I started reading this book because the description made it look like an interesting romance-fantasy book. But it wasn't. It tried to be a horror-paranormal-teen drama book, but I've read tons of fanfictions better written.
Nathaniel is a 21 year-old (that behaves like a 13 year-old) freshman college student that has always been bullied. He's a chump, a pesimistic with no life, no self-esteem, no friends and has suicidal thoughts basically all the time. He lives with his sister, Kim (who he claims is his best friend, but he doesn't know anything about her life) and basically does nothing (we learn towards the end that he has never had a job). All he cares about is getting laid. That's why he makes 2 girl friends in his first day of college. But he gets involved emotionally too quickly. He met people less than 24 hours ago and he cares about them like they're family or something. (The scene in the strip club, with the hooker crying, was probably the worst I've ever read. "Love at first sight?", seriously?)
The characters are plain and simple. I couldn't relate to any one of them. Nathaniel's friends have catch phrases, which tries to compensate the lack of description or narration, but it doesn't get it. The situations are rushed, pushed, forced - sometimes I didn't know where the characters are talking or what they're doing while talking because there's barely no description.
I was expecting more. Real love and not the urge of getting laid and lust of a virgin boy. Fantasy and not this cheap horror ("the door makes noises"). The last part of the book, probably the last 2 or 3 chapters, the usable ones in my opinion, are too rushed.
The book left a lot of unanswered questions. But I guess it's better this way.
I don't usually give one star, unless the book was a total waste of time, and this one was, unfortunately.

WOW! I'm really not sure how to review this one. It sounded a bit out of my preferred genre, but then again, I think it's good to break out of the box on occasion. This one made me run screaming back to my box.

I hate to dash any author's hopes, but this was frankly, just awful. The writing is juvenile, the story left a lot to be desired. I couldn't connect with the characters. I found myself turning through pages looking for something that might capture my interest. There was nothing there.

Netgalley shows it as a horror/humor. They did get the first part right .. this was a horror to try to read.

Many thanks to the author / BookBaby / Netgalley for the digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I did not enjoy this book. I found the writing style to be jarring, and the plot seemed to change multiple times throughout the book, leaving me questioning what this was meant to be about.

I think the best word to describe my feelings about this book is ambivalent. At times the writing was brilliant, with the perfect level of description to take you into the moment. There were also some really witty moments. Overall it just didn't grab me - the level of weird was a bit too much for my taste. The ending was unexpected & perfect. The characterisations & writing style suggest there is much more to come from this author - I await future books with interest

All I can say about this book is....WOW....weird!

I don't know how else to describe it really. It sucked me in straight away and I literally couldn't stop reading it. I was pretty shocked at some of the descriptions at times, although I would mark this as YA, it's definitely older YA.

Essentially Nathaniel makes a deal which will ensure his life is charmed....but the cost is high.

It's so hard to say what year this book is supposed to be set in - sometimes it feels current but more often feels like it's futuristic. We never find out exactly how old Nathaniel is either, although his sister celebrates her 18th birthday in the book.

It's a pretty dark book although I wouldn't class it as horror. It really is hard to describe without giving anything away - a very curious and strange novel which I found I loved.

The only disappointment to me was the ending - I actually thought my kindle had cut off the rest of the book and was searching for the ending - but no, that was the ending. Surely the story can't be finished here? I really hope there are going to be more parts to this story!

All in all, a weird one you'll either love or hate - personally, I loved it.

I found that the writing wasn't very good and the story was very strange. Also the ending where it just ends abruptly bothered me. I wouldn't recommend this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC but unfortunately I could not make it through this book. Just not my type or style of writing. Not to say it isn't for some people, just not me.

Rise of the Hearts follows main character Nathaniel as he... I don't even know. Do I even have words to explain this complete and utter disaster? Let's try.

I mentioned it before on a status update, but I feel like NetGalley duped me! The synopsis sounded intriguing and the cover is so pretty, but oh my God.. the writing! It's like a 12-year old wrote a story for his English class and decided to get it published.

Hardly anything made sense. It jumped all over the place, like it was just thrown together to meet a deadline or something. And then the ending was so abrupt! The dialogue between the characters felt so forced and unnatural, especially from his sister, Kim! Perhaps counting all the times she called him "bro" would of been more entertaining.

I don't think I would of bothered to finish the book had I not received a free copy from NetGalley for my honest review, so I felt obligated to finish it.

Would NOT recommend this book to anyone. 1/5 stars

A very different book. As it starts, I'm thinking it is a thriller where all the main character's friends get killed one by one as he freaks out and worries. But only one friend is killed, but the main character still freaks out and worries. At times it was amusing if you don't mind dark twisted humour, at other times you're sitting on the edge of your seat since the suspense is so intense. Other times you're just scratching our head. It's a strange tale that will keep you guessing.

