I really, really, really wanted to like this and I think conceptually this is a fantastic novel. I think where I struggled was with the execution. I’m not sure if it was just because I was reading a galley copy, but I feel like this needed some serious editing. I often found myself confused and having to re-read passages to make sure I understood exactly what I was reading. There were also a lot of sentences that just sort of petered off into nothingness. While this is fine, it’s also important to make sure that it works in the context of the conversation and readers can still follow what’s going on in the story. The frequency of these had me overly confused and thinking, “I have no idea what just happened there?!?”

I also struggled with the world building and the pacing. Right from the get go we’re thrown into a world that we really don’t know that much about and are never given an opportunity to ever truly understand. There are convoluted curses, murky pre-existing relationships, turf wars (I think?), and magic because . . . well . . . Magic!! It almost felt like I opened the book in the middle and just started reading. Even as the author tried to develop and explain things, it still felt extremely muddled. I think this is what, ultimately, effected the pacing as well. This isn’t a particularly long novel, but there were times where it felt like I was trying to get through "War and Peace." This is due to the fact that things that didn’t really need a complex explanation were overly explained and things that really needed to be hashed out were vague and ambiguous. There never really felt like there was any balance.

Finally – let’s talk about the characters. I will say that many of them were the saving grace of the novel. (Alexei, Sergei, and Marta . . . LOVED them!) The problem is – it wasn’t our main characters who were the most memorable. The secondary characters really seemed to carry this story more than either Luke or Jeremy. In the instance of Jeremy – I completely understand that he was extremely sheltered, was treated like a prince and has this big huge horrible thing hanging over his head. That alone could create a complex in any teenager – I get that, I really do. However, as the story progressed and no matter how hard the author tried, he never really seemed to develop or grow as a character. In terms of Luke, I liked him well enough and found him to be better developed than Jeremy. I also really appreciated the relationship he had with his family (this is actually true for Jeremy too), however, he also always kind of felt like a doormat. A cocky, arrogant doormat, but a doormat nonetheless. Additionally, the relationship between these two never really felt authentic to me and the ending, well the ending didn’t really help with that either. Once again, I think this was a result of convoluted storytelling.

At the end of the day, while my criticism may seem harsh, this isn’t necessarily a bad book. There is a lot of potential here and it is engaging enough to keep readers reading. Also, I really think the author did an exceptional job of developing the familial relationships. That aspect was really the strongest part of this book and proves that Eastlake has some writing chops. I think with a good edit and a little more development of the main characters and the story itself, this really could be something special.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest and fair review!

Warning Potential spoilers

I am giving this a 3 or a 3.5 out of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book, the magic, the love and friendship between the two main characters and a curse. Three of the best things in a fantasy book.

I loved the writing style, it had me keeping going when it was getting tough for me to make it through. This debut author is a truly spectacular writer.

Her characters are amazing, Luke and Jeremy, are way to adorable. The love they clearly share and the fact that they try to deny it for so long had me routing for them and wanting to finish the book faster so that I could find out if they ended up together.
I particularly loved the relationship between Jeremy and his older brothers Alexei and Sergei - the brotherly love was very clear and adorable even though they aren't true brothers. The relaxed and familiar feel had you feeling like they were definitely meant to be family.

However the reason it lost a couple of stars for me is because of the magic side of things. I love magic - every kind - but it was very confusing for me. I wasn't able to follow the magic as clearly as I would have liked to and it definitely lost me a little in the middle.

Yet I would definitely recommend this to magic fantasy lovers and I even have already!

The Uncrossing Review

Luke Melnyk is famous for uncrossing curses. He’s the guy—teen guy—everyone in New York City goes to if they find themselves at the nasty end of a hex. He’s a little cocky, a little unpredictable, and a lot powerful. Did I mention that he is falling for the ever-untouchable prince of Manhattan, Jeremy Kovrov?
Jeremy is the sheltered younger brother of the famous Kovrovs. He doesn’t care what people think of him, constantly wearing outlandish colors to purposely stand out. He doesn’t talk about his past, because of all the secrets that lie there. He entertains himself with bouts of fantastic magic, which he downplays as humble “party tricks.” And he’s hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with Luke Melnyk.

