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Falling for Sakura Trilogy #1
Sakura: A Secret Kiss
FALLING FOR SAKURA is the story of Caucasian-Japanese Sakura, her journey to finding herself, and her torn love for two very different brothers, Sebastian and Darcy Princeton.
When orphan Sakura once again meets the billionaire gorgeous brothers, Sebastian and Darcy Princeton, forbidden feelings are awakened and old flame ignites.
Orphan Sakura is accustomed to being rejected, hated, bullied, and unloved. When she is adopted by the wealthy Princeton family, she works hard to earn her new siblings’ trust and love. Her endeavor, however, ultimately leads to a series of unfortunate incidents.
Now years later, the twenty-three-year-old beauty dreads the moment she once again has to meet the drop-dead gorgeous brothers, due to arrive for their cousin’s wedding. Dodging their very presence is next to impossible since the brothers, who have forgotten who she is entirely, are attracted to her like moths to a flame and thwart her escapes at every turn. This, of course, leads to ungodly, tempting situations, awakens forbidden feelings, and ignites old flames that have been suppressed and laid dormant for many years. When she finds them competing for her—NOT for her sisterly affection, which she still deeply craves, but for her love as a woman—she is torn between Sebastian Princeton, the brother who loves her and watches over her from a distance, and Darcy Princeton, the brother who was once her best friend and now secretly yearns for her forgiveness and her love once again.
When orphan Sakura once again meets the billionaire gorgeous brothers, Sebastian and Darcy Princeton, forbidden feelings are awakened and old flame ignites.
Orphan Sakura is accustomed to being rejected, hated, bullied, and unloved. When she is adopted by the wealthy Princeton family, she works hard to earn her new siblings’ trust and love. Her endeavor, however, ultimately leads to a series of unfortunate incidents.
Now years later, the twenty-three-year-old beauty dreads the moment she once again has to meet the drop-dead gorgeous brothers, due to arrive for their cousin’s wedding. Dodging their very presence is next to impossible since the brothers, who have forgotten who she is entirely, are attracted to her like moths to a flame and thwart her escapes at every turn. This, of course, leads to ungodly, tempting situations, awakens forbidden feelings, and ignites old flames that have been suppressed and laid dormant for many years. When she finds them competing for her—NOT for her sisterly affection, which she still deeply craves, but for her love as a woman—she is torn between Sebastian Princeton, the brother who loves her and watches over her from a distance, and Darcy Princeton, the brother who was once her best friend and now secretly yearns for her forgiveness and her love once again.
ebook
First published May 24, 2014
About the author
Alexia Praks
53 books642 followersAlexia is a self-proclaimed hermit, puppers-loving girl who likes to write anything romance—be it contemporary, historical, fantasy, paranormal, or a combination of any of these. Currently residing in Aotearoa (land of the long white cloud), she spends seventy percent of her time watching anime and reading comics and the other thirty percent daydreaming about food and procrastinating. Whatever’s left she actually uses to write books that may or may not bring her a few precious gold coins to support her lifestyle.
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February 18, 2018
There is so much about this book to unpack. By the end of this I had about 10 pages of bullet points of every sentence/detail/happening/etc. that worked to chip away at my ability to feel very positively about this book. So let's just get the basics out of the way: the editing job was a bit shoddy (I found multiple grammar issues), the writing was juvenile in a narrative 3rd person, it read more like someone explaining in detail the synopsis of an anime rather than a fleshed out story, and it was dripping in lots of plot devices and details that caused holes in the story or just seemed stupid or unrealistic. I almost felt like I was reading a fanfic written by a 13 year old weeb who really likes reverse harem manga.
(Also, just to note, in this book the "reverse harem" is not what's it come to mean in Western lit--in manga a reverse harem just applies to a girl surrounded by hot boys who usually all start with interest, but always with only 1 or 2 clear love interests and with the heroine always ending up with 1 boy and the other boys either parting ways with the heroine or just becoming her friends/brother figures. I can't actually think of any reverse harem manga that featured a true threesome wherein the girl and 2 guys are in a consenting romantic relationship all at once).
Now, I get it. I do. I get what the author was going for.
I used to be a disgusting weeb in my distant, dark past and I've read an ungodly amount of manga and watched an ungodly amount of anime, so I know what the author was going for--in fact, the best way to describe this book is every trope you've ever seen in a romance manga/anime (love triangle, rich families, animal sidekick, reverse harem, protective brothers, angry possessive love interest, weepy brooding love interest, girls who are awful villiains attempting murder and slander out of petty jealousy and spite, a drop-dead lovely heroine who everyone thinks is perfect in every way, etc.) vomited out onto paper in the form of written words, almost doing a play-by-play rundown of the events of a cheesy, dramatic manga.
But it's important to remember why this sort of story works in an anime or manga--firstly, those methods of story telling are visual and rely very heavily on drawn works. This means that stories have to be created a little differently to suit a medium that tells all of the story except for dialog and narration through visuals. Overly dramatic shows of emotion or action are more visually entertaining than ones that are more realistic--not that anime/manga don't have very excellent stories that can easily hop over to pages, but THIS kind of story, where the heroine gets into Blushing Romantic Scenes with boys by tripping and has passionate, sudden kissing scenes, works far better in a visual work.
It also is very important to remember that this sort of fluffy, blushy, overly-dramatic shoujo manga/anime--the source of most of the tropes and plot devices the author uses--are specifically targeted at girls and teens and always feature young characters in junior high or high school. In this book, the author bumps up the characters to ages between 20-28, which makes all the shoujo-manga antics incredibly childish and unrealistic. It works better in a manga or anime because the visuals create a cute atmosphere or revel in the dramatic nature of the plot devices with villains that go "oh-ho-ho!" with evil laughter--they work a different tone with lots of comedy and clever visuals or they really wholly embrace their identity and go all out to craft wild, dramatic plots. This book is more like a bad soap opera or telenovela throwing in certain elements just for added drama or angst or something, but without the benefit of insane acting or so-bad-it's-good writing to make it fun to watch anyway. It's more that it's just convenient for this to happen or that to happen or because it made a nice scene in that one anime that one time.
So immediately upon opening this book we run into the first thing that made me roll my eyes-- the mom's thoughts include random japanese inserted into other fluent english. Bilingual people don't ever just randomly change out words in a sentence, especially if the word has a proper translation. No Japanese person just says "okasama" or "sayonara" when "mother" and "good-bye" are literally the translations of these words. This kind of nonsense is added in specifically for monolingual readers looking for an exotic feel to their reading without any commitment or effort.
And it just gets worse--like the mom who abandons Sakura leaves her a diamond necklace in the basket instead of like, idk, arranging for her daughter to be adopted so she's not abused in an orphanage? Also like why didn't the evil headmistress at the orphanage steal this pink diamond that's worth so much but instead gives it to Sakura and tells her that her mom gave it to her? Like the abuse in this story is so randomly thrown in without rhyme or reason that it's just so shallow and uninspired and I can't even bring myself to care. Sakura is called a devil's daughter and hated just because she's the MC and half Japanese so she automatically has the most basic of bullies tossed her way so she can have A Tragic Backstory. Tara, her mortal enemy who is outrageously mean and awful in the most typical Basic Bitch way, just kind of hates her always and stereotypical blames Sakura for every bad thing ever. Her motivations for dislike aren't really fleshed out--Tara is literally only there to cause dramatic problems for Sakura. There's a total of 4 women in this book that don't hate Sakura--everyone else does everything they can to destroy, kill, slander, etc. Sakura just because we need Sakura to have tragedy and conflict in her life. Tara says Sakura worships the devil and tried to kill Alaina and that she plotted to burn down the orphanage and turned the gas on in the kitchen so that when the headmistress went to go smoke in the kitchen she'd blow up and die and like people strangely believe Tara or like go along with it even though she stone cold just accuses Sakura of horrible shit with no evidence even though Tara literally says she hates Sakura and wants her dead all the fucking time. It's just... ugh.
Then when the 7 boys get introduced we're told they totally forgot about Sakura their adopted sister who 2/7 totally fell in love with as children and like they somehow just repressed these memories for reasons so later they could have dramatic dream and memory reveals to motivate them to go omg i love her?? And like... it takes these grown ass men most of the book to realize that the reason they don't want Sakura to be their sister is because they're all interested in fucking her. Like you are all 20+ how to not kind of realize "oh wow, I don't want to be family because I'm attracted to her, I'd like to date her/love her/marry her/fuck her"???? What even.
And Sakura. Oh Sakura. She's not like, the WORST heroine she's actually kind of basic, but her situation isn't improved by the author's clear adoration of manga tropes as like top-notch storytelling. We get all the cliches. Sakura is 10000% perfect--which of course means that the author won't fucking stop mentioning every other page how Sakura has the most perfect tits ever in the whole history of tits they're perfectly shaped and colored and perked and sized and god help us because he must have lovely spent 6/7 days of creation on Sakura's perfect tits because the author literally reminds us 19 times about Sakuras tits--but she like doesn't really defend herself well and keeps saying "I'm a strong woman!" even though people only leave her be for a minute after a man--either her father or one of the 7 brothers--slaps Tara or Aleina and tells them to leave her be but like... they don't do anything more? They're all like "I know you hate Sakura and have been doing her wrong but plz leave after the wedding/if it happens again you'll have only half your inheritance" but they don't take worthwhile action like have the girls escorted off the property or get a PPO for Sakura or like any course of action that would keep two grown women from constantly attempting to assault, kill, and harass another person. Also like, Sakura OF COURSE gets a little dog sidekick character to act as another random additive and plot device and what not.
