Here is our review of her standalone novel, Cursed.
Hope you guys enjoy!!!
Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Steph’s Rating: 3 stars Dani’s Rating:5 stars Overall rating: 4 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
Steph's Review:
I became a SUPER MEGA EPIC fan of Jennifer L. Armentrout after reading
her first two series, Covenant and Lux. Although there was only a few
books out in each, I thought JLA was THE Queen of YA fiction and one of
my favorite authors ever (I still do). The basis of this novel, a touch
of death, was pretty cliché to me, but I thought something on the lines
of “hey, why not? It’s a JLA book, it’s gonna be amazing right?”
Well, it wasn’t all that great. I know JLA for making strong and
independent female leads, and super hot swoony guys. You fans know
exactly who I’m talking about ;).
In Cursed, we have our protagonist Ember, who was killed in a car
accident two years ago but was brought back to life by her “gifted”
younger sister, Olivia. Before the accident, Ember was one of the
popular girls at her school who had a perfect world, but afterwards
everything falls apart for her. Her classmates taunt and torment her,
she no longer has parents to be there for her, and she has also gained a
mysterious power--she will kill anyone she touches. Now she thinks
she’s some soulless freak and that there’s no atonement for her.
ARGH!!! I just had so many problems with Ember! Yeah, I know she’s been
through a lot, but she spent so much of this book just being whiny and
helpless. She also gets jealous way too easily. When she moves to her
new home, and there is a lady who acts like Olivia’s surrogate mother,
she hates on that lady instead of feeling happy for Olivia! Ember also
has like, no self confidence! “I can’t do it”, “No, I’m just a cursed,
soulless freak”. She’s spent two years, and the majority of this book,
just moping about the accident. Get over it girl! It was hard for me to
sympathize with her because I just felt like her self-pity had gone on
long enough.
Then there is Hayden...I guess he’s kind of hot in a way, but I think
he’s just too submissive (yes, you’ve noticed I like my bad boys). His
step brothers and sisters all say that Ember (and us as the reader)
haven’t seen Hayden’s real side--the one other than his calm, sweet, and
selfless one. But throughout this book, there was never an instance in
which Hayden showed his supposed true self! He also won’t go against
that adoptive father of his (whom I don’t trust at all by the way uh uh)
even when it comes to Ember. He’s supposedly in love with Ember, but I
can’t imagine why he would be because he never talked to her, but only
stalked, yes stalked, her for two years after the accident.
The plot of this book wasn’t bad at all, but I thought it was a little
predictable. I did love the mystery shrouding the “Facility” and the
part about Ember finally learning how to control her powers, but the
whole subplot was pretty transparent. I basically knew what was going to
happen during the “climax”.
It was a cute and fun-ish along the way. Though, I wish JLA made this
into a series, because I feel that as a standalone, it didn’t conclude
all of the points it started with. The ending was vague in my opinion,
and I still had a lot of unanswered questions. I might recommend this if
you don’t have anything to read, and just want something pretty brief
and interesting. But don’t worry, no author can be perfect at
everything, and I will still forever love JLA for all of the rest of her
books!
Dani’s Review:
I
completely disagree with Steph’s statement. Jennifer Armentrout has
DONE IT AGAIN. She has created another amazing novel that happens to be a
STANDALONE. I would love it if she made Cursed into a series, but then
she wouldn’t have time to finish her Covenant and Lux series!
Ember
is such a strong heroine, as strong as Alex from Covenant. I love her
name; it makes me think of fire. Her name seems to reflect her
personality. She somehow managed to care for her mother and sister after
the accident and cope with her newfound social rejection. This book
literally made me BAWL because of the pain Ember was feeling. Ember
thinks that she’s evil and soulless because of her ability and that just
broke my heart. I found myself angry at the people who hated Ember for
absolutely no reason.
Hayden
is such a sweet, not to mention pretty HOT, boy. He’s one of the few
who are nice to Ember, and what’s more they actually have a chance of a
relationship together. Now you may be asking “How do the have a
chance?”. Nope, lips are sealed. Not spoiling it.
The
only complaint I have of Cursed is the ending. It seems like loose
strings are left untied, but sometimes I like books to end that way. In
this case, I enjoyed the rather vague ending. Now I can imagine my own
happy ending and create my own stories to explain various events. (i.e.
This was how fanfiction was born.)
I
thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It truly came from the heart; I feel
like Mrs. Armentrout “left a bit of her soul behind” in this book. I
know, cheesy description, but that’s what I think. The tone was much
different from the Covenant and Lux books. This is the story of a girl
trying to mend her broken family. A girl trying to believe that
everything will be okay.
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