About HEARTSICK
Quinn is looking forward to her senior year at Poe University. She has big plans to hang out with her best friend, flirt with a certain boy genius, party at her favorite dive bar and figure out what she’s going to do after graduation with her not-so-useful art major. But that’s before she meets Luke, a hot townie who’s moved back home to help take care of his dying sister. And it’s before a weird epidemic sweeps across campus, mysteriously turning people’s eyes purple.
Is it an odd side effect from a new party drug?
Is it a rogue virus developed in a campus lab?
Is it the mark of the devil?
Soon the town starts blaming the university and the student religious group becomes frighteningly aggressive in their on-campus accusations. Quinn and Luke are caught in the middle—until a tragic accident forces Luke to reveal the one part of himself he’s kept carefully hidden. That he’s so much more than the happy-go-lucky boy next door Quinn had believed him to be isn’t a surprise…but this truth might be too dangerous for her to handle.
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“This unique read–containing a boatload of likable characters and a few spine-tingling chills–plays out like a mystery movie on the big screen. The author really keeps readers guessing with each flip of the page–and it gets more and more exciting all the way up to the last chapter, which has the potential to make jaws drop.” – RT Book Reviews
“HEARTSICK is destined to become a go-to example of great, speculative NA.” – Carrie Butler, author of the award-winning Mark of Nexus series
“A snappy, suspenseful plot balanced with stellar writing, brimming with chemistry and full of unique, nuanced characters. Quinn is the sort of strong, believable heroine I want to spend hundreds of pages with, and the mix of sci-fi-tinged mystery, small-town social tensions and a sweet-and-sexy love story kept me engaged until the end. Caitlin Sinead just made my auto-buy list.”–A.J. Larrieu, author of Twisted Miracles
**I received an ebook ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review**
This is Caitlin Sinead’s debut novel and all I can say is … wow.
Quinn and Mandy are best friends, roommates, and students at Poe University, which is located in a small Virginia town. The two are living seemingly normal lives until something weird happens on campus and people start cropping up with purple colored eyes. The townies—who are notorious for disliking the university students—automatically blame the students, but it’s unclear what the cause of the purple eyes is. Everyone in the town, from the police to the students themselves, starts working to figure out what the cause is. And … well, you’ll need to read the rest of the book to find out. 😉
Sinead did a wonderful job of writing a mystery book that kept me on my toes and left me guessing at all corners. I would form one theory in my mind, and no sooner had I settled on it then something happened which would make me question my own train of thought. I was constantly looking for clues in the characters’ actions and motives, and even when I wasn’t actually reading the book, I would often find myself thinking about the course of events in the story, and trying to figure things out.
A big part of what made the book so enjoyable for me was how Sinead wove some real life current events and issues into the plot. Whether this was done intentionally or not I can’t tell you, but things like a pandemics, religious conflicts, and governmental agency involvement all play a role in the book.
Sinead did a terrific job with the characters in this story. Each character had a few qualities about him or her that stood out, and these qualities were always apparent in some way throughout the course of the story. And even though I really wanted to dislike the townies (thanks to Natalie), I just couldn’t because of Luke, who I easily fell for shortly after he was introduced to the story.
Oh, and Sinead plops a little romance right smack dab down in the middle of this book, which it only adds to the already awesome storyline. I found myself rooting for love to prevail between Quinn and Luke because I liked them together so much.
Heartsick kept me craving more and Sinead kept the plot moving forward, but twisting and turning in the best of ways. I can’t wait to see what this author brings us next, and I would definitely suggest anyone who enjoys mystery, romance, drama, and new adult titles give this one a read.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Caitlin Sinead is represented by Andrea Somberg at Harvey Klinger, Inc. and her debut novel, Heartsick, will be published by Carina Press in 2015. Her writing has earned accolades from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Glimmer Train, and Writers & Artists, and her stories have appeared in multiple publications, including The Alarmist, The Binnacle, Crunchable, Jersey Devil Press, and Northern Virginia Magazine. She earned a master’s degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University.
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