Melissa Eastlake’s debut novel, The Uncrossing, is everything I had been wanting without knowing exactly what I was looking for. Eastlake combines the idea of gangster activity—the strong family and community influence part of it—with the idea of magical. Add the idea of true loves kiss, a seemingly unbreakable curse, and star-crossed lovers and you have The Uncrossing—not to mention the blood rituals, hex bags, and petty fights over property and power.
Eastlake’s novel got my emotions going in so many different directions—in a good way—and I know I would have sobbed if I hadn’t been reading The Uncrossing while I was at work. Like any young adult novel, the angst is on point. I felt Jeremy’s anger, Luke’s confusion, and their shared nervousness over falling in love and wondering if it’s “true.” The pure inexperience of falling so hard and so fast for another person is portrayed oh so perfectly onto the page through Eastlake’s gift of convincing dialogue and lyric imagery. I found myself underlining nearly half of the book. As a reader, I wanted to protect Luke and Jeremy (that little cinnamon roll). As a fellow writer, I want to emulate the deepness of their love as well as the naturalness of how easy it is for them to fall into it. The back and forth third person omniscient point of view allows readers to experience this with each boy individually. As Luke and Jeremy fell in love, I felt as if I were falling with them.
I would most definitely—and already have—recommend The Uncrossing to people. Days since I finished Melissa Eastlake’s book, I’m still humming with all the magic and innocent love.



To purchase your own copy of this book, go to Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com: Amazon: http://bit.ly/TheUncrossing
B&N: http://bit.ly/Uncrossing_MelissaEastlake
Luke can uncross almost any curse—they unravel themselves for him like no one else. So working for the Kovrovs, one of the families controlling all the magic in New York, is exciting and dangerous, especially when he encounters the first curse he can't break. And it involves Jeremy, the beloved, sheltered prince of the Kovrov family—the one boy he absolutely shouldn't be falling for.

Jeremy's been in love with cocky, talented Luke since they were kids. But from their first kiss, something's missing. Jeremy's family keeps generations of deadly secrets, forcing him to choose between love and loyalty. As Luke fights to break the curse, a magical, citywide war starts crackling, and it's tied to Jeremy.

This might be the one curse Luke can't uncross. If true love's kiss fails, what's left for him and Jeremy?

(A copy was provided to me by Entangled Teen for an honest review – all opinions are 100% my own.)

2.5 out of 5 stars

This is actually my second time writing this review cause I forgot to save it properly the first time and I’m trying to remember what I wrote cause I drafted that review right after I finished…

The Uncrossing was a book that I went into with a lot of expectations and it wasn’t that the story itself fell flat for me, but I just gradually lost interest. However, there are still a lot of good components, so let’s discuss those and weigh them with what didn’t work for me.

First off, we have the world – The Uncrossing takes place in a pretty modern day NYC where the city and its surrounding areas are sectioned off and controlled by different ruling magical families. Our story mainly takes place in the city under the power of the Kovrovs who add this little touch of Russian flair to the story that I found very charming.

We follow Luke, who has the ability to uncross any crossing which essentially means that he can undo any curse (but they don’t like using the word curse which I thought was a really cool touch). Here is where we find my first problem…I’m not a fan of Luke. I think that his character, the idea of his abilities and all, is interesting, but I just couldn’t connect with him and being able to relate to a character, especially one of the main characters is pretty important for me.

Now, Luke soon enters into a “relationship” with Jeremy who is the Kovrov “prince.” There are so many quotation marks because there’s just a lot of gray area, especially in the relationship aspect. I thought that their relationship was really sweet, especially from Jeremy’s point of view, but the more I got into the story, the more I was a bit confused. Luke is portrayed as being the more dominant figure in the relationship, both physically and emotionally as Jeremy is repeatedly described as “princess-y” and more feminine. Personally, I wished that we could have seen Jeremy as more than that cause he was such a cool character and I loved his chapters.

Moving on from Luke, the writing of the story started off fine – I was really engaged and honestly swept up by everything that was going on. However, it started to drag when I realized that I was only at the 20% mark and it felt like I had been reading for forever. The general arc of the story is good, and I understand why certain plot points were included for the buildup, but it got to a point where the story seemed to never end and the final climax was just unreachable.

Speaking of the climax…I’ll be completely honest and say that I’m confused. I probably still need some time to process what happened and maybe even go back and reread the final 15% of the story. It was an unexpected twist and it felt like there was just a slew of information and points that were being thrown at us and when everything settled down, we’re left with a big revelation and in my case, a very confused brain.