The love interests are stereotypical. We have the golden-haired one who is an amazing talented person but he's scowly and aggressively gripped with desire and he wants to be protective and possessive and then we have the dark, broody one who is all weepy and damaged and has always loved the heroine but has to stay away for reasons but then breaks all his rules to try to secure her for himself. They're supposed by their other brothers who fall into "supportive older brother trope" and "cute younger boy trope" and "flirty trope" and "kinda wild filler trope" and "other filler boy trope." And again, somehow all these guys totally forgot about Sakura and then suddenly are totally dumbly lustful interested in her and they keep going back and forth on the "she's our adopted sister but not it's incest but not" nonsense like okay we get it she's gonna end legal ties with the family and one of you will fuck her silly and marry her and it's not incest because no blood and wqioedfgjposjf whatever. Like the book utilizes the "dreams and memories resurfacing" plot device to show why Sebastien and Darcy were immediately attracted to her and then how they came to go from attracted to protective to in love and explains that the pain of her almost dying or of betraying her trust caused them to totally repress her memory and the author definitely failed to realize that the "remembering things about long lost love" plot really only works with like childhood friends who get separated and then meet many years later after 0 contact. The idea that boys would totally forget their adoptive sister and that at no point over the course of the 13 years where they're technically family would they not cross paths like... the parents love and talk about their kids so like why would they never talk about Sakura or like have all their kids come visit with each other until a cousin's wedding at the family home? Like... the author tried to make this trope happen but it just doesn't work in the context of the book.
I also want to note that all the kissing is dubious consent, forced kind of stuff and that the guys have said things to the idea of "Sakura is the real trophy I want" and "she was practically begging for a man to ravish her" and "I needed to get away because I couldn't control myself and I didn't want to hurt her" like those are all major red flags because 1) Sakura is a person not a prize??? 2) no woman is "begging" to be ravished with her looks like goddamn can we get off the "perfect tits" angle 3) literally everyone can control themselves from not sexually assaulting someone like it's literally so easy to just... not... force... yourself... on... someone... that I don't know why this is in romances like there's nothing sexy about the idea that if you don't leave you're gonna rip off a woman's clothes and rape her. That's not a good judge of desire or like a testament of their respect/love for this woman. A good indication would be being able to just not act on your arousal and not even consider that you might hurt the person you love because you're horny.
To be honest I'm incredibly confused as to what the target demographic for this book is. It has all the childish, cheesy nonsense of a manga aimed at girls and young teens but has characters in their 20s and constantly makes lots of sexual references and as stated before won't shut up about Sakura's tits. It's like the author wanted all these childish ideas to happen just with adults but the writing and storytelling are so much more akin to a super young, inexperienced writer that the reality of the book's story doesn't mesh with the attempts at a story in all its many, many tropes and cliches and devices pulled straight from the pages of lots of low-bar shoujo media.
If I sat down and wrote a list of all the tropes and cliches it'd be so fucking long. At least 100. Abused girl, ultra pretty girl, super talented girl, feisty girl, girl everyone wants to fuck, girl who can't decide who she likes, girl who is a virgin not ready for dating but definitely is in love with at least 2 boys, miraculous adoption, wealthy parents, talented adopted brothers, mindlessly mean girls, best friends who are tokens of characters, dog side kick, repressed memories, long ago love, a need to hunt down a lost mom, a love triangle, broody love interest, possessive love interest, the one brother is secretly heroine's painting patron always buying and admiring her art, 104803 coincidental connections between heroine and love interests, misunderstandings that cause romance drama, a responsible older brother character, a cute loving little brother character, a flirty character, lots of shirtless moments, lots of moments of carrying this girl, lots of moments of seeing the girl in revealing clothes, clumsiness means she always falls into a boy and the situation gets mildly sexual, girl blushes and gasps every time the boys do something and look hot, girl is so hated by awful jealous girls that literally there are characters created just to hate her, girl is nearly killed several times, girl misunderstands situations and thinks she can't be loved, girl decides she hurts the people she loves so she runs away, girl is better than other girls because she doesn't want to fuck the boys everyone wants to fuck, boy is even hotter for the girl because she refuses him and doesn't like him, girl is hard working and sweet and amazing and can do no evil, the story is constantly being compared to like Snow White but also has super strong Cinderella vibes.... like it just never ends. I could keep going but You Get It. Or least I hope you do.
I am oddly, morbidly, masochistically interested in where this train wreck of a series goes from here but I'm definitely not paying the ~$8 USD to find out. My verdict? This is just not all that great of a book. There's a lot of problems with the actual plot and writing that make it hard to enjoy, even mindlessly. It takes all the worst parts of anime/manga and does them no favors by framing them in the wrong types of situations with the wrong kinds of characters in the wrong media format. My only positive to say is that the book was well formatted in its ebook edition. It looks very nicely done. Otherwise, I'd recommend watching or reading any number of manga and anime that take the ideas of this book and make them out to be fun, enjoyable things even with the shortcomings inherent of the plot devices and cliches.
(Also, just to note, in this book the "reverse harem" is not what's it come to mean in Western lit--in manga a reverse harem just applies to a girl surrounded by hot boys who usually all start with interest, but always with only 1 or 2 clear love interests and with the heroine always ending up with 1 boy and the other boys either parting ways with the heroine or just becoming her friends/brother figures. I can't actually think of any reverse harem manga that featured a true threesome wherein the girl and 2 guys are in a consenting romantic relationship all at once).
Now, I get it. I do. I get what the author was going for.
I used to be a disgusting weeb in my distant, dark past and I've read an ungodly amount of manga and watched an ungodly amount of anime, so I know what the author was going for--in fact, the best way to describe this book is every trope you've ever seen in a romance manga/anime (love triangle, rich families, animal sidekick, reverse harem, protective brothers, angry possessive love interest, weepy brooding love interest, girls who are awful villiains attempting murder and slander out of petty jealousy and spite, a drop-dead lovely heroine who everyone thinks is perfect in every way, etc.) vomited out onto paper in the form of written words, almost doing a play-by-play rundown of the events of a cheesy, dramatic manga.
But it's important to remember why this sort of story works in an anime or manga--firstly, those methods of story telling are visual and rely very heavily on drawn works. This means that stories have to be created a little differently to suit a medium that tells all of the story except for dialog and narration through visuals. Overly dramatic shows of emotion or action are more visually entertaining than ones that are more realistic--not that anime/manga don't have very excellent stories that can easily hop over to pages, but THIS kind of story, where the heroine gets into Blushing Romantic Scenes with boys by tripping and has passionate, sudden kissing scenes, works far better in a visual work.
It also is very important to remember that this sort of fluffy, blushy, overly-dramatic shoujo manga/anime--the source of most of the tropes and plot devices the author uses--are specifically targeted at girls and teens and always feature young characters in junior high or high school. In this book, the author bumps up the characters to ages between 20-28, which makes all the shoujo-manga antics incredibly childish and unrealistic. It works better in a manga or anime because the visuals create a cute atmosphere or revel in the dramatic nature of the plot devices with villains that go "oh-ho-ho!" with evil laughter--they work a different tone with lots of comedy and clever visuals or they really wholly embrace their identity and go all out to craft wild, dramatic plots. This book is more like a bad soap opera or telenovela throwing in certain elements just for added drama or angst or something, but without the benefit of insane acting or so-bad-it's-good writing to make it fun to watch anyway. It's more that it's just convenient for this to happen or that to happen or because it made a nice scene in that one anime that one time.
So immediately upon opening this book we run into the first thing that made me roll my eyes-- the mom's thoughts include random japanese inserted into other fluent english. Bilingual people don't ever just randomly change out words in a sentence, especially if the word has a proper translation. No Japanese person just says "okasama" or "sayonara" when "mother" and "good-bye" are literally the translations of these words. This kind of nonsense is added in specifically for monolingual readers looking for an exotic feel to their reading without any commitment or effort.
And it just gets worse--like the mom who abandons Sakura leaves her a diamond necklace in the basket instead of like, idk, arranging for her daughter to be adopted so she's not abused in an orphanage? Also like why didn't the evil headmistress at the orphanage steal this pink diamond that's worth so much but instead gives it to Sakura and tells her that her mom gave it to her? Like the abuse in this story is so randomly thrown in without rhyme or reason that it's just so shallow and uninspired and I can't even bring myself to care. Sakura is called a devil's daughter and hated just because she's the MC and half Japanese so she automatically has the most basic of bullies tossed her way so she can have A Tragic Backstory. Tara, her mortal enemy who is outrageously mean and awful in the most typical Basic Bitch way, just kind of hates her always and stereotypical blames Sakura for every bad thing ever. Her motivations for dislike aren't really fleshed out--Tara is literally only there to cause dramatic problems for Sakura. There's a total of 4 women in this book that don't hate Sakura--everyone else does everything they can to destroy, kill, slander, etc. Sakura just because we need Sakura to have tragedy and conflict in her life. Tara says Sakura worships the devil and tried to kill Alaina and that she plotted to burn down the orphanage and turned the gas on in the kitchen so that when the headmistress went to go smoke in the kitchen she'd blow up and die and like people strangely believe Tara or like go along with it even though she stone cold just accuses Sakura of horrible shit with no evidence even though Tara literally says she hates Sakura and wants her dead all the fucking time. It's just... ugh.
Then when the 7 boys get introduced we're told they totally forgot about Sakura their adopted sister who 2/7 totally fell in love with as children and like they somehow just repressed these memories for reasons so later they could have dramatic dream and memory reveals to motivate them to go omg i love her?? And like... it takes these grown ass men most of the book to realize that the reason they don't want Sakura to be their sister is because they're all interested in fucking her. Like you are all 20+ how to not kind of realize "oh wow, I don't want to be family because I'm attracted to her, I'd like to date her/love her/marry her/fuck her"???? What even.
