Synopsis:
“Even with the blood, rituals, and resurrections, the most surprising thing about the summer of 2003 was Ivy Wexler.”
When offered a chance to avoid summer school, goth girl Frankie Tanner reluctantly agrees to help Ivy Wexler, a cheerleader who has just resurrected her cat in preparation for bigger and better (dead) things.
Perfect for people who wanted The Craft to be sapphic, Babylove is a dark sapphic romance YA novella, and takes place right before the first book in the Zombabe trilogy.
Review:
I honestly don’t know what to think of Babylove. Have I been burnt by a beautiful cover? I think yes. This wasn’t my first book by I.S. Belle and honestly, I quite enjoyed what I have read, but Babylove felt very lacking. There wasn’t much going on and the sapphic romance you’re promised is nowhere to be seen, not helped by the fact that this is so short, and the characters are one dimensional. They fit into their stereotypes and that’s it. Cheerleader and goth girl.
I’m having the exact same thoughts towards Babylove as I did with Honeybloods: this doesn’t need to be split into multiple instalments. I feel like nothing really happened and I imagine by time I get to the third book I’ll be complaining that they should have been just one regular sized novel. In my opinion, a novella should be either a standalone story or a companion to a book or series. A series of novellas feels quite redundant, just release it as one book.
Speaking of Honeybloods, Ivy and Frankie were basically just Honey and Sadie – or the other way round as this was written before that series. You have a cheerleader forming an unlikely friendship with the “goth” or “weird girl”. I can’t remember now if Ivy and Frankie were friends when they were younger, but if they were, they’re the exact same characters.
The plot was interesting but lacked anything really exciting to keep me engaged. It felt like at times important moments were glossed over. There’s no build up to Ivy’s resurrected cat, you just meet it and Frankie’s like “yeah sure, totally normal”. No one really reacts to anything that is happening and the reason you’re given is because they live in a weird town where weird stuff happens. I’m guessing the author is assuming you’ve read the other standalone novel set in this town but as Babylove has almost double the amount of ratings as that book, it’s safe to assume most people, like me, haven’t. After reading the synopsis of that book, the plot is referenced in Babylove. Having that character be resurrected came out of nowhere and didn’t make any sense for the plot of Babylove. It just left me feeling confused – if anyone can perform this resurrection then why should it be such a big deal that Ivy is also doing it?
I can’t tell you how relieved I feel to not own the other instalments of this series. I’m actually feeling quite annoyed that the first instalment is the only one not available with Kindle Unlimited. I paid actual money for Babylove and I feel like I’ve been robbed.
If you’re looking for a short read and you’re not too bothered about a lot happening, Babylove might be the book for you, but it absolutely was not the book for me.
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