About the Book
-
Author:
- Kelly Andrew
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Fantasy
- New Adult
- Voices:
- Cis Boy
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Ribbon of Darkness Over Me
Drinking Buddy: Beer for My Horses
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Death, Alcohol)
Talky Talk: Who’s On First?
Bonus Factors: The 1%, Weird Secret Societies
Bromance Status: Until We Meet Again
Cover Story: Ribbon of Darkness Over Me
Not especially eye-catching or relevant to the plot. The spooky calligraphy title is more of a pick me up.
The Deal:
Thomas Walsh was forced to drop out of college when his father died, caring for his ill mother and younger sister. When he’s offered a great job as a sign language interpreter (his mother is deaf) he jumps at the chance.
But his client is Vivienne Farrow, an extremely wealthy young socialite. She stopped speaking after a childhood tragedy, and her stepfather wants Thomas, in the guise of interpreting, to keep an eye on her and to make sure she doesn’t get into trouble.
Vivienne, of course, has other ideas. She’s driven off other of her stepfather’s spies before, and it’ll only be a matter of time before she makes Thomas quit. You see, she died when she was four years old. At least, she should have. And on that day, something possessed her. Sometime dark. Something that poisoned her voice. Makes anyone who hears her speak go irrevocably mad or die.
But Vivienne has some dirt on a medical student, and with his help, he’ll perform surgery that will remove her parasite. That is, if Thomas doesn’t try to stop her.
Drinking Buddy: Beer for My Horses
Thomas is your likeable tough but smart kid from a poor family. I kept picturing him as a young Happy Hogan. This bodyguard/interpreting gig comes with room and board in a mansion and a salary so huge that his sister honestly wonders if Thomas has become a high-end male escort. Yes, Vivienne and her friends do everything possible to make his life hell to get him to quit of get fired. But Vivienne is hot, and despite her superficial cruelty, Thomas feels protective of her.
Vivienne does everything to make Thomas’s work miserable, from destroying his clothes to ditching him on the job. But she’s actually doing it for his own good. Her stepfather, Philip, sees Vivienne as a means to get ahead, and Thomas is just a pawn to be used and eliminated. She doesn’t want that for him. Better he leave before things get…complicated.
And of course, Thomas has a cute dimple. EVERY single YA guy has a cute dimple.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Death, Alcohol)
This is not your usual poor kid/rich kid romance. The mutual attraction is obvious from the beginning, with both kids wanting to protect the other. But this isn’t just a matter of spurning their backgrounds and thumbing their noses at daddy. Philip would have Thomas sunk in the Long Island Sound at the first sign of disobedience. And who’s to say he wouldn’t do the same to his stepdaughter, if she proved too hard to handle? Meanwhile, Vivienne is about to undergo a dangerous and unproven surgery and something dark and evil has awoken…
Talky Talk: Who’s On First?
There were a lot of characters in here. Vivienne’s friends and associates, Thomas’s old fraternity brothers, Philip’s employees and hired thugs, etc. They all kind of ran together, and I sometimes felt like I’d missed a chapter somewhere, with people I felt like I was supposed to recognize but wasn’t sure why. Thomas’s family, especially his deaf mother, were very underutilized and honestly could have been left out of the book. It just seemed like a gimmick to explain why he knew how to sign.
Bonus Factor: The 1%
So Vivienne’s stepfather Philip is mega rich. As we’ve learned recently, that kind of wealth almost always goes with complete moral bankruptcy. And with Vivienne in his thrall, no one can stop him. Say some young, up-and-coming tech bro threatens his business. What if Vivienne were to flirt with him, befriend him, invite him for a boat ride, and then…sing to him? Problem solved. And Vivienne can’t ever disobey Philip. Is it any wonder she’s going to let an angry medical student carve into her?
Bonus Factor: Weird Cult
There’s something buried under an abandoned house. Something timeless and ageless. Its worshipers call it Charybdis. It’s what gives Vivienne her unwanted power. Can she and Thomas hope to not only fight it, but also its legions of worshipers?
Bromance Status: Until We Meet Again
I enjoyed our time together. I may not reread you, but I’ll check out this author in the future.
Literary Matchmaking
Jan Gangsei’s Dead Below Deck is another book where working class meets upper class with deadly results.
Lamar Giles’s Ruin Road has more classism and curses.
Like sign language? Antony John’s Five Flavors of Dumb has sign language.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy from the publisher, but no money or secrets of the universe.