And Sakura. Oh Sakura. She's not like, the WORST heroine she's actually kind of basic, but her situation isn't improved by the author's clear adoration of manga tropes as like top-notch storytelling. We get all the cliches. Sakura is 10000% perfect--which of course means that the author won't fucking stop mentioning every other page how Sakura has the most perfect tits ever in the whole history of tits they're perfectly shaped and colored and perked and sized and god help us because he must have lovely spent 6/7 days of creation on Sakura's perfect tits because the author literally reminds us 19 times about Sakuras tits--but she like doesn't really defend herself well and keeps saying "I'm a strong woman!" even though people only leave her be for a minute after a man--either her father or one of the 7 brothers--slaps Tara or Aleina and tells them to leave her be but like... they don't do anything more? They're all like "I know you hate Sakura and have been doing her wrong but plz leave after the wedding/if it happens again you'll have only half your inheritance" but they don't take worthwhile action like have the girls escorted off the property or get a PPO for Sakura or like any course of action that would keep two grown women from constantly attempting to assault, kill, and harass another person. Also like, Sakura OF COURSE gets a little dog sidekick character to act as another random additive and plot device and what not.
The love interests are stereotypical. We have the golden-haired one who is an amazing talented person but he's scowly and aggressively gripped with desire and he wants to be protective and possessive and then we have the dark, broody one who is all weepy and damaged and has always loved the heroine but has to stay away for reasons but then breaks all his rules to try to secure her for himself. They're supposed by their other brothers who fall into "supportive older brother trope" and "cute younger boy trope" and "flirty trope" and "kinda wild filler trope" and "other filler boy trope." And again, somehow all these guys totally forgot about Sakura and then suddenly are totally dumbly lustful interested in her and they keep going back and forth on the "she's our adopted sister but not it's incest but not" nonsense like okay we get it she's gonna end legal ties with the family and one of you will fuck her silly and marry her and it's not incest because no blood and wqioedfgjposjf whatever. Like the book utilizes the "dreams and memories resurfacing" plot device to show why Sebastien and Darcy were immediately attracted to her and then how they came to go from attracted to protective to in love and explains that the pain of her almost dying or of betraying her trust caused them to totally repress her memory and the author definitely failed to realize that the "remembering things about long lost love" plot really only works with like childhood friends who get separated and then meet many years later after 0 contact. The idea that boys would totally forget their adoptive sister and that at no point over the course of the 13 years where they're technically family would they not cross paths like... the parents love and talk about their kids so like why would they never talk about Sakura or like have all their kids come visit with each other until a cousin's wedding at the family home? Like... the author tried to make this trope happen but it just doesn't work in the context of the book.
I also want to note that all the kissing is dubious consent, forced kind of stuff and that the guys have said things to the idea of "Sakura is the real trophy I want" and "she was practically begging for a man to ravish her" and "I needed to get away because I couldn't control myself and I didn't want to hurt her" like those are all major red flags because 1) Sakura is a person not a prize??? 2) no woman is "begging" to be ravished with her looks like goddamn can we get off the "perfect tits" angle 3) literally everyone can control themselves from not sexually assaulting someone like it's literally so easy to just... not... force... yourself... on... someone... that I don't know why this is in romances like there's nothing sexy about the idea that if you don't leave you're gonna rip off a woman's clothes and rape her. That's not a good judge of desire or like a testament of their respect/love for this woman. A good indication would be being able to just not act on your arousal and not even consider that you might hurt the person you love because you're horny.
To be honest I'm incredibly confused as to what the target demographic for this book is. It has all the childish, cheesy nonsense of a manga aimed at girls and young teens but has characters in their 20s and constantly makes lots of sexual references and as stated before won't shut up about Sakura's tits. It's like the author wanted all these childish ideas to happen just with adults but the writing and storytelling are so much more akin to a super young, inexperienced writer that the reality of the book's story doesn't mesh with the attempts at a story in all its many, many tropes and cliches and devices pulled straight from the pages of lots of low-bar shoujo media.
If I sat down and wrote a list of all the tropes and cliches it'd be so fucking long. At least 100. Abused girl, ultra pretty girl, super talented girl, feisty girl, girl everyone wants to fuck, girl who can't decide who she likes, girl who is a virgin not ready for dating but definitely is in love with at least 2 boys, miraculous adoption, wealthy parents, talented adopted brothers, mindlessly mean girls, best friends who are tokens of characters, dog side kick, repressed memories, long ago love, a need to hunt down a lost mom, a love triangle, broody love interest, possessive love interest, the one brother is secretly heroine's painting patron always buying and admiring her art, 104803 coincidental connections between heroine and love interests, misunderstandings that cause romance drama, a responsible older brother character, a cute loving little brother character, a flirty character, lots of shirtless moments, lots of moments of carrying this girl, lots of moments of seeing the girl in revealing clothes, clumsiness means she always falls into a boy and the situation gets mildly sexual, girl blushes and gasps every time the boys do something and look hot, girl is so hated by awful jealous girls that literally there are characters created just to hate her, girl is nearly killed several times, girl misunderstands situations and thinks she can't be loved, girl decides she hurts the people she loves so she runs away, girl is better than other girls because she doesn't want to fuck the boys everyone wants to fuck, boy is even hotter for the girl because she refuses him and doesn't like him, girl is hard working and sweet and amazing and can do no evil, the story is constantly being compared to like Snow White but also has super strong Cinderella vibes.... like it just never ends. I could keep going but You Get It. Or least I hope you do.
I am oddly, morbidly, masochistically interested in where this train wreck of a series goes from here but I'm definitely not paying the ~$8 USD to find out. My verdict? This is just not all that great of a book. There's a lot of problems with the actual plot and writing that make it hard to enjoy, even mindlessly. It takes all the worst parts of anime/manga and does them no favors by framing them in the wrong types of situations with the wrong kinds of characters in the wrong media format. My only positive to say is that the book was well formatted in its ebook edition. It looks very nicely done. Otherwise, I'd recommend watching or reading any number of manga and anime that take the ideas of this book and make them out to be fun, enjoyable things even with the shortcomings inherent of the plot devices and cliches.
May 18, 2016
4 CHERRY BLOSSOM STARS
This is a sweet read packed with enough feels and seven lovable brothers, you'll have plenty of swoon-worthy moments!
I'm on a roll! I'm digging the reverse harem thingy since last month. Since this book was free from Amazon Kindle, I grabbed the chance! (Edit: Based from Alexia Praks' newsletter, A Secret Kiss is still free to download on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Google, Kobo and Smashwords.) I admit that when I started this book, I was a little apprehensive.
Sakura was left at an orphanage when she's still a baby. She grew up quiet and shy, and more often than not, bullied by other kids because of her half-Caucasian and half-Asian identity. Her biggest tormentor was Tara Byrd, the daughter of the headmistress of the orphanage. She was Sakura's complete antithesis, blonde and blue eyed.
When tragedy happened at the orphanage, Sakura was adopted by one of the most prominent families at the town, the Princetons.
James and Brenda Princeton were the perfect adoptive parents. They have quite a big family. Nicolas, the eldest, was serious and kind just like his father. Next were the triplets Tristan, Logan and Sebastian. Tristan and Logan were masters of mischief, fun and flirting, while Sebastian was the intense one. Hayden is the rebel of the family, with his interest in motorcycles and piercings. The twins Alaina and Darcy were next. Darcy is the quiet and guarded one and Alaina is Tara's bestfriend. The youngest is the sweet and charming Conrad.
Sakura felt relieved that she's finally going to have her own family but, as fate would have it, soon realized she's wrong.
Time passed by and they were sent to different boarding schools. Now after thirteen years, the brothers including Alaina and Tara will be back to St. Joseph Island for their cousin's wedding.
When they met again, the seven brothers were quite smitten with Sakura. But the most affected were Darcy and Sebastian. Darcy had been Sakura's bestfriend but an incident from before lead them separate ways. Sebastian was always looking out for Sakura, he's always there to help her even from her nightmares.
I was hooked from the start! It was told in an all-knowing, omniscient view, so we have the glimpse of everyone's feelings. I was not too keen on this narration but I got accustomed as it goes on and on.
Some snippets from the past were shown, giving insight to Sakura's relationship with each brothers and even with James and Brenda.
Between the span of time since I finished reading this book and now, I have changed my rating a couple of times. This book is not flawless, I'll give you that, but it grew on me. Oh boy, it did. It sucked me into a world where Sakura and the Princetons are real. It grew on me not when I am reading it. I closed my reader after the sneak peek of the next book's first chapter, but I found myself going back to certain parts because, clearly, my mind is not done yet! Their story is freakingbugging haunting me!
I like everything about this book except for Tara and Alaina, which were quite overboard with Sakura hate. It is quite unbelievable and unjustifiable. Seriously, these two are the epitome of bitchy bitch. This is one of the major point deductor for me, everything else is quite believable.
My favorite brother is Conrad! Sweet, sweet and cute as a puppy Conrad. Of all the brothers, he is the most lovable (though all of them are). Reading about him gives me this warm, fuzzy feelingsyeah them chills, used to get 'em (cheers if you know that song :D), I would love to have him as a little brother.
I am officially shipping Darcy and Sakura!!! They are totally MFEO. I love Darce, there is something underneath all the layers of mystery and impassiveness he projects. You'll see how they belong to each other! There's this connection they have ever since they are kids. I have nothing against Sebastian, he is equally lovable with his own attributes. He's intense and when he put his mind on something, he'll surely come out the best on it. But if I am Sakura, Darcy is it for me!
Gaaah, gimme some more Darcy-Sakura moments!
The ending of this book had me tearing up at my morning commute, because THE FEELS..... It is quite heartbreaking but the end will make you look forward to the next book, it is not a severe cliffy.
Seriously, I need the next book, like, yesterday.
Sakura and the Princeton brothers' story will continue in the next book A Secret Proposal which will be released in two parts. The first part is already available and the second part will be released on August 5, 2016.
