Cursed by Jennifer Armentrout

Goodreads 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've 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.

I’m a giant fan of Jennifer Armentrout so when I got this in the mail, I was ecstatic! Sadly, I was disappointed, although I’m pretty sure I’m the only to feel that way. Cursed wasn’t as stunning as Jennifer’s other series, but it was pretty good anyways.

Character wise, I didn’t  like Ember. Even when proof was thrown in front of her face, she insisted that it was all a) a dream or b) a hallucination/lie. She had this atmosphere of distrust and despair that irked me a lot. Also, I feel like she had a multiple personality disorder. Yeah. Psycho, then emotional, then normal. Rinse and repeat As the book progressed, so did her attitude and thank GOD for that. She would slowly learn to accept that “gifts” were real and she would try to control her powers. Does she succeed? I don’t know…you’ll just have to find out yourself!

Hayden, our love interest…he, well, seemed typical and one of those cliché boyfriends. I’m sorry you Hayden fans! But he was a guy with an extremely powerful gift, frightneningly handsome and charming, and interested (*cough* stalking *cough*) Ember? WHAT!? It just struck a nerve reminding me of this love interest (who shall not be named) who I hated. Completely, utterly hated. Hayden just wasn’t swoon-worthy to me and well, I kind of wanted to strangle him. Although I’m sure Ember would kill me.

Speaking of, the romance. I’m kind of deciding whether it was good or bad. The romance wasn’t insta-love…actually, I’m deciding on that too. Hayden seemed to go insta-lovey from what we read and although Ember didn’t, I found it disturbing that she wasn’t more wary of some guy who had unnatural powers who was basically stalking her. And even when she was a bit wary, it lasted aabout half a day and she forgave him because he was charming and handsome. Uh huh. Yeah. Smart, Ember.

On the other hand, if you ignore all of that, the romance was sweet and…pretty non insta-love?

The plot, I’ll have to admit, did remind me a bit of Shatter Me, but Jennifer Armentrout creates her own plot off the “death touch” route, adding in other prett well-known gifts in. There were a lot of things that were pretty obvious, a few that weren’t, but all in all it was a pretty good tie off.  A few horrid things definitely go ont hat actually fit the book pretty well so in plot-wise it was pretty good!

And while I was going to rate this a 2 star book, the way Jennifer Armentrout tells the story brought it up to 3. Armentrout nows how to deftly weave a story and make the words into an enchanting piece that will probably captivate you from start to finish. There’s just something about her writing style that makes you bring your rating a star up! (Honestly, I think I’m pretty much the only person on Earth who pretty much disliked Cursed.)

Pages: 312

Series: Currently a stand-alone!
Genre: Supernatural/Romance

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Release Date: September 18

Rating: 3 stars

 

"Slowly, I eld my breath, reached and brushed the tips of my fingers over the velvety leaves. The weed shuddered once under my fingers. The soft leaves turned rough and crispy. I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip. When I did open my eyes, the weed lay limp against the bark. Dead."