Wow…this review turned out to be a lot longer than I expected, but I guess I had a lot to say. While The Uncrossing didn’t wow me like I had initially hoped, I can’t say that it’s a bad story. Obviously the parts that didn’t work with me are completely subjective, so I wouldn’t discourage anyone from giving this go because the world is still incredibly unique and fascinating.

More reviews at Le Petit Photograph

ARC provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley for honest review.

I was really excited about this book, the plot sounded great and I couldn’t wait to read about this love story.

Unfortunately, I was kind of disappointed because I thought the blurb sounded better than the actual book. I’m giving this book 3 stars because I thought the storyline was actually pretty cool; a curse and true love, an ancient feud among powerful families and great magic. I loved that.

My problem was how the book was written; it was messy, confusing and I had a hard time following some parts. I had to reread some paragraphs because there were some unclear passages, and to be fair I was expecting a different setting for the story.

Let me explain; this is urban fantasy (kinda) because we are in the modern world but the society is different, there is magic but also normal people. I don’t know, but from the plot I was epecting something set in another world or in another time.

One thing that I didn’t really like was how the setting for the story wasn’t really explained. There are some stories were it’s all setting explanation and no story itself: here it’s complitely the other way around. We don’t know anything and we are told almost nothing, we are just tossed inside this world and have to figure out what is going on by ourselves. I arrived at chapeter 8 still confused about what was actually going on and what the story was really about and that is not really great.

I understand the ending but I feel like if you build the whole book about one single subject, that’s not really the ending I would have expected or suggested.

If anyone in the future asks what's the opposite of info dump, let it be known that this is it.

<b>This is the opposite of info dump.</b>

The story starts on a regular day in the narrators life and they go about it as usual without letting us in, ever. The very few information we get are few and far in between and not nearly enough to piece this story together. After a while reading it just became a chore.

If someone asks me what this book is about I have no answer whatsoever.

Unfortunately this didn't work for me, at all.

I really wanted to like this book, I went in with high expectations because I have had great success with about everything I’ve read from Entangled Publishing but I don’t know if they got a new editor or what but this just didn’t feel up to their usual standards.

First the positive such as the story itself seemed really adorable and the LGBTQ market needs more growth particularly in the YA area so I was glad someone took the time to go that route versus another boy/girl love story. The world building is decent, there is some good humor laced lightly within the lines and Eastlake did a good job mixing old world supernatural elements with modern ones like social media.

For the most part I liked the character work; Luke and Jeremy are written so you hope they get a happy ending. Luke’s part reminded me a bit of Supernatural with the whole hex and witch thing since he has the power to reverse hexes, pretty sure they did a few episodes of people getting hexed, so I liked what the author did with that theme. Jeremy is this guy that I just felt like hugging and protecting from the world. He’s written beautifully and Eastlake did a great job in showcasing the difficulty of having family that doesn’t fully accept your sexuality along with personal struggles.

The negative aspect of the character work though is Jeremy sometimes feels like he’s an immature child throwing temper tantrums with dramatic tendencies to blow things out of proportion. He reminded me a bit like Jack in Will and Grace particularly when he’d get all howler monkey screechy. It also felt like they fought more than they showed affection towards one another.

At times I felt like I got dropped into the middle of something without being given enough information as to how this world worked; it was written as if this was the sequel so I should have picked everything up I needed to know before starting this. Honestly I hated the ending as it felt like the story just suddenly stopped mid chapter and the author forgot to add some closure.

It wasn’t terrible but I could’ve done with less arguing, the editing definitely needed to be more thorough and the ending should be a complete ending without stuff just left out there to figure out on your own.

I've been waffling back and forth about how I feel about this book. I'm pretty sure I loved it but it was a bit confusing in places. The first part of the story was slow so it took me a little while to get into it. The plot and characters were intriguing as hell though. I found myself giggling in happiness at parts and blinking back tears in others. I was SO emotionally invested in this story with its magical mob families and fairy tale elements.

Although there is quite a bit of magic and mayhem, the story is really a sweet romance with a bit of teen angst. Luke and Jeremy have known each other since they were children and their families have an uneasy working relationship. It's not until recently that things between them start to change thanks to some meddling by Jeremy's brother. I quickly fell head over heels with Luke and Jeremy and I was rooting for them from the first. The romance between those two is what captured my heart and I'm all here for it. I ship those two so hard!