This is a sweet read packed with enough feels and seven lovable brothers, you'll have plenty of swoon-worthy moments!
I'm on a roll! I'm digging the reverse harem thingy since last month. Since this book was free from Amazon Kindle, I grabbed the chance! (Edit: Based from Alexia Praks' newsletter, A Secret Kiss is still free to download on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Google, Kobo and Smashwords.) I admit that when I started this book, I was a little apprehensive.
Sakura was left at an orphanage when she's still a baby. She grew up quiet and shy, and more often than not, bullied by other kids because of her half-Caucasian and half-Asian identity. Her biggest tormentor was Tara Byrd, the daughter of the headmistress of the orphanage. She was Sakura's complete antithesis, blonde and blue eyed.
When tragedy happened at the orphanage, Sakura was adopted by one of the most prominent families at the town, the Princetons.
James and Brenda Princeton were the perfect adoptive parents. They have quite a big family. Nicolas, the eldest, was serious and kind just like his father. Next were the triplets Tristan, Logan and Sebastian. Tristan and Logan were masters of mischief, fun and flirting, while Sebastian was the intense one. Hayden is the rebel of the family, with his interest in motorcycles and piercings. The twins Alaina and Darcy were next. Darcy is the quiet and guarded one and Alaina is Tara's bestfriend. The youngest is the sweet and charming Conrad.
Sakura felt relieved that she's finally going to have her own family but, as fate would have it, soon realized she's wrong.
Time passed by and they were sent to different boarding schools. Now after thirteen years, the brothers including Alaina and Tara will be back to St. Joseph Island for their cousin's wedding.
When they met again, the seven brothers were quite smitten with Sakura. But the most affected were Darcy and Sebastian. Darcy had been Sakura's bestfriend but an incident from before lead them separate ways. Sebastian was always looking out for Sakura, he's always there to help her even from her nightmares.
I was hooked from the start! It was told in an all-knowing, omniscient view, so we have the glimpse of everyone's feelings. I was not too keen on this narration but I got accustomed as it goes on and on.
Some snippets from the past were shown, giving insight to Sakura's relationship with each brothers and even with James and Brenda.
Between the span of time since I finished reading this book and now, I have changed my rating a couple of times. This book is not flawless, I'll give you that, but it grew on me. Oh boy, it did. It sucked me into a world where Sakura and the Princetons are real. It grew on me not when I am reading it. I closed my reader after the sneak peek of the next book's first chapter, but I found myself going back to certain parts because, clearly, my mind is not done yet! Their story is freaking
I like everything about this book except for Tara and Alaina, which were quite overboard with Sakura hate. It is quite unbelievable and unjustifiable. Seriously, these two are the epitome of bitchy bitch. This is one of the major point deductor for me, everything else is quite believable.
My favorite brother is Conrad! Sweet, sweet and cute as a puppy Conrad. Of all the brothers, he is the most lovable (though all of them are). Reading about him gives me this warm, fuzzy feelings
I am officially shipping Darcy and Sakura!!! They are totally MFEO. I love Darce, there is something underneath all the layers of mystery and impassiveness he projects. You'll see how they belong to each other! There's this connection they have ever since they are kids. I have nothing against Sebastian, he is equally lovable with his own attributes. He's intense and when he put his mind on something, he'll surely come out the best on it. But if I am Sakura, Darcy is it for me!
“Snow needs to be woken up with a kiss,” he whispered. Then before he could stop himself, he gently touched his lips to hers.
Gaaah, gimme some more Darcy-Sakura moments!
The ending of this book had me tearing up at my morning commute, because THE FEELS..... It is quite heartbreaking but the end will make you look forward to the next book, it is not a severe cliffy.
Seriously, I need the next book, like, yesterday.
Sakura and the Princeton brothers' story will continue in the next book A Secret Proposal which will be released in two parts. The first part is already available and the second part will be released on August 5, 2016.
May 26, 2014
The synopsis gave me an idea of an interesting read yet it's the opposite. The heroine was constantly being chased around by 7 love sick puppies it's not cute. It was at first until it started bugging me. Having the heroine as a weak young woman who can't even defend herself from bullies was annoying as hell. She often put herself in 'accidental' situations that hardly make sense like really? The characters are bunch of adults yet they're acting like silly kids. Sorry but I'm not looking forward to its sequel.
Read
December 15, 2014My first DNF...
I was gonna end up hating it so...
DNF 32%
What I got from what I read:
-Sakura has "super-hot breasts" (?). I don't know about you but I. DON'T. CARE. ABOUT. BREASTS.
-Besides that, guess what? She's beautiful, so, SO very beautifulHow unusual
-She's clumsier than Bella Swan (if that's even possible)
-The tiniest interaction with a guy caused the rise of heat in her womanhood.
-The guys: They're rich and handsome.Again, how unusual Oh, and they're obsessed with Sakura.
But that's it.
No other qualities.
I wasn't expecting a copy of The Academy but I was hoping for something better than this.
I was gonna end up hating it so...
DNF 32%
What I got from what I read:
-Sakura has "super-hot breasts" (?). I don't know about you but I. DON'T. CARE. ABOUT. BREASTS.
-Besides that, guess what? She's beautiful, so, SO very beautiful
-She's clumsier than Bella Swan (if that's even possible)
-The tiniest interaction with a guy caused the rise of heat in her womanhood.
-The guys: They're rich and handsome.
But that's it.
No other qualities.
I wasn't expecting a copy of The Academy but I was hoping for something better than this.
January 30, 2015
I am a wattpad supporter. So I really wanted to like this book. At some points I did and it had some funny parts. I loved Logan's funny comments.
However most of all this book frustrated me so much and for the most part of it. For one, all brothers falling for her seemed so unrealistic. And all chasing after her...especially Conrad. I get he was twenty but he was too much.
And then I felt no romance whatsoever...yeah I understand they felt frustrated and couldn't admit their feelings but I felt like I had been promised a love triangle and romance and was hugely let down.
Sebastian sadly never learned. Since he was a boy he held back and even as an adult he did. It was so frustrating!
Darcy to me felt clingy. I did not buy the whole love story even in the flashbacks i got a brother sister feel between them and nothing more.
Oh and there were so many flashbacks and every time it just got worse and worse. She was abused and no one did a thing. I hated she kept to herself and was just so weak in general. At the beginning when she first sees Tara she stood up to her so you think "yeah girl yo go! No more bullying" however soon later shes being bullied and lets. Herself be pushed into the water yet again!! Come on girl stand your ground for once!
And wtf is wrong with tara and aliana! No amount of jealousy justifies attempting murder. And where the heck were the supposed parents?!? What did they do about it? Guess nothing like your freaking daughters just attempted to kill your other daughter and you do nothing to correct it? Instead freaking daddy James just sends them to different schools. Wtf! I blame him for everything...he should have made the effort to make sure they all got along. They were children still...he was the adult but whatever.
I have never believed in loving two at the same time. One thing is when a girl gets upset and meets another guy and she finds herself in a love triangle but here is like she's supposed to love both.
I felt a higher connection between Sakura and Sebastian than with Darcy. At time I felt the author just pushing Darcy onto the readers just so there could be a love triangle. It annoyed me very much! I just wanted Sebastian to get some guts and tell the whole family so they could be together!
And was the million mentions of Sakura really necessary? I get the book is called that and then the main character but really... Cherry blossoms EVERYWHERE! She planted them all over, she smelled like them, she painted them seriously thats all she could paint or what? I also felt Sakura was like a pro at everything. She painted, she took photos, she could play basketball, made coffee art or and worked at the lab!! Too bad she was freaking weak. Letting herself be bullied at her age took away all the empowerment all her supposed skills brought her.
Oh I just remembered... What in the world happened to Mark?! Wasn't he interested? He got replaced by Jack? This also leads me to the most frustrating part of this book: the writing. I get the author isn't experienced again I love wattpad but her writing was very frustrating at times. I wanted to put down the book more than once and all the back and forth got tiring.
There's a sequel being written right now but I'm not so sure if I want to read it. I swear Sebastian better step up his game and just get her. Darcy dear just stay in the hospital :)
However most of all this book frustrated me so much and for the most part of it. For one, all brothers falling for her seemed so unrealistic. And all chasing after her...especially Conrad. I get he was twenty but he was too much.
And then I felt no romance whatsoever...yeah I understand they felt frustrated and couldn't admit their feelings but I felt like I had been promised a love triangle and romance and was hugely let down.
Sebastian sadly never learned. Since he was a boy he held back and even as an adult he did. It was so frustrating!
Darcy to me felt clingy. I did not buy the whole love story even in the flashbacks i got a brother sister feel between them and nothing more.
Oh and there were so many flashbacks and every time it just got worse and worse. She was abused and no one did a thing. I hated she kept to herself and was just so weak in general. At the beginning when she first sees Tara she stood up to her so you think "yeah girl yo go! No more bullying" however soon later shes being bullied and lets. Herself be pushed into the water yet again!! Come on girl stand your ground for once!
And wtf is wrong with tara and aliana! No amount of jealousy justifies attempting murder. And where the heck were the supposed parents?!? What did they do about it? Guess nothing like your freaking daughters just attempted to kill your other daughter and you do nothing to correct it? Instead freaking daddy James just sends them to different schools. Wtf! I blame him for everything...he should have made the effort to make sure they all got along. They were children still...he was the adult but whatever.
I have never believed in loving two at the same time. One thing is when a girl gets upset and meets another guy and she finds herself in a love triangle but here is like she's supposed to love both.
I felt a higher connection between Sakura and Sebastian than with Darcy. At time I felt the author just pushing Darcy onto the readers just so there could be a love triangle. It annoyed me very much! I just wanted Sebastian to get some guts and tell the whole family so they could be together!
