Review: Ascending Hearts

Reviewed by Shelly
 

I enjoy fairy tales as much as a fat kid loves cake. I can't get enough of them because they inevitably make you use your imagination and the lessons they teach aren't a bad perk either. This story tackles 'Jack and the Beanstalk' where Jack is still a young lad, Jack's mom loves him and the Giant is super mean - ah, the good ole days.

'Fee-fi-fo-fum, 
I smell the blood of an Englishman, 
Be he live, or be he dead 
I'll grind his bones to make my bread'.

The differences (outside of the m/m content) in these stories are vast, so be prepared. Jack lives in a town that thinks he's the devil incarnate because of his red hair. It's so bad that his father left his mother because of it - or so his mother would have Jack believe. I think it was because of her 'sparkling' personality but hey, who really knows? One day, Jack comes home to find that his precocious cow and only friend had been sold by his mother to the local butcher. So Jack makes a deal with the butcher for his cow but to repay this debt, Jack will need money and he doesn't have any. The only thing left to do is climb the beanstalk because that's where the treasure is - at the castle high above.

At the top of the beanstalk lives Rion, who isn't a giant by any stretch of the imagination. Instead he's just a guy who's the guardian of his family's treasure. It's a lonely existence for him but as he's chosen this as his duty. What can he do but to stay the course and protect what his siblings have chosen not to?

All of this sounds like an interesting story, and I'm not sure why all the pieces didn't connect for me. I liked Jack just fine, but I just couldn't get into his plight. I also had a problem with his past sexual relationship with his sister's husband. After having grown up so close to his sister, what made that relationship go so south? There's always a reason for someone's actions and I didn't know a lot of Jack's whys. Lots of questions.

Rion was a likable kinda a guy. Just trying to keep his word to his father and do what he believes is the right thing. I didn't understand Jack's insistence to not listen to that, and actually I started to resent Jack for being so uncompromising in his desire to 'get away'.

I didn't feel the chemistry between Jack and Rion. I know that they liked each other.  I could tell they did by the amount of sex they had, but I just couldn't feel it.

In the end, it was an okay story for me, but it certainly didn't make me want to read further in the series.

Happy Reading Folks!

Rating: C

*Book provided by author for review 

Click to purchase: Amazon

Ascending Hearts

by Keira Andrews & Leta Blake

Release Date: January 2, 2013

Publisher: Ellora's Cave