Not all is what it seems when it comes to Jeremy though and I was intrigued by his curse. It was kind of fairy tale-like and caused the poor kid to be as sheltered as one can get in a magical mob family. I loved how down-to-earth Luke was even though he needs to learn to communicate better on some things. I adored both of their families although there's some drama and confusion between them.

I really enjoyed this book even though I had to go back and reread some passages to understand what was going on in parts. The writing, while not the best, was enjoyable and easy to read. I will say that I did not like that open-ended ending. I need more! I don't know if Ms. Eastlake has plans for a follow-up, but I really hope there is one. I don't want to say good-bye just yet to Luke and Jeremy and their weirdo families.

Hi, sweeties! I’m finally back reviewing Italian and American books, altough I preferred writing my on novel, the huge changes in my life have taken apart my inspiration so I decided to go back reading. I must say that I didn’t like very much The Uncrossing, for a list of reasons I will enumerate later, but I got me three and half stars, so I wasn’t bad as you may think.
PREMISE
I love MM romances, so what there could be better than fantasy MM romance? Nothing! The synopsis captured me from the first time I’ve read it, but I haven’t totally enjoyed the book. Why? You will discover reading.
SYNOPSIS (FROM GOODREADS)
Luke can uncross almost any curse—they unravel themselves for him like no one else. So working for the Kovrovs, one of the families controlling all the magic in New York, is exciting and dangerous, especially when he encounters the first curse he can't break. And it involves Jeremy, the beloved, sheltered prince of the Kovrov family—the one boy he absolutely shouldn't be falling for.

Jeremy's been in love with cocky, talented Luke since they were kids. But from their first kiss, something's missing. Jeremy's family keeps generations of deadly secrets, forcing him to choose between love and loyalty. As Luke fights to break the curse, a magical, citywide war starts crackling, and it's tied to Jeremy.

This might be the one curse Luke can't uncross. If true love's kiss fails, what's left for him and Jeremy?
REVIEW
This was a hard read for me, although, as I said before, I love MM fantasy romances. The fact is that the book was bad structured, it had long chapters (56 little chapters) and some of them were very long and full of repetitions and “information exposition” as my beloved critic at Cinema Sins would say. But before explaining that, and believe me, it will be very long, I must start from the beginning. Luke Melnyk (whose full name, in Ukrainian, is Lukonya) is a young witch doctor who can uncross everything, he’s a super-hot-cliched guy who appears to be perfect and oh-so-beautiful that every guy in the Bronx would like to hook up with. But Luke was the best character for me, the one I simply couldn’t stand was Jeremy Kovrov, the one Luke’s is working for. But their story find its origins in an ancient world, in which a witch made a tripwire crossing (that is a curse) to Jeremy, which impede him to go outside and do whatever he wants because he is binded with Alexei Kovrov, and must be at home by noon and by midnight. Jeremy’s character is very annoying, I found his POVs hard and difficult to read, and the fact that he acted like a princess everytime didn’t help (EDIT: I’ve discovered today that this was a queer retelling of Rapunzel, so in a sense his attitude now makes sense). Jeremy and Luke have always been friends since they were six years old, but while Luke discovered and accepted the fact that he liked boys, Jeremy has lived in a golden cage for years and years, always dreaming of his first kiss.
The story develops around these two, who argue, make up, argue again and finally make peace. Luke may be the character on which the clichés are most on, like the fact that he is always described as hot, after the fourth time I read it, was annoying but I liked his evolution. Luke being as a cocky character and will do everything to save everyone. I will not say how and why, you will read that on the book. Jeremy, on the other hand, acted like a whiny one-dimensional character, who didn’t have its evolution, I found him very flat. The finale let me angry and confused, and again I won’t say anything, but you have to know that the finale has an open ending, and will not understand a thing. Their true love’s kiss finally worked? They will break up or they will stay together? Aaagh, why after a long read like this I can’t have answers? Maybe it’s planned an ending like this, maybe we will have another story about Jeremy and Luke, which I am willing to read, because I would like to see Jeremy’s character finally develop.
There are many things I didn’t like about this book, but this finale made me increase the judgment and take it to 3,5 stars. The book needed a very strong editing, especially because I found one big editing error and multiple and multiple repeating. What I didn’t like was the huge amount of info-dump, that made my reading boring. So, I gave 3 stars mainly because of Luke and the Kovrovs, which I liked better than anyone else in the book. The info-dump was the major problem of this book: it didn’t make it easier to read and comprehend the character, but it made more difficult with more and more descriptions about clothing and other things that had nothing to do with the book in itself (many digressions in Jeremy’s POV were unnecessary, his stream of consciousness wasn’t well made and it made the reader jump from one topic to the other without aim).
I find it, above all, a nice and difficult read. I can’t say I would recommend this book to you, but if you’re into MM fantasy, maybe you can give this book a chance. I will read it again later, maybe it wasn’t the right time for this book, maybe it’s because of that, that I found so many things that I disliked. I salute you with a quote from this book:
“He was a mess of contradictions. Here to threaten, or to beg. Here to apologize, or to demand answers.”
(Jeremy Kovrov)

