[Review] Cursed by Jennifer Armentrout

Cursed

Jennifer Armentrout

Pages: 304

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Format: ebook

Source: Barnes & Noble

Age Group: Young Adult

Date Published: September 18, 2012

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 feel like a terrible person for saying this, but I didn't completely fall in love with this one. I mean, it was certainly a good book, please don't get me wrong, but I just wasn't really... satisfied? Yeah. It felt like a really great beginning to a JLA series. And I love her YA books. And yeah, maybe I compared it to the Lux series, but they did eat at the Smoke Hole Diner in Cursed like they did in the Lux books. But, I just feel like it needs more. More romance, more villains, more something after the end! It ended too quickly and I really liked the characters and the premise and it would make an awesome series. It would be 5 stars hands down if it were the first in a series, for me.

So, Ember's little sister has this thing where she can bring back dead things. Well, she brought back Ember. Yeah. So now Ember has this like "toxic touch" and kills people with skin contact. She's dealt with this for two years and she's gotta take care of her little 5-year-old sis, and her life just kinda sucks. So here comes Hayden Cromwell, and she and her sis end up having to go live with him and his adopted fam because they're like them: gifted. (Sound familiar?) Anyways, Ember feels like Hayden's adopted daddy is evil and hates him and everyone in the house hates her and really all they want is her sister because she's cooler than Ember just cause she was never dead and it's really unfair. There were parts in this section that made me tear up, and I was reading in public so that was a little embarrassing. The rest of the book is spent with Ember and Hayden falling for each other (come on, it's JLA of course there's romance) and Ember trying to figure out who these people are what their evil intentions are. Then the stupid ending comes just so abruptly and I'm left sitting here like: Wait... so who's good? And that person was evil? What about Hayden? And the fam? And Ember's mom? there were actually many more unanswered questions in my mind by the end of the book- and that would have been okay if this wasn't a freaking stand-alone. I think JLA needs more than one book here to develop the full story. Everything just happened way too fast for me.

I did really like Ember, though. She was stubborn and rude and snarky and awesome in general. I liked how she never put up with any crap from the Cromwells or anybody. She was just really cool. Yeah. Hayden was nice and all, but he didn't make me quite as happy as Daemon or Aiden. I wish they'd had more time to get to know each other and draw the romance out and fight crime or argue with authority or play the triangle together or SOMETHING.

I really just want something more. It was a good book, I just wish there had been more to it than just what happened in these couple hundred pages, you know? That's all I want. It still gets 4 stars, though.

On the bright side, my Keeper stuff came in, so I shall be having a swag giveaway in the next couple days. :) Should be fun for all. I'm gonna drag my grandma around to bookstores on The Archived's release date (Jan. 22- TUESDAY) and do things. :D Very, very excited.