Cold Little Games by Olivia Wildenstein

Cold Little Games (Masterful, #2)

by Olivia Wildenstein

From USA TODAY bestselling author comes a story about the ties that bind and those that burn...

How hard are you willing to fall for the person you love?

19-year-old twins Aster and Ivy fight to survive and exist in their confined worlds, one is in a museum competing on a reality TV show, while the other is in prison. Without any means of communication, the secrets the twins learn about each other begin tearing them apart, making them doubt if they ever knew each other at all.

Fans of GOSSIP GIRL and WE WERE LIARS will adore Wildenstein's MASTERFUL series.

Reviewed by Nessa Luna on

3 of 5 stars

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way. Actual rating: 3,5.

A while back I participated in a book tour for the book Inked, and a while back I decided to visit the website that hosted the tour again. There, I saw a couple of new announcements, and one of the books that jumped out at me was The Masterpiecers partly because of that beautiful cover. The synopsis sounded interesting as well, so I requested a copy.

This book tells the story of Ivy and Aster Redd, who are twins, but that's where the comparison stops. Ivy is an artist, and a contestand on the show The Masterpiecers where she'll compete for a spot at one of America's most priced art schools. Meanwhile, Aster is in jail awaiting trial for the murder of a wanted mobster (which she claims was self defence). We follow both girls, in a dual POV, as they try to adjust to their new lives and fall further into the mess that was created on that fateful August night.

I have to admit, I found this book a bit predictable. Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but I had hoped it would be more thrilling and more like Dangerous Girls (aka the book where I literally gasped at the end). But I had predicted some of the big reveals pretty early on in the book already, and that made me a bit sad. But like I said, it was still a nice book, and I did really enjoy reading from both of the girls' POV.

Aster's POV was more interesting to me, to be honest, even though Ivy had the 'supercool' art competition, but honestly I found it a bit dull. The most exciting part of the competition was when they had to steal actual art from a museum or vault but that was about it. The whole drama around the competition was exciting as well, but the actual art show as just not as great as I had hoped it would be. So Aster's chapters in between were a great getaway from that.

I do feel like sometimes I missed a couple of things - like one of the contestants was apparently sent home and I just completely missed that part. It was mentioned in a sentence and quickly brushed over by something else and I didn't realise it until a couple of pages later.

The book was really interesting, and I enjoyed the writing. I literally flew through it, partly because it was so easily written and partly because I just wanted to know the truth. Because you don't really know who to believe. Aster was diagnosed with schizoprenia so she's not really trustworthy What I didn't like so much though was that the book ended with a cliffhanger (not a 'OH MY GOD HOW DARE SHE END IT LIKE THAT' hanger, but still it was rather annoying) and this makes me feel obliged to pick up the second book. I don't know how I feel about that, to be honest.. Oh well...

My opinion in one gif: 

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 June, 2016: Finished reading
  • 21 June, 2016: Reviewed