Review: Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Cursed 

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publication date: September 18, 2012

Genre(s): Young Adult (Paranormal)
Challenges: SARC

Source: Own
Format: Egalley

Pages: 288

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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.

Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout has been one of my most anticipated titles of 2012. I mean look at the gorgeous cover! and the main protagonist reminded me of Juliette from Shatter Me. Starting the novel, I had high expectations, I can't lie. However I knew a ton of people who were disappointed with this novel so I was wary of that. The first 50 or so pages were interesting, giving us the background history of Ember and how she got her gift, but curse is what she calls it. I also adored her little sister. However as soon as she gets relocated and treated like she is a monster by people who have their own gifts and understand the feeling of alienation from 'normal' people. 

I was not a fan of most of the secondary characters. They were a bunch of hateful, judgmental people and always loved to put Ember down when they had the chance. The secondary character I liked was Aunt Liz, who was the woman that took care of Ember's little sister. I really wanted to see more of Ember's little sister but she barely shows up after those 50 pages. We do get to see a ton of Hayden, her love interest. He was not afraid of her, didn't think of Ember as a monster and just wanted to help her and basically to stop thinking of herself as a monster and start thinking of what she has as a gift, not a curse. As far as supportive love interests go, Hayden tops them all. I also really enjoyed Ember's POV. While she was a bit hard on herself, anyone who went through her experience would be as messed up as she was. I also loved seeing the both of them interact together. They didn't do any of the push and pull we saw in The Lux series, they were true with their feelings and that was a refresher from the usual YA romances. 

Lastly is the mystery of the car accident and who is still out to get her. I had a huge hunch on who the person who was behind all this was and in the end I was right. I really hate it when the mystery is a bit too obvious. I wished there was a twist with the mystery, but I give jennifer props for explaining a bit about the parents and who they are. When you read Cursed, you'll get what I mean. I do recommend it to paranormal readers and fans of Armentrout. I did enjoy it overall. 

Other books by Jennifer L. Armentrout:

Obsidian (The Lux series #1)

Onyx (The Lux series #2)