And was the million mentions of Sakura really necessary? I get the book is called that and then the main character but really... Cherry blossoms EVERYWHERE! She planted them all over, she smelled like them, she painted them seriously thats all she could paint or what? I also felt Sakura was like a pro at everything. She painted, she took photos, she could play basketball, made coffee art or and worked at the lab!! Too bad she was freaking weak. Letting herself be bullied at her age took away all the empowerment all her supposed skills brought her.
Oh I just remembered... What in the world happened to Mark?! Wasn't he interested? He got replaced by Jack? This also leads me to the most frustrating part of this book: the writing. I get the author isn't experienced again I love wattpad but her writing was very frustrating at times. I wanted to put down the book more than once and all the back and forth got tiring.
There's a sequel being written right now but I'm not so sure if I want to read it. I swear Sebastian better step up his game and just get her. Darcy dear just stay in the hospital :)
June 2, 2014
Lol, this book was facinating as hell. Had me laughing like hell but it sucked like hell too.
July 30, 2018
Worst novel i have read this week .
June 19, 2015
The characters were so childish. I don't even know how I finished this. I really hated not finishing books so that is the main reason I kept going. The only okay character was the father and Conrad. But Sakura was 23, almost 24 (my current age), and I just felt like she was 13. I used to read a lot of Wattpad books a couple of years ago so I'm used to the cheesy writing and stuff but these characters were not believable at all. The sisters tried to kill her like twice and all they got was a slap to their hand. What?!
The writing was actually not too bad, just everything else about the story was just too unbelievable and I'm not even talking about the reverse harem here. But the whole 7 BROTHERS all falling for their adopted sister, who they somehow all forgot existed (what?! How is that possible?). That is a little too much for me. Not too mention that multiple of them have created companies that made them multi-billionaires. Sakura acts like she is all independent but she won't stand up for herself and it just got too frustrating to read.
The writing was actually not too bad, just everything else about the story was just too unbelievable and I'm not even talking about the reverse harem here. But the whole 7 BROTHERS all falling for their adopted sister, who they somehow all forgot existed (what?! How is that possible?). That is a little too much for me. Not too mention that multiple of them have created companies that made them multi-billionaires. Sakura acts like she is all independent but she won't stand up for herself and it just got too frustrating to read.
February 4, 2017
After reading the blurb, I wanted desperately to start the book. It was cute at first, but then it just started getting too unrealistic for my liking. 7 guys, who are brothers might I add, liking the same girl who just happened to be their adoptive sister who they had forgotten about? What is this? How is that even realistic? And also, how is it that every single guy might I add wants her?
I could tell help but roll my eyes as I struggled to finish this book.
I could tell help but roll my eyes as I struggled to finish this book.
Want to Read
February 25, 2018💝 FREE on Amazon today (2/25/2018)! 💝
Want to Read
April 10, 2019This is supposed to be a revised and reedited version of Sakura: A Secret Kiss which is a book I gave a long, scathing review to (you can read it here), but I'm not opposed to second chances.
I'm totally willing to read this revised edition and see if the author made worthwhile changes to improve the story overall and reduce the things that personally made the book very unlikable to me. Hopefully that's the case. Fingers crossed. It's why I downloaded book #1 again.
I legit don't want to open this book and realize that all the author did was a few minor changes like a new cover and title so that she could delete the original manuscript off Amazon and republish it to get rid of the bad reviews in the hopes of generating new sales. But if that is the case your girl will 100% spill that tea.
To be continued...
I'm totally willing to read this revised edition and see if the author made worthwhile changes to improve the story overall and reduce the things that personally made the book very unlikable to me. Hopefully that's the case. Fingers crossed. It's why I downloaded book #1 again.
I legit don't want to open this book and realize that all the author did was a few minor changes like a new cover and title so that she could delete the original manuscript off Amazon and republish it to get rid of the bad reviews in the hopes of generating new sales. But if that is the case your girl will 100% spill that tea.
To be continued...
May 27, 2014
I think this is a FABULOUS read! 5 stars plus plus plus...
If you are a fan of romantic Japanese manga, you will love this. I had always wanted to read a plot like this in an English novel,so when I read the blurb, I knew I would absolutely love this book. I did!
Can't wait for the rest of the trilogy. <3 Stalking Amazon... :D
I even changed my username profile because of this book.
If you are a fan of romantic Japanese manga, you will love this. I had always wanted to read a plot like this in an English novel,so when I read the blurb, I knew I would absolutely love this book. I did!
Can't wait for the rest of the trilogy. <3 Stalking Amazon... :D
I even changed my username profile because of this book.
August 22, 2014
It had a good story line but the writing was rushed and it felt like she was telling me not showing me. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else but I have no idea how else to describe it. I read it all and I liked it but I don't think I'll continue reading the series.
March 16, 2015
super love this book.. looking forward for the sequel <3 Go Darcy!!!!
November 16, 2015
It seems that a lot of people liked this book, but I actually found that it was extremely poorly written and rather hard to get through. It feels extremely rough for something that is going to be published into a multi-part series, and the unpolished feelig of this book leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Right from the start the dialouge is choppy and repetitive, and it becomes apparent very early on that both the characters and the storyline lack any real substance.
Almost every bad reverse harem follows the same storyline; several extremely attractive males are tired of literally every girl falling for them and become ennamored with one "special snowflake" that is (for some reason) impervious to their charms. The fact that they all have a past with the female character is nothing new either. In fact, in a good deal of these reverse harems, may o the the male characters and occasionally a few of the females have some sort of emotional or familial connection to the female lead prior to the story.
The male leads are all extremely run-of-the-mill and I actually found myself having to look back and check the legend in the beginning to figure out who was who when I was reading. None of the characters seemed to be able to actually grow and develop during theduration of this book due to the absolute overload of shared screen time. They all felt extremely one-dimentional and even shared the same skill sets. I felt as if there was nothing new or exciting to learn about any of them, and for this reason I very neraly put down the book about three chapters in. I seem to be a glutton for punishment however, and read until the end.
Sakura is, in all essence, a Mary Sue. Quiet and demure, she was abandoned at a very young age but given a very special, obviously expensive present by her birth mother (in realistic case, the mother would have sold this rare pink diamond to try and help care for her child rather than hold onto it and abandon her daughter. This also brings up the question of why was Sakura abandoned if her mother was wealthy and/or well-off). She's bullied rather severely for absolutely no reason but it leaves her with no ill will in the young girl. I suppose that the fact that she was teased as a child could be excused given the right circumstances, but what bothers me is that she was flat out abused. Ignored and beaten on a regular basis by both her peers and caretakers, Sakura walks away with no psychological trauma. At all. The entire situation is entirely unbelievable to me and I found it extremely odd that it was never mentioned outside of the prologue. Things like abuse and bullying aren't simply forgotten. It was a major string of events that should have shaped who Sakura is that was turned into a very minor plot point.
Even though Sakura is a mix and it seems that Japanese should be prevalent in her appearance, she has been entirely white washed. While pale skin and large eyes aren't unheard of on people of Japenese heratige, the fact that she retains no traits from this side of her familysaid heratige bothers me. It feels like a poor attempt to make her seem exotic and unusual
Speaking of her appearance, Sakura does not have a single flaw. She’s curvy enough that every female who she comes into contact with is either jealous of her efortless perfection or comments on how absolutely stunning she is. Her face is apparently quite innocent looking and lacks any sort of freckles, bumps, or scars. While I realize that the author wanted her to be as desirable as possible, a body that perfect leads to a rather bland appearance in my mind, seeing as there is literally nothing identifiable or interesting about her.
Sakura really lacks substance to me. She's beautiful and kind and smart and giving and seems to struggle with nothing outside of her inability to swim - something she quite easily overcomes. Any good main characters should have a particular set of skills, yes, but they shouldn’t have so many in such a convenient niche that they never struggle with anything. On top of making it way too convenient and impressive rather than run of the mill, I feel that the author missed a golden opportunity to bring up the fact that even masters of a skill set can and will struggle with their talents from time to time, especially if their skill is used to cater to the public, such as her talents as a barista.
Sakura's "strong-willed" behavior also irks me because I haven't seen it get her into actual trouble even once in the book. It seems that because she's so beautiful and smart everyone agrees with literally everything she does, especially because most of the things she does is for the good of others. I would actually categorize her as an even bigger push over than a good two thirds of reverse harem females that you claim to be weak-willed. This is mostly because if you look at the stories where the heroine lets herself get pushed around it’s usually because she likes one or more of the male leads and wants to impress them. Sakura claims to hate the brothers for what they’ve done to her in her childhood (something that was never expanded upon) and yet still lets herself get followed around and pushed into situations she doesn’t want to be in.
The only situation in which I can remember her being independent is the whole money situation. I can….kind of understand her wanting to be financially independent but let’s be honest, if you were the adopted child of an incredibly wealthy family who was willing to support you in your quest to find your birth mother (poorly thought out plan to just hop on a plane and go to Japan to find her when she was left in America, by the way, there are people who can track her down for you) is it independent or stupid to try and do it all on your own? For that matter, if she wants financial independence why is she living at home? Another question is why does she stop doing photography when the brothers show up? I think it’s a good idea for a plot point that is again, poorly executed.
What I would have loved to see was her saying "Fuck no. Fuck this. Fuck you. Leave me the fuck alone." when her brothers attempt to push her into situations that she doesn't want to be in or when they intruded on events and situations where she obviously didn't want them to be there. If she was treated so poorly as a child by them I wouldn't see a reason for her /not/ to do that. But seeing as she didn't actually stand up for herself a single time (I don't count her telling her sisters that she didn't have to leave because she lived in her home too standing up for herself, I consider that a normal interaction with someone who's being an ass) I wouldn't dare categorize her as a strong-willed character.
