I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

This is a retelling of Tristan and Iseult, so I pretty much knew the basics already going in, and if you know the traditional tale then you'll know how it ends. That said, it is a pretty unique take on the story, and I loved the additional breadth added by the multiple narrators.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

In a modern day retelling of the classic Tristan & Iseult, our heroes find themselves in a tale as old as time - a love story. When Izzy and family move to Brooklyn, she doesn't know what to expect. But within days, her brother Hull has gotten into a fight at the park, been arrested, and sent to a therapy programme in the city. She is left alone at the new school, and meets Tristan - who was instrumental in the fight - but falls for him immediately. Unfortunately, his cousin, Marcus, who most of the school are afraid of, wants to mess with Hull, and thinks that Izzy would be perfect for that. Keeping their relationship a secret, will Izzy & Tristan be able to be together, or will their love story become a tragedy?

I quite like the tale of Tristan & Iseult, and have read another YA retelling of it recently. When I heard about a modern retelling, I wasn't sure how it would work, and unfortunately, I was right. This book just felt strange, and there's no other way to describe it. I mean, set in 2018 (I think?) the whole idea that because a guy called dibs on a girl - who never gave any inclination that she liked him - had the right to be angry when his cousin fell in love with her, was a bit much. I never really warmed to any of the characters either. It's told in three points of view: the knight (Tristan), the queen (Izzy), and the rook (Brianna), and of the three, Tristan's was probably the best. Brianna's had no really need to be there - and her character was too wishy-washy for me. Izzy was okay, but bland, and for someone who was so clever, and wanted to be a doctor, she was naive. I liked the inclusion of the chess playing, and seeing Tristan flourish that way. I've seen some reviews going on about how shocking the ending was, or how moving, but, honestly, it was obvious. If you know the original material, it wasn't a surprise, at all, and I think it was played up a little for theatrical benefit. Honestly, if I hadn't wanted to finish this book to help clear my NG ratio, I would've DNFed it.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Not for me, I’m afraid. I found it hard to care about any of the characters and the writing style was not to my taste.

5 Words: Family, friendship, rivalry, tragedy, fitting-in.

Hi, my feels are hurting. Make it stop.

I have to admit that it took a while for me to get in to this story. I was almost half way through and contemplating a DNF when BAM suddenly I couldn't put it down. I was invested.

This is a retelling of Tristan and Iseult, so I pretty much knew the basics already going in, and if you know the traditional tale then you'll know how it ends. That said, it is a pretty unique take on the story, and I loved the additional breadth added by the multiple narrators.

I think my favourite character was Brianna, even though she was a side character. I loved her chapter, her perspectives.

I was excited to see how the story of Tristan and Isolde would translate into a modern day setting - unfortunately, it didn't translate very well, in my opinion. Perhaps this kind of hard-hitting YA just isn't my cup of tea, but I felt that ultimately, the story didn't work well enough around the original building blocks, so that the elements of the myth were more 'huh, that name rings a bell' than directly related.

I found the ending of the book particularly disappointing. The author avoids the (well-known, and pretty crucial) double suicide of Tristan and Isolde, and although there is a death, it feels pulled out at random at last minute, having little to do with the plot of the myth or the characterisation built up so far in the book. The death is simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this cheapens its effect on the characters for me. If this climax was meant to create a book about racially charged police violence (which is very much needed, and I welcome!), then this just wasn't woven in well enough and felt unrelated to the retelling.

I didn't mind the insta-love, and I enjoyed the knowing look the book gave to the obsessive nature of teenage love, but for me, this was lacking all the power that the retelling aspect should have brought.

A beautifully written book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and have already recommended to at least three people. I was excited to read this from the moment I first saw it on Instagram and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to read it prior to its release. I look forward to reading more by Shannon Dunlap in the future.

It’s a sound retelling that can be appreciated as such, but works well for anyone who isn’t well versed in the source material.
The story opens strong but falls slightly flat at the final hurdle however, it’s the characters that redeem this story.

Izzy & Tristan - Shannon Dunlap

This isn't a novel, it's a romance.

This book was first brought to my attention because of the publisher tweeting about everyone getting their proof copies and I had that FOMO feeling that you get sometimes when you watch other people having a good time. So I added it to my TBR and decided I'd grab a copy of it when I saw it and then it was added to NetGalley, well, I couldn't just click away could I?

Izzy, a practical-minded teen who intends to become a doctor, isn't happy about her recent move from the Lower East Side across the river to Brooklyn. She feels distanced from her family, especially her increasingly incomprehensible twin brother, as well as her new neighbourhood. 
And then she meets Tristan. 
Tristan is a chess prodigy who lives with his aunt and looks up to his cousin, Marcus. He and Izzy meet one moonlit night, and together they tumble into a story as old and unstoppable as love itself. 
In debut author Shannon Dunlap's capable hands, the romance that has enthralled for 800 years is spun new. Told from several points of view, this is a love story for the ages and a love story for this very moment. This fast-paced novel is at once a gripping tale of first love and a sprawling epic about the bonds that tie us together and pull us apart and the different cultures and tensions that fill the contemporary American landscape.

