Paper Fools (Hearts and Arrows, #1)

by Staci Hart

Aphrodite knows love. Just don’t ask her to figure out her own heart.

Instead, she toys with the hearts of humans. It’s a little game the gods play, and this time it’s Aphrodite’s turn to defend the domain of love. The battleground is New York City, and the stakes are high—the winner receives a token, a favor the loser must fulfill.

But every god has secrets. Every god lies. And no god can be trusted.

Apollo is no exception. He killed Aphrodite’s love, and for that, he can never be forgiven. But Apollo is on a mission to win. For thousands of years, Aphrodite has kept him from the one he loves, but the wind has shifted, and now is his chance.

God and goddess will choose their players. The clock will start. Two humans will fall in love, or they won’t—their fates are intertwined with the gods, their hearts slave to their circumstance, a slave to the game.

And in this game of love, Aphrodite never loses.

• ISBN10: 1545182957
• ISBN13: 9781545182956
• Publish Date: 7 April 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 300
• Language: English

Reviews

[stacey_is_sassy]

The Gods must be Crazy…

I don’t know how many “Gods” one-liners popped into my head while reading Paper Fools? To be honest, I can’t say I’m a big fan of them (Gods, not one-liners). Sure, by the end, they did some good things, but they’re so self-serving and narcissistic. I know they’re Gods and all, but I hate the idea that someone is sitting somewhere messing with our lives. Paper Fools left me contemplating whether we are just puppets on their strings. Are our love lives, dreams and ambitions guided to suit their game? Can we be so easily manipulated on the whim of Gods?

I can’t decide if I like Staci Hart’s writing or not. My sister is a fan and she’s read all of her books. I’ve read two and both times I wanted to rip someone’s head off a time or two. The reason why I can’t fully decide, though, is that by the end of the story, I’m happy and sighing in delight. It’s just hard to go through the heartache, frustration and misery to get to the happy.

I think with Paper Fools my frustrations lay with the fact that the characters did things that would normally have me chucking my kindle against the wall and calling it quits. But, how can I be frustrated with the characters, hate them for their mistakes and judgements, when I know that it wasn’t them acting alone. There was someone else pulling the strings to blame and hate.

So, while I was happy with the conclusion, the journey was just a little too fraught with angst and bitterness. I hardly felt like the main characters were connected. Sure, I get that there was a mutual attraction that couldn’t be acted on, but, really, there wasn’t a relationship for most of the story. The relationships we do see forming and growing stronger are not between the main characters. We're all sitting around just waiting for it to happen. That probably doesn't make sense. Let me try and describe it better... It was like watching Friends and waiting for Ross and Rachel to get together. In the meantime we're distracted by Chandler and Monica falling in love, Joey "How Ya Doin..." all the ladies and Phoebe singing to Smelly Cats. It's all interesting but you're just dying for Rachel and Ross to just get to it already.

An original storyline with some interesting characters kept me reading and I was content with how it finished. I may go on in the series at a later date.