must break Merry’s heart…
anger and merry – opposites attract
You know, despite been a massive Natalia Jaster fan (she has more than earned the rank of auto-buy author for me) I wasn’t initially sold on Merry and Anger as a pairing, despite liking them individually.
I love Anger, don’t get me wrong, but the connection between them seemed very one-sided on Merry’s part – at least initially. Merry was instantly in love with Anger and instalove is something that I side-eye at the best of times. At first they seemed too different: Anger too broody, Merry too airy-fairy and flighty. It also seemed to not be a relationship of equals and they both had an agenda albeit they went about it in very different ways.
However, at about the half-way mark I realized that Merry wasn’t anywhere near as delicate and fragile as she initially appeared. She had a spine made of pure iron – and she didn’t let Anger get away with his less than stellar behaviour. Anger in turn, showed a softer, more gentle side. That was it – I was sold on them as a couple. I probably slightly still prefer Love and Andrew’s love story but Anger and Merry came damn close.
It was also amazing to see the rest of the class again. Wonder is a favourite of mine and I am so happy she will have her own story next (and I was super intrigued by her connection with Malice). Malice… was a deeply troubling character yet I was drawn to him in a way I didn’t expect. Some of his actions were downright horrible but I couldn’t help but have some small empathy for him. I an eager to know more about him so the next book can’t come quick enough!
to sum up
All in all, this was another beautiful story from Natalia Jaster. Anger and Merry broke my heart time and time again. There relationship was not without its bumps in the road but felt earned and deserved by the end of the tale. I am glad Anger found someone to love him and also got over Love (while still caring about her as a friend). I am glad that Merry got a chance to finally shine and show her worth to the world (both celestial and otherwise). The journey they took together was breath-taking (my favourite bits were at the empty fair ground – so much spark and energy between them!)
I cannot wait to see where the story takes these amazing characters – I have no doubt at all that I am going to love the journey every step of the way!
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