A review by awayman
Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez
2.0
This book was my first ever ARC!!! I was a joyous mess when I received it.
This story is about a 17 year old girl named Valentina. She ran away from home after witnessing a violent crime that was ordered and committed by the two people she loved most in the world. Valentina goes where no one will know her and takes on the alias, Jane. She creates a new life and tries to come to terms with what she saw and what she should do with the information that was played out before her.
I enjoyed this book enough to finish it in a week, which is surprising for a 2 star book for me.
In reality, Valentina did annoy me most of the time. She was raised by her father who is a very wealthy art collector. He favored Valentina above her sisters and she always had everything she wanted. It never occurred to Valentina to question the business her father ran; Victor Cruz was well respected by those he employed and adored by his daughters. Due to being raised in such a privileged manner, Valentina never had to fend for herself. I tried to remember that fact several times throughout the story to reassure myself that some of her actions were even plausible. She boarded an international flight with nothing to live off of; no money, clothes, or means of communication. She ran away to leave the lies and illegal actions of her father and Emilio, yet she gets involved in working for Lucien who she knew nothing about (turns out he was involved in some bad juju too). Emilio shows up in her life again, and she welcomes him back (????!!!!!???? I hated his character. He was the embodiment of a manipulative slime ball). I cannot fathom why she would want to be with someone she witnessed commit murder. She suddenly wasn't really all that phased by the past. The two of them make plans to run away from the bad world together. The rest of the story is about her waiting on Emilio and trying to do whatever it takes to be with him. She ends up spending a lot of time with a guy she starts working for named Lucien and Lucien's brother, Marcel. Marcel is a rude playboy who she becomes friends with over a short period of time (I actually liked Marcel's sarcasm. He was an obnoxious sexist pig at points too though). Cue love triangle. The story continues with some plot "twists", bad decisions by Valentina, and poorly thought out plans by all characters. I think if Valentina's actions had been slightly more realistic for a person with brain cells (she was supposed to be very smart in school after all), this book could have been 3 stars. The unlikely choices and weirdly rushed ending brought it down on top of how dumb the MC was. *side note*NO girl wears stilettos after having bloody cuts and blisters on their feet. Fashion can take the back burner when walking is near impossible. Just saying.
Overall, I did read this book pretty quickly, and I did want to finish it, which is good. Be warned that this is a very immature YA fiction, so some ideas are rather silly with how unrealistic they are. If you can get past that, this was almost fun to read.
This story is about a 17 year old girl named Valentina. She ran away from home after witnessing a violent crime that was ordered and committed by the two people she loved most in the world. Valentina goes where no one will know her and takes on the alias, Jane. She creates a new life and tries to come to terms with what she saw and what she should do with the information that was played out before her.
I enjoyed this book enough to finish it in a week, which is surprising for a 2 star book for me.
In reality, Valentina did annoy me most of the time. She was raised by her father who is a very wealthy art collector. He favored Valentina above her sisters and she always had everything she wanted. It never occurred to Valentina to question the business her father ran; Victor Cruz was well respected by those he employed and adored by his daughters. Due to being raised in such a privileged manner, Valentina never had to fend for herself. I tried to remember that fact several times throughout the story to reassure myself that some of her actions were even plausible. She boarded an international flight with nothing to live off of; no money, clothes, or means of communication. She ran away to leave the lies and illegal actions of her father and Emilio, yet she gets involved in working for Lucien who she knew nothing about (turns out he was involved in some bad juju too). Emilio shows up in her life again, and she welcomes him back (????!!!!!???? I hated his character. He was the embodiment of a manipulative slime ball). I cannot fathom why she would want to be with someone she witnessed commit murder. She suddenly wasn't really all that phased by the past. The two of them make plans to run away from the bad world together. The rest of the story is about her waiting on Emilio and trying to do whatever it takes to be with him. She ends up spending a lot of time with a guy she starts working for named Lucien and Lucien's brother, Marcel. Marcel is a rude playboy who she becomes friends with over a short period of time (I actually liked Marcel's sarcasm. He was an obnoxious sexist pig at points too though). Cue love triangle. The story continues with some plot "twists", bad decisions by Valentina, and poorly thought out plans by all characters. I think if Valentina's actions had been slightly more realistic for a person with brain cells (she was supposed to be very smart in school after all), this book could have been 3 stars. The unlikely choices and weirdly rushed ending brought it down on top of how dumb the MC was. *side note*NO girl wears stilettos after having bloody cuts and blisters on their feet. Fashion can take the back burner when walking is near impossible. Just saying.
Overall, I did read this book pretty quickly, and I did want to finish it, which is good. Be warned that this is a very immature YA fiction, so some ideas are rather silly with how unrealistic they are. If you can get past that, this was almost fun to read.