ARC Review: Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey

Published: February 22, 2016 by Entangled: Crave
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Fantasy, Romance
Format: ebook
Source: Sent through Netgalley for honest review

Goodreads Summary

Dating isn’t easy when you’re in the middle of a blood feud. 

Anastasia Vila’s family can turn into swans, but just once she’d like them to turn into responsible adults.

After hundreds of years, they still cling to the blood feud with the Renard family. No one remembers how it started in the first place—but foxes and swans just don’t get along.

Vilas can only transform into their swan shape after they have fallen in love for the first time, but between balancing schoolwork, family obligations, and the escalating blood feud, Ana’s got no time for love. The only thing keeping her sane is her best friend, Pierce Kent.

But when Pierce kisses Ana, everything changes.

Is what Pierce feels for her real, or a byproduct of her magic? Can she risk everything for her best friend? And when the family feud spirals out of control, Ana must stop the fight before it takes away everything she loves.

Including, maybe...Pierce.

This Entangled Teen Crave book contains language, violence, and lots of kissing. Warning: it might induce strong feelings of undeniable attraction for your best friend.

"When your day started with decade-old battle-blood and your aunt singing about making a harp from your bones and your hair, it's probably best just to go back to bed."

The Good

I've never read anything about swan shifters though I've heard of the folktales, so that part really intrigued me. This was a cute story about Ana and her family of swans. They only turn into a swan if they fall in love so this is largely a romance story as well. There is also a family feud here which added a lot of action, intensity, and mystery to the story.

I enjoyed the characters a lot. This was told through Ana's POV and alternated to Pierce's POV. Pierce is Ana's best friend and he knows all about her family's secrets. He is a great guy and quite gentlemanly, always trying to shield Ana even though she's the one with the magic. The magic in the story is fun. There's magic brought on by their singing, magic in their long blonde hair, and dancing at midnight to recharge their magic. The foxes were also good characters. I enjoyed the sassy Liv that Ana just can't get along with. I would read a story from her POV as well.

There's a lot happening. Swans' hair, cloaks, and even swans themselves are disappearing. There are also foxes being trapped and fox tails being taken. Naturally, this causes the feud to ramp up a lot. It ended with a lot of action and wrapped up nicely.

The Bad

There are a ton of side characters, especially in the two feuding families, and I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. I also would've liked to have seen even more personality fleshed out for those characters. While the main characters were strongly written, I would've liked to have seen more even from those Aunts and Cousins that were mentioned often.

The Romance

The romance was very cute. Pierce is Ana's best friend and he's in love with her. Yet, he helps Ana try to win Edward's attention so that she can get her wings. So there is a bit of a triangle here, but it works very well.

Conclusion

Love Me, Love Me Not is a cute, fun read. It's a short book and interesting the whole way through. There is quite a bit of action and the unique addition of swan shifters. I also enjoyed the family feud with the foxes and how Ana really wanted to stop carrying on with their ancestor's rivalry. Recommended.

Excerpts

Swans and foxes just didn't get along. To say my family was not like other families was an understatement. It wasn't enough that we had magic in a world that didn't believe in it, and that we had to keep our magic hidden at all costs - we also had the joys of a magical family feud. Which, by the way, started so long ago that no one could actually remember what the hell we were fighting about anymore. It had become an inherited quality, like blue eyes or lactose intolerance, only we had inherited stupidity. And I was so over it. Problem was, no one else seemed particularly bothered.

We had other weapons after all. Some of the prettiest flowers are poisonous.

Were they experimenting on Ana's family? It only got worse when I saw the cage. The girl was curled up in the back, dirt and salt stains on her cheeks. Her long blond hair was perfectly combed, at odds with the tears in her clothes and the bruises on her arms and throat. She was gagged. Her left eye was swollen shut. I wasn't even sure if she could see wewll enough to recognize me. But I recognized her.