xoxo,
Giada

PS: This review can be read in Italian and English on my blog.

The Uncrossing is a delightful read with fairytale-esque elements, a dash of mafia like family feuds fuelled with magic and a whole lot of romance.

There's no curse Luke can't uncross but the one on Jeremy is like nothing he's seen before. This affinity sees Luke working for the Kovrov's and working closely with Jeremy.

I love the way magic exists in The Uncrossing, it's our world with magic in it so it was easy to imagine all this taking place. Everyone has a different skill with magic and its not limitless in what it can do, grounding it in the real world. I loved the family element as well. There are several powerful families, including the Kovrov's, that control territories in New York. There's tensions and feuding between them, most notable between the Kovrov's and the Malcolm's.

I loved the family dynamics explored in The Uncrossing. The bonds between Luke and his twin sister, Jeremy and his brothers, etc were well explored and its not all perfect but not all bad either. The relationships were really well nuanced.

At the heart of it all was the relationship between Luke and Jeremy, the best part of it all. Jeremy has been in love with Luke since he was a boy, Luke was perhaps a little slower on the uptake. Despite the fact that Jeremy has been in love for a while, isn't instalove or rushed. I like how natural their relationship was there were ups and downs and some misunderstandings. But all were understandable given what both boys were dealing with and the curse hanging over them. But gah! they were so sweet and if you like sweet with a lot of kissing this is for you!

The Uncrossing really picked up around the 60% mark, the beginning wasn't slow in a bad way but it was necessary to lay the scene and the build up was done really well. There was an element of mystery, for a lot of the book it was clear something was up but you don't know exactly what and there are twists and turns.

That ending though, THAT ENDING. OMG. I really loved how the conclusion was handled, they were successful but not and it wasn't all solved completely and served with a bow. But the very end really surprised, I did not see that coming. At first I was like 'HOW COULD SHE DO THIS TO US?!' but after about 5 minutes I actually fell in love with it, it was so well done.

I had requested to read & review this from Entangled Teen, so thank you for the opportunity to read & review, but I personally could not finish this one.

As from the synopsis above, it sounded like something I would very much enjoy. However, I didn’t find myself enjoying it too much. It was a mix of me being in a slump and me just not really understand what was going on in this book that made me put it down at about 21% in.

I think this book has A LOT of potential to be an extremely well thought out and interesting story. However, I believe the beginning needs a little work. From the start, the reader is immediately thrown into this magical world and is not given an explanation of how this magic works, or why they’re doing what they’re doing. Relationships between the characters are already established but we don’t get much of an explanation of who they are. I think a lot of description of the magic, the world, all of the why’s needed to be put in the beginning because I just didn’t get what was going on, at all. It was hard for me to want to continue.

The writing was also a bit difficult to understand. I’m not sure how to explain it but the sentences didn’t feel right to me. What I DID enjoy were the Kovrov family characters. I didn’t really know who or what they were, but I liked the interaction between them, and I especially loved Jeremy. He seemed more developed and more well written about than the other characters.

Perhaps in the future I will pick this back up again, but as for right now I am having trouble getting into books. And when one is a little confusing like this, it’s hard to want to continue.

For now, this is a did not finish. If you’re looking for an LGBT+ urban, magical, fantasy story, I say totally pick it up. I know I may have had trouble with the introduction, but maybe others won’t. This novel is not in any way bad or terrible, I was just very confused. So if this synopsis strikes your fancy, I suggest it! Go ahead! If I ever pick this back up again to try and read, I’ll write a new review.