This is a modern-day retelling of the old Tristan and Isolde story, where we have teenagers in Brooklyn, but there are still references to knights and queens because there is a chess element. To be honest, I've never read/watched any of the previous versions of this story, it's just one of those things that I seem to know the gist of because it's so ingrained in Western Culture. Because of that, this didn't really hold too many surprises, but that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable. In this more contemporary setting, Izzy is a bright white girl who finds herself moved out of her well to do neighbourhood and expensive school to a much rougher street in Brooklyn. Tristan is a mixed race chess prodigy with a cousin who is on the wrong side of the law. While this created an interesting dynamic in terms of different cultures coming together and Izzy becoming more aware of her privilege I did feel like some of the comments on race and the Black Lives Matter movement were added in almost as an afterthought and I'm, not really sure how I feel about it.

There were a couple of elements of this that I'm not sure translated well into the modern day. There's a moment of deception that was a bit shaky in terms of consent that was never really discussed or dealt with and with Me Too and conversations around consent being had more frequently I'm not sure how this sat with me. There's also a character that seems to have a complete mental breakdown but this isn't really dealt with either. I don't know if this is something that features in the original or not, but again... I don't know...

None of that is to say that this isn't a perfectly enjoyable romance. This knowns it's an insta-love and it doesn't shy away from that or try to dress it up as anything else, sometimes you just need a jolly good romance, you know? And God, the romance! Yes Izzy and Tristan have a lightning bolt, love at first sight moment, but the way they are with each other is just so cute I can't help it. I ship it. Hard. The narration of this is really wonderful, almost poetic in places, especially Izzy's chapter.

So yeah, a book with a lot going for it that also made me feel things. Also, I adore this quote so much we're ending as we began (much like this book I guess...)

This isn't a novel, it's a romance.

A brilliant love story, fantastic retelling and a lovely contemporary all in one book. It's tough to keep the balance right in retellings, but this one is really well done, even managing to work in the love potion and not have it seem out of place. I'll definitely be recommending this one to people as soon as it publishes.

I really enjoyed this one. I'm only vaguely familiar with Tristan and Iseult, but the story was brilliant on its own, if somewhat heartbreaking.The main four characters were very well done. A fantastic read and one I'll definitely recommend to people when it publishes.

Izzy together with her twin brother Hull move to a rather poor neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Hull takes the uprooting from a private school really badly, but Izzy finds her way in new neighbourhood quite easily. She makes some friends and what is more important - falls in love with Tristan, her one and only true love. Things get complicated when Tristan's cousin and a local thug in one person claims his right to Izzy. When you think that the characters seem to have everything under control and they are going straight for their heppy ever after you couldn't be more wrong. Things get completely out of hand and the most tragic things happen. Sorry for so many 'things' in here but I don't want to give any spoilers here.
I really loved the book, the way it is written makes you read it all at one go. The story is really gripping and with a few twists along but the ending it totally heartbreaking. It's one of those books that you are reading and things are definitely happening but the ending crashes you anyway.

This modern retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth has all the hallmarks of the classic, and builds a wonderful sense of foreboding throughout, but doesn't deliver in the final pages, leaving me deflated and disappointed.
I'm a fan of the Tristan and Isolde story in general. When I saw this book was one of the proofs at YALC, I was gutted to miss out, and then delighted when I was approved for a NetGalley copy. And reading this, it was full of some really great stuff. Shannon Dunlap knows how to write a romance, and the intense, crazy love between Izzy and T is really well written and enjoyable. There's also a chess metaphor drawn throughout the book, as Tristan is a superb chess player, and the characters are given chess pieces, rather than names, as chapter headers. There was lots that I really liked here, especially the relationship development - Izzy and Tristan acknowledged that their love was insane, heady, teenaged obsession, and that only strengthens the book itself, as the reader is swept along in their insanity.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the deep sense of foreboding which built throughout the book. From the opening lines, which insist that it's not a novel, it's a romance, with all the tragedy that entails, to the creeping realisation that while Izzy's chapters are written in the past tense, Tristan's are in the present, I spent the first eighty to ninety percent of this book thoroughly enjoying the uneasiness, and the tragedy it was inevitably building to. But then, the climax just... didn't. There was no oomph behind it. The final acts of the book were weak, terribly so, and left me incredibly disappointed in what, up to that point, had been a massively enjoyable experience.
Such a great first three-quarters, I was badly let down by the end. Not by the actual plot, which was expected, but by how it was portrayed. There was no impact, no feeling, and I was left flat, instead of devastated.