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《Nihwé》Lies of the heart

Reviewer: MissRut

Lies of the heart by Silent_Pearl

Silent_Pearl thank you for your trust and time.

The Cover: There is quite a lot to the cover. Initially it seems to hold information about a runaway bride but seeing as the woman in the picture is lost, it's more likely she has no idea what she's doing or where she is or even what she is wearing. Whether it was her heart that told her or was told to live such a farce is the real mystery. However, the title and the writer's display name seem a bit put out and the caption across the picture should probably not have all the initial letters of each word capitalised. 3 points

The Title: It's an absolutely gripping introduction as well as a drive to do more than pass this book by even with the possible threat of heartache. 4 points

The Blurb: The blurb is a good extract of sorts; a summary and a story in part but it's enough to put the title in good light and create the right wave of speculations.  4 points

The Setting : It's likely based in America. Twenty-first Century America at that. There's a lot of seclusion but the only place mentioned in the beginning to give such a hint is Seattle so it's just an assumption which is quite disconcerting for some. 8 point

The Plot : Not a very unusual one but not common either. Twisted fate and deceit along with a hint of pure confusion are the key traits this very book has in weaving the story of illegal love shunned by manipulative control for the sake of nothing but worldly pleasures of money. 9 points

The Characters : I'd like to mention that in the beginning the readers might be unsure as to whether it's 'Seth' or 'Seb' that's Sapphire's lover boy as well as the 'Yoland' instead of 'Yolanda' as her mother's name at a point and the ending where Nadia is called 'Lola' instead.With that out of the way, let us look at our characters individually.

Sapphire is obviously the center of the drama with a blank space on her memory stick as she does her all to please her mother by agreeing to get married to a question mark otherwise known as, Hunter. She goes through a series of confusion at herself before she wakes in the hospital with the missing pieces of her memory which revives the feisty side of her. On one hand, she was merely an object to be controlled but she became a person of her own and chose her independence.

Sebastien on another end is a guilt-wracked, nervous breakdown version of a husband not wanting to traumatize his love but desperately wanting to go back to the good days. A man driven by passion as well as determination but is compassionate to a fault where his loved ones are concerned even if he doesn't know how he will go about it.

Piere (unless intentionally not spelled, 'Pierre') is a man who dotes on Sebastien through thick, thin and the lines between. He is a caring person by nature as well as very understanding but firm when he has to and is the icing on the cake in finding a certain missing daughter.

Yolanda Black is the very epitome of 'wicked stepmother' when in fact, she's not. She's impulsive, selfish, uncaring as well as manipulative when it comes to getting her own way at the expense of her daughter and is swiftly replaced by Celine, Sapphire's childhood governess who has been the real mother in need.
There is little to be said else but they all turn out well in the end and except the mention of Nadia, nothing else is important but the knowledge of Sapphire's backstory with Hunter. Each of the characters are portrayed in live element but with there was hardly any space for their development which would have been quite a boost to the story content. 3 points

The Content: Unfortunately, there are a lot of inconsistencies regarding everything put into the story. The time frame and the events that took place are a bit out of sorts. It's understandable that yes, Sapphire lost her memory of her and her husband, it doesn't exactly make sense that he technically abducted her. Plus, it was mentioned her dress was torn but there wasn't any account of when there was a possible struggle between the time she got into the car and when she wanted to take a bath.
There is a deal of mature content though but I'm sure anyone would wonder how things went from zero to hundred so quickly that they were able to sleep together and afterwards, bicker over the obvious. It is possible to create the notion that 'something is happening without going into outright smut. Worse is that readers still have no idea 'where' everything is happening which is a huge downside. There's mostly showing of course but it's sparse in itself. And where there is a bit of telling required, there shouldn't have been any hesitation to do so.
Overall there is a missing depth everyone is looking for and though not overly discouraging, it's quite a dampener. 12 points.

Writing Style : There is more effort put into the backstory than what is going on present-day. Even so, they are scattered across different chapters and the effect is not far reaching. The pace of everything is hurried and while the emotions in the book are relatable, they are not very well expressed, again as a result of the rush. It pretty much shuns the reality of things also as there probably wasn't enough digging done to effect the desired reaction to a situation. 6 points.

Grammar, Vocabulary & Sentence Structure:
Let's asses chapter one for a bit...
In the first line, there is a word missing from the sentence. It doesn't seem Sapphire was jostled out of her thoughts since there is actually a period and that means conclusion of thoughts. If a hyphen had been used after it as well as ellipsis to show she had been musing for quite some time.

In addition to that, it seems this wasn't proofread. I do not think there's any such thing as 'weeding ballgowns' but only an intelligent audience will understand. It's also puzzling that the same phrase was used to describe both Celine's stance and her mirror.
A premonition that Celine's facial expression and body language should have been a suiting description that could have meant something would have made the first scene a real hooker too. Let's not forget one can't actually be 'contemplated'. Those major ones aside, the entire story has ill-fitting words used as description and a chunk of readers would cringe after turning it over in their heads one after another.

There are words joined together and tasks the brain to understand why because it is apparently confusing, take 'vannon' or 'rock voice' for example. The former would have been thought a car and the latter is a poor description of a human's qualities.
In the last paragraph, the mystery man obviously uses 'angel' as a pet name for Sapphire but that should make it a proper noun. There are also numerous punctuations in the wrong places as well as improper capitalization where necessary.
All this and much more are what ultimately kills a story, whether rushed or not and regardless of any opinion. 11 points.

Engagement with Readers: One could say it's fairly engaging but there are many points at which one can be moved to quit the book altogether out of disappointment like the holes in the storyline or hiccups alike. The closing author's note is quite caustic, however, and the tone is rather off-putting. 11 points .

Total Points ; 71 / 100