Review: A Touch Mortal

Eden didn't expect Az. 

Not his saunter down the beach toward her. Not his unbelievable pick up line. Not the instant, undeniable connection. And not his wings. 

Yeah. 

So long happily-ever-after. 

Now trapped between life and death, cursed to spread chaos with her every touch, Eden could be the key in the eternal struggle between heaven and hell. All because she gave her heart to one of the Fallen, an angel cast out of heaven. 

She may lose everything she ever had. She may be betrayed by those she loves most. But Eden will not be a pawn in anyone else's game. Her heart is her own. 

And that's only the beginning of the end. 
Sumary from (Goodreads)


Review: One summer day, Eden sits on a beach, contemplating suicide. Apparently, her family and friends have seemed to have forgotten about her. While she decides what she wants to do, two mysterious strangers approach Eden. One of them, Az, flirts with her. She tells him to f**k off. They have an insta!love worthy of Shakespeare. But wait! There's more.


Their love for the first few chapters was lovely. It progressed a little too fast for my tastes, but it's a YA book and things tend to turn out that way. Plus, Eden was contemplating suicide for goodness sake. Her relationship with Az makes the thoughts go away and in that fragile mental state, she probably clung to her only sense of happiness. So of course she's going to be in love with Az. He made her happy when everything sucked enough for her to want to end it. It's not a healthy relationship by any means, but things neutralized until it seemed like a cute, normal relationship. (Or normal enough for a paranormal YA romance) Then around chapter three or four-ish, (forgive me for not being exact. I had to return A Touch Mortal to the library so I don't have a reference) there was a huge time skip that left me in the dust. Since the love between Az and Eden was a huge plot point for this book, it should've been believable, right?


Nope. Their relationship started out really great but then the author skipped the budding relationship and jumped straight into the "I love yous". Which, of course, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Their relationship for the rest of the book seemed forced and unrealistic. Don't get me wrong, they did have their semi-cute moments, but most of those were just in flashbacks. Don't tell me they love each other. Show me they love each other. I want to see how like turned into love. Or even hate turned into love. Pics or it didn't happen.


And the time skip I mentioned regarding to Az and Eden's relationship? Well, that wasn't the only time skip. I missed the integration period Eden had with her life so between two chapters, Eden went from totally confused to using terms like "Sider", "Screamer", "Upstairs", and "The Basement" with no explanation whatsoever. It wasn't too difficult for me to deduce what the words meant, but their casual usage was like some kind of shock treatment. It's like turning around, only to see a scary looking (but friendly) ax murderer chopping onions in your kitchen. But then it turns out the supposed ax murderer is really just your uncle John who hasn't showered for two days and that ax is just a really, really big knife.


Sometimes it felt like there were too many characters to keep track of. I'm not sure if it's because I'm an idiot or because the introductions were dull, but it took me forever to realize what I'm sure the author meant to be obvious. Many times, when I felt like I had a good grip on who was who, a handful of new characters would pop up and I'd be confused all over again.


Personally, I liked Eden a lot as a character. She pissed me off a lot, but she grew on me. Sort of like mold. I really admire her strength and refusal to stop...doing a certain thing even if it hurt her because she felt like the people needed her. She wanted to give them something that none of them ever got. It was wonderful, really. What I didn't like about her character was her rudeness toward other characters. Mainly, Adam, another "Sider" whom she shares an apartment with. He liked her. (Sorry for spoiling that tiny, obvious detail) She treated him like dirt half the time. I get that her awful attitude came from having too much Touch (sorry if you don't understand what that means) but she could've just...she could've been nicer.


If you guys don't know, Siders are all people who've committed suicide. I didn't know the book had anything to do with suicide when I picked it up. If I did, I probably wouldn't have read it. I'm not religious by any means, and I know this is a personal thing, but I couldn't stand how the author wrote about suicide. It's one thing to have a suicidal character because people really are suicidal. It's sad and horrible but it's real. I have nothing against writing about the unknown. The afterlife and death are okay things for me to read about. So is Heaven and Hell and angels and demons. But for some reason, I just couldn't stand how the author described what happened after suicide in her book. I know it's a personal bias for me and that I shouldn't be writing about it in a review, but hey, I'm not a very professional reviewer. Sorry about that. People have to understand that suicide is the end. I, like every other human being, do not know what happens after death. But it's a safe bet to say that you don't get to stay here afterwards. 


Sorry for the rant. :/ Suicide is just a touchy subject.


Overall, it was an okay book. When I was finally able to get over the suicide thing and the weird pacing, I was able to enjoy it. There was a lot of tension and great action. :D The majority of the side character had little to no depth in them, but I was content enough with the development in my friend Gabriel. There's a sequel to A Touch Mortal called A Touch Morbid that's not yet released but I don't think I'll be picking it up. My irritation just overcomes my curiosity to see what happens.


Rating: 2.5/5 stars