Review: Melissa Perea's "Seeds of Hate (Cardboard Hearts # 1)

Review: Melissa Perea's "Seeds of Hate (Cardboard Hearts # 1)

Amazon UK:    http://amzn.to/19j5UUn

Amazon.com:   http://amzn.to/14wDa5U

Synopsis:

They said high school would be fun. 

They said we would make forever friends.

They said we would have the time of our lives.

They lied.

Review: Kirsty Lander: 

Unfortunately, this book was a little bit of a disappointment. So much seemed to be going on, there was a mix of maybe 5 different POV's throughout and for at least the first 50% I didn't have a clue what was going on. 

The book starts off in the POV of Javier. Stupidly, I didn't pay enough attention to what his name was, because for the first 10% I was convinced I was reading a book written in a female POV. When I figured it out, I reread and it did make a little more sense but he had a very feminine voice. He certainly didn't shine through as a male. 

Javier was.. interesting. He obviously is a very messed up, broken and hurting boy. He has been through something, only the reader doesn't know what for a long time. In school he is a loner. He keeps to himself, doesn't have a social life and only has one person that he could begin to call a friend. At home, he is mostly left to fend for himself. His mum isn't necessarily a bad mum.. just not much of a mum at all. He has a young neighbour, Gio, who he has taken under his wing. Gio's home life is bad and most nights he finds himself sleeping in Javier's place to avoid it. I found this odd.. I couldn't come up with much purpose for Gio in the book, and when I came to the end I was still a little lost where he was concerned. 

As I said, there were several POV's in the book and I just found it a little confusing. I couldn't have easily distinguished who was saying what and felt that some of it was unnecessary. The story progresses very slowly, piece by piece we are given a little more insight in to Javier's life. We also get to go back in time, to live through Javier's pain alongside him. 

• Why did his childhood best friend, Nathan, suddenly turn against him? 

• Why is he so closed off to making new friends?

• Why does he run away all the time?

Unfortunately, I didn't get answers to all of those questions. I still don't understand why Nathan treated Javier the way he did. I just didn't understand his motives and actions. Maybe I will in book #2, if I carry on the series.

I rated " Seeds of Hate" 3 - 3.5 Hearts