Carlota Moreau is the daughter of a researcher, a researcher who is part genius part madman... who has been experimenting on creating hybrids between animal and human genes. In the beautiful estate in the Yucatan peninsula lives Carlota, her father, and his experiments... and then comes along Montgomery, an english researcher with a tragic past of his own. But everything changes when the son of her father’s sponsor and his cousin arrive at the estate.. and soon Carlota finds herself falling for the beautiful eyes of Eduardo Lizalde, an impulsive, careless, and charming man. Moreau does not discover his daughter in her infatuation, instead he encourages it because it would then give him more funding for his research..., yet Montgomery and Eduardo’s cousin Isidor are against it because they both know that Carlota and Eduardo will only ruin each other. Things only spiral further as Carlota begins to discover her father’s secrets, secrets that pertain to her... and when things reach a peak and Eduardo’s father comes to stop the engagement and seize all his property, i.e. the hybrids, it is now up to Carlota and Montgomery to save them before it is too late. This is a story based off of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.gG. Wells. The story really builds on how childish, naive, and young Carlota is. The vast majority of it occurs when she is 20 years old, as a sheltered obedient daughter who gets her first taste of rebellion and romance things definitely begin to spiral for her. Overall a happy ending, yet something felt like it was missing for me. I generally really enjoy this author’s work but this one fell a little flat for me and I guess I was just a bit annoyed by Carlota as a character, but I can understand why she acted the way she did and why she made certain decisions. This is a coming of age story, with magic. This is a story about a young woman who takes her first step into being an adult, who realizes there are consequences, who has responsibilities, and who learns to speak up for herself and to have the strength to stand up for those she cares about. It’s a story about a girl falling in love for the first time, experiencing heart break for the first time, and finally growing out of her younger self. Though it wasn’t perfect for me, definitely give it a go. I will definitely be reading the author’s future works and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*