Again, thank you so much for the opportunity Entangled Teen for letting me read 🙂

I truly tried with this book. Rapunzel esque retelling with magic mafia. How could I not love it. Well things quickly did not jive with me. While the world is interesting this is one of those times I wished their was an info dump to explain the magic system and everything. I ended up feeling very disconnected from the characters which made it very hard to deal with Jeremy and Luke. I did not enjoy their relationship at all. This could have also been a lot shorter and but points for the world being interesting and Luke being a mix of Ukrainian and Creole.

The Uncrossing is an engaging and entertaining novel that admittedly took me a little while to get pulled in to, but once I was, there was no putting this book down! It's confusing and mysterious and quite intriguing, it's everything you'd want in a young adult urban fantasy novel. And it has two totally endearing characters, which was just the icing on the cake!

Full of magic and mayhem and mystery, The Uncrossing also has a sweet romance brewing in its pages. Luke and Jeremy have known each other since they were children, as their families have an uneasy working relationship. It's not until recently, though, that things between them start to shift, thanks to some meddling by Jeremy's brother- meddling that I still can't figure out if it was for Jeremy's benefit or for Alex's, his brother. But no matter what, it was just the push both Luke and Jeremy needed to set things in motion.

Not all is what it seems when it comes to Jeremy, though, and Luke discovers secrets that he wasn't meant to know. This leads to some drama and confusion and discord between the families. But as the mystery and secrets are revealed, Luke plays a major part in helping to resolve at least some of it, and that helps to put the families back on even ground. And Jeremy and Luke are finally able to just be 2 teen boys who care about each other...

I really enjoyed everything about this book...except that ending, I need more! I don't know if Ms. Eastlake has plans for a follow-up, but I really hope there is one. I don't want to say good-bye just yet to Luke and Jeremy.

I wanted to like The Uncrossing more than I did. The synopsis had such promise, and I did enjoy the world Eastlake created, with the idea of warring magical families. However, the book had some problems. Although I liked Jeremy and Luke separately, I didn't love them as a couple. All they did was bicker, and it became repetitive, slowing down the main action. Eastlake avoided info dumping, and the world building was generally good, but the prose felt overworked at times, and contained a large number of em dashes. I was surprised when I received an email from the publisher this morning that described the book as a Rapunzel retelling. Looking back now, yes, I can see that; however, I didn't immediately think of Rapunzel when reading, only Romeo and Juliet. So if a Rapunzel retelling was the aim, it didn't really come across. In terms of the ending, I was a little disappointed. It was very open-ended, and while a lack of distinct HEA doesn't usually worry me, in this case I felt that the tale warranted a more certain finale, so not getting one was frustrating. I am giving this book 3.5 stars. There were things I enjoyed about it, particularly the premise, but there were problems with the delivery that let it down. Removal of some of the em-dashes, along with some editorial trimming to tighten the pacing, would really help. If you love teen MM with a Romeo and Juliet-style romance, this is worth a look, but you need to allow for the flaws.

The magic was by far the coolest thing in this book. It wasn't explained in that RPG handbook way, but it was internally consistent, fun, and felt magical. The main characters felt like real teenagers, which is why I found their romance so frustrating, I disliked all their constant misunderstanding and fights, even if it was realistic. Maybe I'm just too old for this book? idk.

I really liked this book. The story was a tiny bit complicated, the world wasn’t as flushed out as I think it needed to be, and the prose was a little too purple for me. Despite all that, I was invested in Jeremy and Luke. They weren’t perfect. They bickered and Jeremy was overly sensitive, but I can understand why. I still liked how the both of them fought to stay together, and they always forgave.

I was also really into Jeremy’s relationship with his brothers, Sergei and Alexei. The world saw them as villains, but I never did. I saw a group of guys, birthed into the family they were, but who were loyal to each other. Even more, they were unfailingly protective of Jeremy. They did their very best to give him a good life, to make him happy, and Jeremy loved them. I understood the disdain at the beginning, but I couldn’t figure out why it continued as the characters got to know each other.

And the ending. I loved how the story ended. I’m sure there are plenty of readers who were unsatisfied, I get the the need for a happy ending, but I actually thought this was the happiest of endings for Luke and Jeremy. I want to say more, because I really want to talk about it with someone, but I can’t. It’s a huge deal, and probably the very best part of The Uncrossing!

