Cupid's Arrow by Isabelle Merlin

 

Title: Cupid's Arrow

Author: Isabelle Merlin

Publisher: Random House Australia

ISBN:  9781741664379

More Information: http://www.isabelle.merlin.googlepages.com/

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Fleur Griffon was your typical Australian teenager.  Except for the fact that she tended to have weird, scary, premonition-like dreams.  One day, Fleur's mother inherited a library of rare books and needed to travel to France to claim them.  Fleur went along to help.  Bellerive Manor and its town, Avallon, held many mysteries.  Did King Arthur disappear here?  And who really killed the owner of Bellerive Manor?  Fleur unexpectedly got caught up in the mystery and with a local boy, Remy Gomert, Fleur hoped to solve it and come out of it alive.

The story was a recounting of events from Fleur's point of view.  As expected, there wasn't much of a chance to develop the side characters.  Fleur Griffon was your typical teen.  She had her problems with her mom but still appreciated her.  What I like most about Fleur was the fact that she thought she was strong but knew she wasn't when her resolve was push to the breaking point.  Remy Gomert was the silent, loner type of hero.  Forced into seclusion by his mother, Remy was pretty outgoing and very respectful.  And the villain (I won't spoil it) was not totally surprising, but I love the way she brilliantly woven into the story.  The side characters were very entertaining and added some comic relief to the tense atmosphere.

The plot was interesting, paced well, and left the reader wondering what was going to happen next.  However, maybe it was just me, there was too much happening in the story that the plot got a little lost.  At the beginning, it was all about King Arthur this, King Arthur that.  For the most part, Remy and Fleur got sidetracked into investigating Arthur and then was quickly set aside for the true plot.  What was the point of King Arthur?  I felt it was a cop out to make the story unnecessarily longer and distract you from finding the true villain too early.  As you can imagine, the climax occurred near the end and all the action was placed in the last 75-100 pages.  Which was a shame truly.  It was really the best part.  The ending was neatly summed up.  King Arthur's mystery was still not resolved successfully, which made the first part of the book kind of pointless.  The book could've been better with a tighter plot line but was still an entertaining read.

Before I finish, I would like to say that this was not my usual type of read.  The title was a little misleading and I bought this book with the thought of it being more of a fairy tale-like teen paranormal romance.  Unfortunately, it wasn't and in conclusion, I'm a little bias.  So, my star rating reflects this.  No mistake, it was a decent book, buy I will not pick up this book again.  However, if you are a fan of teen/romance/mystery books, Cupid's Arrow is definitely something you should try.  You might feel differently than I do and might even be a 4-5 star book for you.  So, please, don't let my star rating prevent you from picking this book up if this genre is your favorite.  Give it a shot.