If you want a strong-willed character try reading homestuck past act 5. Every female character strands up for what they believe in at least once, even if they don’t come out and yell at their aggressor like Jade Harley does. There are a thousand different ways to represent a strong female lead (Rose with her sass, Vriska with her trickery, Terezi using her blindness as a tool instead of letting it disable her) and I think Homestuck showcases a good deal of these quite well without sacrificing romance or making the females any less desirable. In fact, Jade was shown as one of the more desirable characters (three character have been known to like her and two more are speculated to) and she has buck teeth and big circle glasses and fucking /narcolepsy/. Try reading Gunnerkrigg Court if you don’t like homestuck. Antominy stands up for herself despite people not agreeing with her. Try reasing Ava's Demon past the third chapter. Read Looking For Group.
If webcomics aren't your thing watch firefly. All of the females there are strong-willed. The walking dead for the most part is /full/ of strong-willed characters, both male and female that are both good and bad. New Girl’s Jess is quirky and odd and strong willed because she does what she thinks is right even if she has to fight for it.
If you want someone a bit more demure look at Luna Lovegood. She's quite quiet and a bit quirky, yes, but she's no less strong-willed than Hermione. Their skills and way of doing things are just very very different. If you want to go onto a different kind of book look at Katniss Everdeen. She does to war and even though she wins does she come out unscathed? No. She comes out scarred and brutalized and deaf in one ear and she wakes up with nightmares. She leaves the arena jaded and even though many people put a slant on the Hunger Games to be about romance, it is a book about war with a side of romance and a very strong female lead.
The thing about strong-willed characters and especially female characters is that they stand by their decision even if it wasn't something that was morally good. They take whatever path they damn well please no matter how many people disagree or try to talk them out of it. They tend to get into fights and wind up doing some pretty dumb things sometimes but they stand by whatever they've decided. The only real decision Sakura made was to not get bullied anymore. Which she didn't follow through on, by the way. Running away to make people’s lives quote quote “better” was not strong, it was selfish, especially when she knew how the male leads and her adoptive parents felt about her.
I also realized as I was writing this that Sakura didn’t have to do anything besides look pretty to make the brothers (all seven of them no less) fall in love with her. It’s a bland view on the entire situation and I would have much rather liked to see two or three of them fall in love with the little things she does rather than all seven with her looks. I would have preferred a story where the brothers start with distaining her and then slowly build a familial bond over games in the dining room and shared interests. I would have loved for two or three of them to all notice different things and slowly fall in love with her one piece at a time until they’re enamored with the way she crinkles her nose or how she only plays with her hair when she’s embarrassed. I wanted a good mix of family and romance out of this book and I got too much romance in an incredibly sloppy manner.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend this book and it confuses me as to why people would, but to each their own I guess.
Almost every bad reverse harem follows the same storyline; several extremely attractive males are tired of literally every girl falling for them and become ennamored with one "special snowflake" that is (for some reason) impervious to their charms. The fact that they all have a past with the female character is nothing new either. In fact, in a good deal of these reverse harems, may o the the male characters and occasionally a few of the females have some sort of emotional or familial connection to the female lead prior to the story.
The male leads are all extremely run-of-the-mill and I actually found myself having to look back and check the legend in the beginning to figure out who was who when I was reading. None of the characters seemed to be able to actually grow and develop during theduration of this book due to the absolute overload of shared screen time. They all felt extremely one-dimentional and even shared the same skill sets. I felt as if there was nothing new or exciting to learn about any of them, and for this reason I very neraly put down the book about three chapters in. I seem to be a glutton for punishment however, and read until the end.
Sakura is, in all essence, a Mary Sue. Quiet and demure, she was abandoned at a very young age but given a very special, obviously expensive present by her birth mother (in realistic case, the mother would have sold this rare pink diamond to try and help care for her child rather than hold onto it and abandon her daughter. This also brings up the question of why was Sakura abandoned if her mother was wealthy and/or well-off). She's bullied rather severely for absolutely no reason but it leaves her with no ill will in the young girl. I suppose that the fact that she was teased as a child could be excused given the right circumstances, but what bothers me is that she was flat out abused. Ignored and beaten on a regular basis by both her peers and caretakers, Sakura walks away with no psychological trauma. At all. The entire situation is entirely unbelievable to me and I found it extremely odd that it was never mentioned outside of the prologue. Things like abuse and bullying aren't simply forgotten. It was a major string of events that should have shaped who Sakura is that was turned into a very minor plot point.
Even though Sakura is a mix and it seems that Japanese should be prevalent in her appearance, she has been entirely white washed. While pale skin and large eyes aren't unheard of on people of Japenese heratige, the fact that she retains no traits from this side of her familysaid heratige bothers me. It feels like a poor attempt to make her seem exotic and unusual
Speaking of her appearance, Sakura does not have a single flaw. She’s curvy enough that every female who she comes into contact with is either jealous of her efortless perfection or comments on how absolutely stunning she is. Her face is apparently quite innocent looking and lacks any sort of freckles, bumps, or scars. While I realize that the author wanted her to be as desirable as possible, a body that perfect leads to a rather bland appearance in my mind, seeing as there is literally nothing identifiable or interesting about her.
Sakura really lacks substance to me. She's beautiful and kind and smart and giving and seems to struggle with nothing outside of her inability to swim - something she quite easily overcomes. Any good main characters should have a particular set of skills, yes, but they shouldn’t have so many in such a convenient niche that they never struggle with anything. On top of making it way too convenient and impressive rather than run of the mill, I feel that the author missed a golden opportunity to bring up the fact that even masters of a skill set can and will struggle with their talents from time to time, especially if their skill is used to cater to the public, such as her talents as a barista.
Sakura's "strong-willed" behavior also irks me because I haven't seen it get her into actual trouble even once in the book. It seems that because she's so beautiful and smart everyone agrees with literally everything she does, especially because most of the things she does is for the good of others. I would actually categorize her as an even bigger push over than a good two thirds of reverse harem females that you claim to be weak-willed. This is mostly because if you look at the stories where the heroine lets herself get pushed around it’s usually because she likes one or more of the male leads and wants to impress them. Sakura claims to hate the brothers for what they’ve done to her in her childhood (something that was never expanded upon) and yet still lets herself get followed around and pushed into situations she doesn’t want to be in.
The only situation in which I can remember her being independent is the whole money situation. I can….kind of understand her wanting to be financially independent but let’s be honest, if you were the adopted child of an incredibly wealthy family who was willing to support you in your quest to find your birth mother (poorly thought out plan to just hop on a plane and go to Japan to find her when she was left in America, by the way, there are people who can track her down for you) is it independent or stupid to try and do it all on your own? For that matter, if she wants financial independence why is she living at home? Another question is why does she stop doing photography when the brothers show up? I think it’s a good idea for a plot point that is again, poorly executed.
What I would have loved to see was her saying "Fuck no. Fuck this. Fuck you. Leave me the fuck alone." when her brothers attempt to push her into situations that she doesn't want to be in or when they intruded on events and situations where she obviously didn't want them to be there. If she was treated so poorly as a child by them I wouldn't see a reason for her /not/ to do that. But seeing as she didn't actually stand up for herself a single time (I don't count her telling her sisters that she didn't have to leave because she lived in her home too standing up for herself, I consider that a normal interaction with someone who's being an ass) I wouldn't dare categorize her as a strong-willed character.
If you want a strong-willed character try reading homestuck past act 5. Every female character strands up for what they believe in at least once, even if they don’t come out and yell at their aggressor like Jade Harley does. There are a thousand different ways to represent a strong female lead (Rose with her sass, Vriska with her trickery, Terezi using her blindness as a tool instead of letting it disable her) and I think Homestuck showcases a good deal of these quite well without sacrificing romance or making the females any less desirable. In fact, Jade was shown as one of the more desirable characters (three character have been known to like her and two more are speculated to) and she has buck teeth and big circle glasses and fucking /narcolepsy/. Try reading Gunnerkrigg Court if you don’t like homestuck. Antominy stands up for herself despite people not agreeing with her. Try reasing Ava's Demon past the third chapter. Read Looking For Group.
If webcomics aren't your thing watch firefly. All of the females there are strong-willed. The walking dead for the most part is /full/ of strong-willed characters, both male and female that are both good and bad. New Girl’s Jess is quirky and odd and strong willed because she does what she thinks is right even if she has to fight for it.
If you want someone a bit more demure look at Luna Lovegood. She's quite quiet and a bit quirky, yes, but she's no less strong-willed than Hermione. Their skills and way of doing things are just very very different. If you want to go onto a different kind of book look at Katniss Everdeen. She does to war and even though she wins does she come out unscathed? No. She comes out scarred and brutalized and deaf in one ear and she wakes up with nightmares. She leaves the arena jaded and even though many people put a slant on the Hunger Games to be about romance, it is a book about war with a side of romance and a very strong female lead.
The thing about strong-willed characters and especially female characters is that they stand by their decision even if it wasn't something that was morally good. They take whatever path they damn well please no matter how many people disagree or try to talk them out of it. They tend to get into fights and wind up doing some pretty dumb things sometimes but they stand by whatever they've decided. The only real decision Sakura made was to not get bullied anymore. Which she didn't follow through on, by the way. Running away to make people’s lives quote quote “better” was not strong, it was selfish, especially when she knew how the male leads and her adoptive parents felt about her.
I also realized as I was writing this that Sakura didn’t have to do anything besides look pretty to make the brothers (all seven of them no less) fall in love with her. It’s a bland view on the entire situation and I would have much rather liked to see two or three of them fall in love with the little things she does rather than all seven with her looks. I would have preferred a story where the brothers start with distaining her and then slowly build a familial bond over games in the dining room and shared interests. I would have loved for two or three of them to all notice different things and slowly fall in love with her one piece at a time until they’re enamored with the way she crinkles her nose or how she only plays with her hair when she’s embarrassed. I wanted a good mix of family and romance out of this book and I got too much romance in an incredibly sloppy manner.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend this book and it confuses me as to why people would, but to each their own I guess.