I was intrigued by this book's blurb and cover. Horror and humor aren't two things I usually think of together, but I am a big Z-Nation fan so I know it can work( for me at least).As with most fiction, I had to put on my 'suspension of belief glasses'. That feeling you sometimes get that these situations or character actions are just too illogical or improbable. That's where I was until I put the glasses on and reminded myself that an author can create anything he/she wants with words.
It took a while for me to connect with the central character Nathaniel, and truth be told, we never totally synced. I could see how his life had handed him lemons and he had no idea he could make lemonade with them. He wants friends, he wants to be liked and for anyone who has ever been lonely or bullied or neglected, who knows how that individual will react. He goes from being a lonely 'nerd' to something, supernatural, which was a big change in the tone of the story. I don't think I am necessarily the intended reader demographic, but I am someone who likes to try and hopefully support new authors. While this one didn't have my furiously flipping pages, it did have some interesting aspects.
Thank you, Antoine Bonner, BookBaby, and NetGalley for the digital ARC to read and review.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
This book is not up to the level, the storyline is weak and boring. Hope the author improves more in the future.

This is one of the worst books I have ever read both in terms of the storyline as well as writing style.

Very disappointing. The summary seems interesting but what I read was completely horrific. The story was all over the place and extremely juvenile. Shame I wasted my time.

Thank you NetGalley for this ebook.,

I'm sorry to say I can't give a good or even mediocre review.

Everything about it was bad. Dialogue, characters, just everything. Seriously don't know how it made it to publishing.

I guess I can say one nice thing. The cover is great.

All in all, don't waste your time on this book.

Where do I start? There is not a lot to like about this book. The story is so unrealistic, quite crude, the writing is bad and the characters are awful. I really can't say anything good about it. If you are a boy between the age of 12 and 17 or if you really, really need something to read, than I might recommend this book. Other than that, stay far, far away. There are too many good books to waste your time on this one.

First of all - thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-book copy of Rise of the Hearts in exchange for an honest review.

Secondly - I apologize but there is no nice way to review the book.

I love horror, fantasy, and young adult novels. I wasn't expecting literary genius but I was anticipating a fun read. At 9% into the book, I was ready to quit. This is the point where Nathanial (main character) has just met a new friends Tonya and Amanda. Tonya is so attractive (insert numerous lame breast comments) that he gets an erection and ends up going off in his pants. Next day he agrees to meet Tonya at a restraint thinking it to be a date. Instead, he arrives to also meet Tonya's boyfriend Mike. Mike and Tonya immediately begin tongue wresting and groping at each other's penises. Yes - you read that correctly. This is the first (but not the last) sex scene and is enough to tell any intelligent reader that the YA rating is not correct. Nathanial now runs to the rest room to vomit but instead finds the public men's room covered in feces. No explanation - it is just covered in shit. "I am the almighty author and I don't have to make sense or explain anything to you.".

Next Nathanial is meeting with Amanda. Amanda initially hates Nathanial but less than 24 hours later she offers to throw his little sister, Kim, a surprise party. At the party and 25% into the book, I know that if I see Amanda call Nathanial "my nig" one more time I am going to throw the book in rage. I decided that isn't good for my Kindle so I chose to quit reading.

I don't like not finishing books. Being a NetGalley book, this compulsion to finish was all the stronger. Luckily I respect myself too much to continue reading.

The author writes like a 13 year old, reclusive boy who gathered his view on what the world must be like based on bad movies and wet dreams. One example, Nathanial is in college but he is broke because his long, missing mother hasn't given him his allowance yet. The characters are one dimensional, the story ridiculous and rushed, and the conversations shockingly immature, unrealistic and forced.

I must place this novel among the worst three I have ever read. Do not waste your time.

"Rise of the Hearts" was a pretty strange book - which ultimately failed as it was difficult to figure out exactly what it was. Of course, books do not need to be pigeonholed into particular genres and the strength of some novels is that very fact. Sadly, "Rise of the Hearts" is not good enough to fit into the successful genre bending category. It has been billed as a horror novel, it really is not, if anything it reads like a teen or frat comedy, with some dirty jokes thrown in. With a teenage virgin starting university and the bizarre stuff he gets up to after meeting a few girls and going to a few parties. In the early stages of the novel one of his study partners, who he has an early crush on, is murdered, but before that we find out that she is a trans-sexual It's really stupid, makes odd plot jumps and is written in a chatty style which is easy to read. I did laugh a few times at the dirty jokes, but I prefer something with a bit more substance. Hard to say who this book is aimed at. .

I could not get into or finish this book. It's choppy, the characters are annoying, the story line was all over the place. I didn't get to the 'horror' part because I couldn't get past the character building.

It took me a bit to get into this story, but when I did, I was hooked. I loved Nathaniel as a character and cared about his journey. I liked that the book brought out a lot of different emotions as well as the different types of genres that parts of this book could fall into. It was a very unique story and one that I won't forget. Good read!

I tired to read and review this book voluntarily but didn't get too far. The book starts way too dialogue driven. There's no context given to the characters, time or location and there is literally no world building whatsover.

By page 14 the protagonist is fantasizing about a girl he met 24hrs ago, is grossly talking about her body and even ejaculates in his pants from walking near the girls. I can't actually believe I'm reading this and this is starting to feel like a strong DNF.

Got to page 19 and gave up. Don't know why I bothered. No context to anything. Absolutely disgusting writing? I'm not even sure what to call it... Abysmal depiction of LGBTQ individuals and the most disappointed I've been in a book in a LONGGGG time.

It's incredibly rare for me to write negative reviews but I wouldn't want anyone to waste their time on this. So sorry.