Full Review posted on 10/9

The Uncrossing by Melissa Eastlake

I really enjoyed The Uncrossing, I thought it was a unique read with elements of magic I've never read about before. This is an Entangled Teen Title with a M/M Romance, very sweet. I liked all the characters, Luke and Jeremy were very charming. The Kovrov and the Melnyk families were memorable and I enjoyed getting to know them. I liked the scare at the end and the story overall.

I give The Uncrossing 4 stars for its unique magical read with interesting characters.
I would recommend this book to everyone.

I received an e-ARC of “The Uncrossing” by Melissa Eastlake from Entangled Teen in exchange for a free and honest review.

The moment I saw this book available for request, I immediately hit ‘send’ button. Gay boys, curses, and magic? Hell yeah!

However, the moment I started reading the book, my excitement dampened.

Let’s start with the plot.

Synopsis

Luke can uncross almost any curse—they unravel themselves for him like no one else. So working for the Kovrovs, one of the families controlling all the magic in New York, is exciting and dangerous, especially when he encounters the first curse he can't break. And it involves Jeremy, the beloved, sheltered prince of the Kovrov family—the one boy he absolutely shouldn't be falling for.

Jeremy's been in love with cocky, talented Luke since they were kids. But from their first kiss, something's missing. Jeremy's family keeps generations of deadly secrets, forcing him to choose between love and loyalty. As Luke fights to break the curse, a magical, citywide war starts crackling, and it's tied to Jeremy.

This might be the one curse Luke can't uncross. If true love's kiss fails, what's left for him and Jeremy?

Plot

The plot sounds more coherent and put together than the book itself. I loved the idea of an urban fantasy set in a modern New York City. I loved that it was all about old curses and family secrets. However, I found the execution of this plot as well as world building rather weak. Magic system seems to connected to spells, blood, and voodoo like curses, but the limitations of the magic or how each character does what they do is never really explained.

“The Uncrossing” lacks exposition to the point that I had to go back a page or two to visualize what is happening. It took me some time to get used to the narration. It is not a poorly written book, but it has holes that often left me floundering and second-guessing what I am reading.

Luke and Jeremy though. Ah, those two are absolutely adorable. I enjoyed all the characters in the book, although the attempts at creating morally ambiguous and grey characters, like Andrei and Sergei, with this sort of jumpy narration have largely failed, in my opinion. I liked them both, but some aspects just missed the mark for me.

Problematic aspect

Even though the book is great when it comes to diversity, the choice of cultural background for the characters left me slightly confused. The Kovrovs are Russian, while the Melnyk family is Ukrainian-Creole. I can not speak for the Creole culture, but I can speak for the Eastern European part.

The portrayal of a rich and influential Russian mafia family (because let’s be honest, this is what the Kovrov family is) is so stereotypical for western society to the point of being mildly offensive. The Ukrainians are portrayed as hardworking but poor.

Besides mentioning a prayer in Russian or some Russian or Ukrainian words, without actually mentioning them in the text, the cultural background of both families is shown only in their given names and the mention of borscht in the first chapter - which, let me be absolutely clear, nobody would ever serve to an important guest as a meal neither in Russia nor in Ukraine, unless we are speaking of a rural Russia in the feudal times.

There are reviewers who love to throw around complaints about “cultural appropriation”, but in spite of my feelings on the subject, “The Uncrossing” is hardly damaging. I would have, however, appreciated a more meaningful portrayal of the culture. Both Russian and Ukrainian folklore have enough depth to provide inspiration for any fantasy setting or magic system.

I had problems with the world building and magic system, mild issues with some of the characters, but I adored the romance part in the book, although it is usually the least favourite plotline for me. I also felt that the ending of the book was better thought through than some middle parts. I found myself more engaged with the book after I hit 50-60%.

It is a debut novel, so I hope that Melissa would produce more fiction in the future. Hopefully, it would also be about queer boys and magic. It was overall a fun read, even though it took some time to get used to the style. Recommend for the fans of the YA LGBT books, otherwise, you might find it boring.

Personal rating: 3 stars

*DNF at 40%*

I hardly dnf books. Maybe one or two in a year and this was my first in 2017.
I had pretty high expectations for this book but I found it extremely confusing and hard to follow. The magic didn't make much sense to me and the lack of chemistry between the two leads made my interest fall away pretty fast. I didn't care for the characters much either. I tried very hard to continue but gave up on 40%.