July 18, 2018
This was a true guilty pleasure read. The romance was cringey but addictive and the characters were okay but very cliche.
February 3, 2023
1.5 Stars
June 22, 2017
*I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review*
Sakura, orphaned at Queen Mary Orphanage on St. Joseph Island since she was a wee baby, is the trilogy's sweet, independent, exotically beautiful inside-and-outside heroine. After the orphanage burnt down one fateful day, she was adopted by the wealthy and prominent Princeton family.
Sakura's feisty, learning to swim so she doesn't sink, and on a self-discovery journey to find her biological mother and perhaps even romantic love - with one of her adopted brothers - Sebastian or Darcy Princeton.
13 years later, Sakura, her adopted brothers, her arch enemies and her high school best friends all came together for their cousin (who also happened to be Sakura's best friend from high school) Mary Collins's wedding. Sakura's tale is full of mystery, family love, bullying and romance. It is written in third person narration where you get a glimpse of everyone's thoughts but still leaves enough room to think and ponder.
I'm glad I do not have to wait till the next book to uncover the mysteries of what happened 13 years ago between Sakura and her 7 adopted brothers. It is revealed via flashbacks bit by bit.
Normally, I am not a fan of 'obvious' love triangles, but I loved how both Sebastian and Darcy have more or less equal scenes and moments with Sakura and how both have flaws. They were both afraid to stand up to what's right (their sister, Alaina, and their adopted sister's, Tara's bullying of Sakura), held back their love for her and resorts to secretly protecting her from afar. Go Darcy! I'm rooting for you!
Though all 7 brothers have their own individual personalities, sometimes the numerous number of brothers still makes me forget who is who and hard to keep track of dialogues. I did not find it took away from the story, however.
With 7 adopted brothers,
2 evil adopted sisters,
and 1 Sakura,
What is a girl to do??
Sakura, orphaned at Queen Mary Orphanage on St. Joseph Island since she was a wee baby, is the trilogy's sweet, independent, exotically beautiful inside-and-outside heroine. After the orphanage burnt down one fateful day, she was adopted by the wealthy and prominent Princeton family.
Sakura's feisty, learning to swim so she doesn't sink, and on a self-discovery journey to find her biological mother and perhaps even romantic love - with one of her adopted brothers - Sebastian or Darcy Princeton.
13 years later, Sakura, her adopted brothers, her arch enemies and her high school best friends all came together for their cousin (who also happened to be Sakura's best friend from high school) Mary Collins's wedding. Sakura's tale is full of mystery, family love, bullying and romance. It is written in third person narration where you get a glimpse of everyone's thoughts but still leaves enough room to think and ponder.
I'm glad I do not have to wait till the next book to uncover the mysteries of what happened 13 years ago between Sakura and her 7 adopted brothers. It is revealed via flashbacks bit by bit.
Normally, I am not a fan of 'obvious' love triangles, but I loved how both Sebastian and Darcy have more or less equal scenes and moments with Sakura and how both have flaws. They were both afraid to stand up to what's right (their sister, Alaina, and their adopted sister's, Tara's bullying of Sakura), held back their love for her and resorts to secretly protecting her from afar. Go Darcy! I'm rooting for you!
Though all 7 brothers have their own individual personalities, sometimes the numerous number of brothers still makes me forget who is who and hard to keep track of dialogues. I did not find it took away from the story, however.
With 7 adopted brothers,
2 evil adopted sisters,
and 1 Sakura,
What is a girl to do??
January 31, 2017
Sakura was left as a baby on the doorstep of the orphanage.
Because of her unusual looks kids were always mean to her. But all she ever wished for was a family that will love her. And one day her wish came true. Well, partly.
Sakura was adopted by James and Brenda into a Princeton family, which consisted of seven boys - Nicolas, Sebastian, Tristan, Logan, Hayden, Darcy, Conrad - and their sister Alaina. But Tara, a girl from her orphanage was also adopted there, and she always hated Sakura, accusing her of anything and everything. So Tara quickly turned all the kids in their new home against Sakura.
Now, a few years later, they all return home for the wedding of their cousin. Except, all the boys forgot that Sakura even existed (though how they managed to totally forget about a person that lived with them is completely beyond me) and now seeing the woman she grew up to be they try to pursue her.
The girls on the other hand haven't forgotten anything and it seems that they hate Sakura now even more that they used to.
So what will this family reunion lead to?
I hate it when there are conflicts because of miscommunication.
Sakura always wanted the boys to accept her as their sister, and every time they said that it will never happened she didn't understand what they meant. She thought that they were rejecting her, when in truth they wanted her in a really unbrotherly way.
It was frustrating at times but mostly an okey read.
The ending was kind of dramatic though
Because of her unusual looks kids were always mean to her. But all she ever wished for was a family that will love her. And one day her wish came true. Well, partly.
Sakura was adopted by James and Brenda into a Princeton family, which consisted of seven boys - Nicolas, Sebastian, Tristan, Logan, Hayden, Darcy, Conrad - and their sister Alaina. But Tara, a girl from her orphanage was also adopted there, and she always hated Sakura, accusing her of anything and everything. So Tara quickly turned all the kids in their new home against Sakura.
Now, a few years later, they all return home for the wedding of their cousin. Except, all the boys forgot that Sakura even existed (though how they managed to totally forget about a person that lived with them is completely beyond me) and now seeing the woman she grew up to be they try to pursue her.
The girls on the other hand haven't forgotten anything and it seems that they hate Sakura now even more that they used to.
So what will this family reunion lead to?
I hate it when there are conflicts because of miscommunication.
Sakura always wanted the boys to accept her as their sister, and every time they said that it will never happened she didn't understand what they meant. She thought that they were rejecting her, when in truth they wanted her in a really unbrotherly way.
It was frustrating at times but mostly an okey read.
The ending was kind of dramatic though
February 26, 2017
A RH book. A sort of Snow White meets Cinderella. Only the seven dwarves are seven hot, very tall brothers, Snow (Sakura) is half Japanese, their adopted sister and Cinderella's ugly sisters are Snow's (Sakura's) adopted sisters with their mean girlfriend as possibly the wicked stepmother!
The story is a rollercoaster of emotion and drama against the backdrop of organising Sakura's best friend Mary's wedding. Everyone meets up again for this occasion after a long absence and the brothers are shocked at how Sakura has grown up into a beautiful young woman. All of them start to have not so brotherly feelings for her. Two of them in particular start reliving childhood memories and realise they have always been in love with Sakura. The mean girls decide they are not having that and plan their revenge just like when they were kids. As the story unfolds, the two brothers realise they are rivals for Sakura's affections. Who will she choose?
A great read for those who are romantic at heart.
The story is a rollercoaster of emotion and drama against the backdrop of organising Sakura's best friend Mary's wedding. Everyone meets up again for this occasion after a long absence and the brothers are shocked at how Sakura has grown up into a beautiful young woman. All of them start to have not so brotherly feelings for her. Two of them in particular start reliving childhood memories and realise they have always been in love with Sakura. The mean girls decide they are not having that and plan their revenge just like when they were kids. As the story unfolds, the two brothers realise they are rivals for Sakura's affections. Who will she choose?
A great read for those who are romantic at heart.
May 3, 2015
One girl being chased around by seven men.
The girl falls in love with two of them.
And what's worse is that they are her adopted brothers.
Bullshit. That's what this book is filled with.
0.5 stars
The girl falls in love with two of them.
And what's worse is that they are her adopted brothers.
Bullshit. That's what this book is filled with.
0.5 stars
July 14, 2014
I liked the book although one complaint is that Sakura really annoyed me since I felt she was very weak willed however I am curious as to how the love triangle will turn out, I support Sebastian :)
Read
March 10, 2017Amazing a book with amazing feelings involved, makes me want to never keep the book down. But unfortunately the book had to end.
December 14, 2025
The Real Villain of Falling for Sakura Isn’t Who You Think
At first glance, Falling for Sakura presents a familiar romance structure: a pure, self-sacrificing heroine; jealous antagonistic women; and a powerful, morally upright patriarch presiding over it all. But a closer reading reveals a deeply uncomfortable truth: the most damaging character in this story isn’t Alaina, Tara, or even the romantic rivals, it’s James Princeton himself.
James is framed as a stern but loving father, a man of principles who values discipline, independence, and moral character. Yet his actual behavior toward his adopted daughters consistently undermines those ideals and creates the very dysfunction the narrative later punishes.
First, consider Sakura the supposed “success story.” The book treats it as admirable that she worked to pay her own tuition and even attempted to repay James for raising her, despite being adopted into a billionaire family. In reality, this is not wholesome independence; it signals internalised conditional belonging. Children (adopted or biological) should never feel they owe their parents financial reimbursement for care. James’s pride in this gesture, rather than rejecting the premise outright, suggests a family culture where love must be earned.
More troublingly, James then instructs Sakura to donate the money to charity. While framed as noble, this choice reinforces a disturbing pattern: Sakura’s labor is only valued when it serves others, never herself. This sets her up as a moral benchmark one James explicitly wishes Alaina would emulate despite the fact that Alaina was never given the emotional safety, mentorship, or autonomy required to reach the same standard.
Alaina’s treatment is where James’s failures become impossible to ignore. She is physically punished, emotionally neglected, denied guidance, and then condemned for the resulting instability. Cutting her inheritance and threatening expulsion at just 23 years old is not “tough love”; it is financial and emotional coercion. Expecting adult-level self-regulation from a daughter who was never taught, protected, or supported is not fairness it is scapegoating.
