Title: Cursed
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Blurb:
Dying sucks-- and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.
Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things--including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he's a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she's more than interested. There's just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden's adopted father, a man she's sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out.
However, she's willing to do anything to hold her sister's hand again. And hell, she'd also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn't? But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not have been an accident at all, she's not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time.
Links:
Cursed on Goodreads
Cursed on Amazon
Jennifer Armentrout's Website
Kala's Review:
Jennifer Armentrout hasn't disappointed me yet, and Cursed is no exception. Just like all of her other novels, Cursed is fast paced with likable, funny characters, witty dialogue, and a great plot. I like that she can take something that's been done before (the whole "killer touch" thing seems to be making the rounds among YA Paranormal novels) and make it seem fresh and new.
Ember is the girl with the killer touch. The twist is that she wasn't born that way. Her sister, Olivia, can bring people back to life and Ember got her "gift" when she was killed in a car accident and Olivia saved her. Unfortunately, her father died in the wreck and wasn't brought back. After the accident, Ember's mother became a shell of a person and at age 15, Ember had to raise Olivia by herself.
Fast forward a couple of years and Ember is still struggling. A chain of events lands her in a group home for the gifted which sounds like it should be an X-Men ripoff, but it's not for some reason. At the end of Shatter Me I immediately went "OMG X-MEN!" but I didn't do that here.
This is where she becomes involved with Hayden, another 'gifted' individual, and tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to her and how her gift works - and hopefully learn to control it somewhat.
My only major fault with the story was what happened to Adam, Ember's best friend from her 'before' life. I was very disappointed that once the thing happened to him, he basically disappeared from the story and Ember rarely thought of him again. This boy was a MAJOR part of her life since she was in kindergarten... while I wasn't super attached to him, I was sad at what happened to him and annoyed that Ember seemed to forget all about him.
My other minor gripe is how quickly Ember forgave people for some pretty major transgressions. She had a quick temper and nearly touched some people on purpose because they pissed her off, but when other characters lie about or withhold some pretty major info and she finds out, she forgives almost instantly. It just seemed odd to me.
Those minor gripes aside, this book was still awesome. I think JLA's Lux series is FAR FAR FAR better, but Cursed is still a fun read. I believe it's a standalone novel and it has a resolution (yay, no cliff hangers!), but there's definitely some things left open to where a sequel doesn't seem improbable. I wouldn't mind finding out more about The Facility and what their motivations are, but if I never do I won't lose sleep about it. :)
Overall great read! Highly recommend, especially to people who are already fans of JLA.
4 of 5 stars.
Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/382208018
No comments:
Post a Comment