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

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.

Rise of the Hearts is one huge creepy and weird story. The story started off with a guy named Nate and he's a certified nerd who jas been bullied all through out his childhood. Nate has a sister, Kim, and a neglectful mother. With everything that he's been through, the hero has been accepting of his circumstances in life, be it with friendship especially his love life that's actually, NADA. ZILCH. ZERO. But that has been okay with him because he has his younger sister with him, his champion. But everything changes from boring to full tilt one day.


"I'm not sure what I’m jotting down, but I feel my hand moving. In the middle of a nod, I’ve drawn a pink heart on my paper. I sit in my seat , confused, trying to figure out where I even got a pink pen from."


From that day onwards, something slowly changes in his life. And he's left to deal with all of it because even Nate himself can't explain what's been happening.


Truth be told, I quite had a fun time reading this. I eventually conmected with the main character and I kind of symphatize him. But I was not, and I say I wasn't really keen on the first few chapters of this book. I understand that this is just a rough draft and everything else is yet to be edited and I'm really hoping for that. This book has quite a potential to make it because it's entertaining enough especially towards the final chapters that I am glad I finished this. Reading this was like watching a dumb movie. You know it's kind of stupid but hey, you're still enjoying yourself, so why quit? Hope you catch my drift.

Anyways, the content of the story was amazing but there were some scenes, especially on the first few chapters that was just not attention-grabbing. It would really spoil the story, the book itself, to it's potential readers. A little bit of retouch probably won't hurt.

Overall, a little on the side of weird and creepy, horror-ish as others have referred it, it's not a book for everyone who easily gets bored and iffed reading a main character being so naive and dumb-ish. But that's just the appeal of the character once you really get into the story. He's gullible but that's just because he's quite socially akward.

The ending though was not one that I expected. It's actually a swift turn of event that blindsided me, but it adds character to the story.

This was a DNF for me. I couldn't get past the clunky writing and juvenile humour. Did not even get to the horror part.

I was under the impression that this was a YA horror although it did not specifically say so, it just sounded like it from the description. After reading it I must say it is not suitable for a younger audience, and I am hard pressed to think of anyone it may be suitable for. It is childish, but it is not for children.
The description of the book sounded appealing, but this story starts off poorly and gets worse as it goes on. The "miraculous gift" does not occur until halfway through the book, and the ending is so abrupt that I assume there will be a sequel that I will not be sticking around for. The characters are not likable and the dialogue is weak and unnatural. I can not recommend this to anyone. As a side note to the author... the effect you are attempting to describe is accomplished with a sip of hot coffee, or alternating hot coffee with ice water. Cigarettes don't heat up your mouth, they just give you bad breath.

What an absurd and far-fetched story it was! I usually do not mind unrealistic story, but this was far beyond unrealistic. I was going to DNF it in the middle, but since it was a short book I decided to read the whole thing. Is this even a horror?! I did not feel so at all.

English is easy and you can fly through this book, but I felt the plot jumped here and there, and it did not sum up.

Rise of the Hearts
by Antoine Bonner (Goodreads Author)
M 50x66
barth gimball's review Mar 21, 2018 · edit
it was amazing

A delight from cover to cover. Fun, good pace, great characters and original.

Was unable to finish. I just could not get into it enough to hold my attention. I will try in the future again, but was slow and confusing and I finally just decided I was not going to be able to get into this book and read it.