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What if you knew when someone was going to die? For seventeen-year-old Ember, life is death. With a simple touch, she knows when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person who knows her secret is her best friend Raven. Then she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. So when he pushes into her life, she doesn’t mind. But when unexplained deaths start to haunt her town, Ember starts questioning why she can’t sense Asher's death and what he may be hiding. Amazon / Goodreads

Author Bio

Jessica Sorensen lives with her husband and three kids in the snowy mountains of Wyoming, where she spends most of her time reading, writing, and hanging out with her family. Goodreads / Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Actual rating 2.5 stars.

Blegh. Meh.

This was really, really average. Like, precisely average.

I remember liking Sorensen's earlier work, The Fallen Star. I thought it was entertaining albeit the writing sounded like a paranormal chick lit.

So, of course, a year later, I expected more from Sorensen. Much more. She wrote a bunch of other books in between The Fallen Star and Ember.

*sigh*

Very well, it came to this anyway. I don't think I'll ever finish The Fallen Star series.

Ember. At first glance, it has a complete package. Gorgeous cover, interesting blurb, original mythology, reapers, Edgar Allan Poe,

death,

more EDGAR ALLAN POE,

more DEATH.

In short, this book has the potential to be the perfect gothic book for me but sadly, the execution was so average, it left me disappointed. So, so disappointed.

First, there's the duality of Ember and Raven. Contrary to the names, it's Ember who always wear black and it's Raven who has bubblegum pink hair. Anyway, I don't understand to why there's a need to create this unpopular, awkward or probably nerdy main female protagonist who is best friends with this popular, stylish girl. I believe there are more facades of high school teenagers than these stereotypes.

The male characters were really uninspiring. Sure, they do have interesting backgrounds but blegh, I don't get the romance at all. I find it really hormone-driven.

The plot is choppy. It was really hard to keep track of everything. Things just move from one scene to another in the next line.

To wrap it up, this was definitely a fast read but sadly, it failed to trigger even the tiniest bit of emotions out of me.

Oh well.

3 poker faces