Paper Fools (Hearts and Arrows, #1)

by Staci Hart

[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.