Book Review: Falling for Sakura Book # 1

Sakura is a Japanese-American girl that was adopted by the very rich Princeton family. As children she was bullied by her stepsisters while all her seven stepbrothers were indifferent to her. Several years later, Sakura now 23, gets to meet her siblings again in a long, overdue reunion. Warning! This is intended for older audience.

One of the blog readers, Frizzy, suggested this story from Wattpad. I checked the author's website and there was a form for reviewing the book. So I entered my info and the author contacted me through email and voila I got myself a free copy. This is my first time to ask for a copy in exchange for review. And just like the time I was given a free copy, I was again nervous of what if I don't like it. It was me who asked for it and not the other way around. 

There's a character sheet list with descriptions of their ages, hair color and eyes, personalities etc. It's a good reference since there's a lot of stepbrothers. I liked the fact that she used the same family shades of colors for the eyes. Some got silvery-gray eyes like the dad's while others got varying shades of blue like the mom's. I wished the hair color were also restricted to blondes and blacks just like their parents for uniformity sake. Unlike in Japanese mangas and animes, they can get away with the multicolored eyes and hair. I'm sorry I'm really nitpicky with colors. As a kid I used to list down all the weird color names I encounter in books. If I'll have daughters I'll be naming them after colors.

The story is written in multiple POV. It's the first time I get to read this kind of format. It's unconventional but it works. You get to see the real time insights of what they're all thinking at the same exact moment. It gives off a feeling of fast paced without being rushed. I also liked the fact that the reverse harem element feels like a naturally-occurring phenomenon. That's just me maybe those who are totally new with reverse harem may find it otherwise.  

The story reminds me of "Mills and Boon" and "Harlequin" pocketbooks given the reverse harem treatment. For the younger generation, it's like the "Fifty Shades of Grey" of our time. But this is actually under new adult genre. It's steamy and such a tease! I think at one point I got carried away with one of the smexy situations. There's also drama but not the overbearing kind of drama. 

The characters are also patterned after Snow White but in this case seven Princes. I loved that Sakura or Snow has grown into confident and feisty woman. It also works that it's a love triangle within a reverse harem but still it makes me curious of how the rest of the brothers will fare in the second and third books. Yes, it's going to be a trilogy. I think I'm drawn to Sebastian but all the brothers are equally hot! Sakura's dog, Toby, reminds me of Julie the squirrel in Brothers Conflict. But he's the exact opposite of Julie. Lol.

The reverse harem take on the modern romance novels is a winning combination that I didn't expect. The strong willed girl is a breath of fresh air among the pushover heroines in reverse harem. While the multitude of men is also a breath of fresh air among the formulaic standard romance novels. I scored it 4 out of 5 stars in Goodreads. I think the world is not yet ready with reverse harem but as reverse harem I'm giving it high marks for enjoyability. 

I filed this under OEL which means Original English Language. It refers to mangas and graphic novels published in English. But I decided to tag English novels and TV series under this label for easy reference in this site. Maybe I'll add other stuff such as English otome in the future.