Tara’s arc is even more chilling. As a non-biological child, she understands her disposability early. James’s coldness toward her, culminating in telling her to leave after the wedding and never return without concern for where she will go or how she will survive exposes a man more invested in moral purity and loyalty tests than parental responsibility.
Throughout the novel, James is never meaningfully challenged. Instead, the narrative redirects blame toward younger women who are structurally powerless, emotionally underdeveloped, and dependent by design. The story asks readers to condemn these women for failing to thrive in a system that systematically undermined them while absolving the adult who created and enforced that system.
In the end, Falling for Sakura unintentionally becomes a story about how authoritarian parenting, conditional love, and moral performativity can quietly destroy lives, even in environments of extreme wealth and privilege. James Princeton may be portrayed as a pillar of virtue but when judged by his outcomes rather than his intentions, he emerges as the most harmful character in the book.
At first glance, Falling for Sakura presents a familiar romance structure: a pure, self-sacrificing heroine; jealous antagonistic women; and a powerful, morally upright patriarch presiding over it all. But a closer reading reveals a deeply uncomfortable truth: the most damaging character in this story isn’t Alaina, Tara, or even the romantic rivals, it’s James Princeton himself.
James is framed as a stern but loving father, a man of principles who values discipline, independence, and moral character. Yet his actual behavior toward his adopted daughters consistently undermines those ideals and creates the very dysfunction the narrative later punishes.
First, consider Sakura the supposed “success story.” The book treats it as admirable that she worked to pay her own tuition and even attempted to repay James for raising her, despite being adopted into a billionaire family. In reality, this is not wholesome independence; it signals internalised conditional belonging. Children (adopted or biological) should never feel they owe their parents financial reimbursement for care. James’s pride in this gesture, rather than rejecting the premise outright, suggests a family culture where love must be earned.
More troublingly, James then instructs Sakura to donate the money to charity. While framed as noble, this choice reinforces a disturbing pattern: Sakura’s labor is only valued when it serves others, never herself. This sets her up as a moral benchmark one James explicitly wishes Alaina would emulate despite the fact that Alaina was never given the emotional safety, mentorship, or autonomy required to reach the same standard.
Alaina’s treatment is where James’s failures become impossible to ignore. She is physically punished, emotionally neglected, denied guidance, and then condemned for the resulting instability. Cutting her inheritance and threatening expulsion at just 23 years old is not “tough love”; it is financial and emotional coercion. Expecting adult-level self-regulation from a daughter who was never taught, protected, or supported is not fairness it is scapegoating.
Tara’s arc is even more chilling. As a non-biological child, she understands her disposability early. James’s coldness toward her, culminating in telling her to leave after the wedding and never return without concern for where she will go or how she will survive exposes a man more invested in moral purity and loyalty tests than parental responsibility.
Throughout the novel, James is never meaningfully challenged. Instead, the narrative redirects blame toward younger women who are structurally powerless, emotionally underdeveloped, and dependent by design. The story asks readers to condemn these women for failing to thrive in a system that systematically undermined them while absolving the adult who created and enforced that system.
In the end, Falling for Sakura unintentionally becomes a story about how authoritarian parenting, conditional love, and moral performativity can quietly destroy lives, even in environments of extreme wealth and privilege. James Princeton may be portrayed as a pillar of virtue but when judged by his outcomes rather than his intentions, he emerges as the most harmful character in the book.
March 16, 2017
I definitely find this book a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. Firstly, when i saw the review for this book wasn't that good, I didn't want to believe it. This is because I come to like some of the author's novels. So, I gave it a shot and turns out it's shitty.
From the beginning, I don't mind the female lead pathetic-ness. I was like, “it’s okay, she will grow from the life lesson I hope.” but NOOOO.... She is pathetic from the start to the end. Not only that, her fickle mindedness on who she loves pisses me off. From then on, in my mind I was thinking she's better off dead.*Tara mode on*
Maybe I hated this novel because it reminded me of a emo book called "twilight". Where I never even want to watch or read the book.
Anyway, back to my verbose, Sakura is a total bit*h and a person with terrible character. Drop dead please. I want to finish reading the trilogy but after just finish reading this 1st book itself, I'm just gonna quit reading the rest of the two books because everything is utter bu*lsh*t with Sakura in it. I don't care who she's with. JUST DIE PLEASE. My apologies to the author for the bad review but please.... Never ever... Create.. a second Bella.
From the beginning, I don't mind the female lead pathetic-ness. I was like, “it’s okay, she will grow from the life lesson I hope.” but NOOOO.... She is pathetic from the start to the end. Not only that, her fickle mindedness on who she loves pisses me off. From then on, in my mind I was thinking she's better off dead.*Tara mode on*
Maybe I hated this novel because it reminded me of a emo book called "twilight". Where I never even want to watch or read the book.
Anyway, back to my verbose, Sakura is a total bit*h and a person with terrible character. Drop dead please. I want to finish reading the trilogy but after just finish reading this 1st book itself, I'm just gonna quit reading the rest of the two books because everything is utter bu*lsh*t with Sakura in it. I don't care who she's with. JUST DIE PLEASE. My apologies to the author for the bad review but please.... Never ever... Create.. a second Bella.
December 21, 2016
I've never rolled my eyes so much while reading a book. In theory, it seemed like an interesting concept, but the end result was full of flaws. I tried to overlook grammar errors and repetitive passages with over-used words, even the strange (i.e. antiquated) speech patterns. I think at some point I started to dislike every single character, except maybe Mary. I mostly felt sorry for Conrad who was always treated like a child or a pet--he's 20 years old but treated like he's 12. The two main brothers claim to love her, but all of their actions were possessive and lustful, nothing resembling loving her as a person rather than an object. Every female connected to the brothers is trying to kill her. So, every time she tries to get away from them, they find a way to reel her back in, even the very end when she finally has to sneak away they still want to hunt her down. Do they really not see all the pain and suffering they have brought upon her? I really wanted to love this book and enjoy reading it the same way I enjoyed watching the anime Brothers' Conflict, but it fell short.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2018
I am a fan of a reverse-harem. This book is good yet has some flaws.
Firstly, about the heroine.
When you described Sakura in the book, she was "too" perfect. It is somehow unrealistic. She seems to be the ideal "perfect" girl. Although I am a fan of reverse harem, I still prefer it if you keep it realistic in some Sakura's aspects.
Secondly, about those hot brothers.
"So hot." My first words when I've read their characteristics. You've portrayed them really well yet, they seem to be the cliche type of guys. By the way, I love Darcy. I like the way he's portraying the mysterious type of a guy. The way he keeps his love for Sakura secretly. I could relate in the utmost level.
Lastly, about the words you've used in the book.
Honestly, I was getting tired of reading the same phrases from different point of views. They seem to be overly used.
Overall, I give 3 stars.
(TEAM DARCY)
Firstly, about the heroine.
When you described Sakura in the book, she was "too" perfect. It is somehow unrealistic. She seems to be the ideal "perfect" girl. Although I am a fan of reverse harem, I still prefer it if you keep it realistic in some Sakura's aspects.
Secondly, about those hot brothers.
"So hot." My first words when I've read their characteristics. You've portrayed them really well yet, they seem to be the cliche type of guys. By the way, I love Darcy. I like the way he's portraying the mysterious type of a guy. The way he keeps his love for Sakura secretly. I could relate in the utmost level.
Lastly, about the words you've used in the book.
Honestly, I was getting tired of reading the same phrases from different point of views. They seem to be overly used.
Overall, I give 3 stars.
(TEAM DARCY)
July 21, 2023
Sakura is a beautiful half Asian girl who is hated by most and loved by few. When she is left on the doorstep of an orphanage she is mistreated by the woman running it and her daughter. When the orphanage burns down she is adopted along with that daughter by a rich family known as the Princetons. The parents adore Sakura and they show her that at all costs but their seven boys and one girl seem to abhor her right along with their other adopted daughter. As children they terrorize Sakura and she is almost killed on several occasions. But as grown men each of the boys have fallen in love with her. Her heart belongs to two and she leaves them to find her own destiny without them knowing who she really is. I can’t wait to read the second book cause I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot more about her and her loves.
December 14, 2019
This triology is like some kind of manga with grown boys who acted like kid with Sakura. I mean seriously, i think this book is some kind of teen fantasy for the author but it really isn't that good one. I doubt how this book even got published. The main character sakura is a weak but a "very, very, very pretty" and you don't want to talk about her "perky beautiful boobs". And i am here like wtf , seriously the amount of time the author has spend on describing her magical boobs is insane, who wants to even know about someone "perfect boobs" that much.
This book consist of weak beautiful heroine, the perfect seven heros , damn bitch vamps , unnecessary killings and a all in all a childish , "mangish" plot.
All in all a really bad case of manga, TBH.
This book consist of weak beautiful heroine, the perfect seven heros , damn bitch vamps , unnecessary killings and a all in all a childish , "mangish" plot.
All in all a really bad case of manga, TBH.
July 13, 2019
The beginning was absolutely amazing! And I mean amazing!! I was blown away!
The rest was good too, I loved the poetic aspect of this book with the cherry blossoms etc, it was a very beautiful book universe.
But I was disappointed because the brothers chase her and it’s quite clear they’re all interested in her but she only fancies two of them. I mean, it’s a reverse harem, if you’re going to not choose then go all out! So that was disappointed because it’s was basically just a love triangle and not a reverse harem.
The rest was good too, I loved the poetic aspect of this book with the cherry blossoms etc, it was a very beautiful book universe.
But I was disappointed because the brothers chase her and it’s quite clear they’re all interested in her but she only fancies two of them. I mean, it’s a reverse harem, if you’re going to not choose then go all out! So that was disappointed because it’s was basically just a love triangle and not a reverse harem.
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