What I'm Reading Wednesday

This week I have one book to add to your DEFINITELY DON'T read list, and one to recommend!!

Evermore by Alyson Noel
Summary: Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras, hear people’s thoughts, and know a person’s life story by touch.   Going out of her way to shield herself from human contact to suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste . . . Ever sees Damen and feels an instant recognition.  He is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy, and he holds many secrets.  Damen is able to make things appear and disappear, he always seems to know what she’s thinking—and he’s the only one who can silence the noise and the random energy in her head.  She doesn’t know who he really is—or what he is.  Damen equal parts light and darkness, and he belongs to an enchanted new world where no one ever dies. (source: goodreads.com)

My Thoughts: This book was capital-T-TERRIBLE.  As in, one of the worst books I have EVER read.  EVER!  I picked it up because I saw that one of my friends had logged it as "read" on goodreads and it sounded like another guilty pleasure teen love story...but dear god it was completely awful in a way that makes Twilight seem like intellectual, quality literature.  Which is really saying something.  Not only is it a COMPLETE Twilight-wannabe (which isn't always a bad thing!  I still liked Die for Me even though I could say the same about that!), but the characters are just plain annoying and the plot is ridiculous even for fantasy.  First, the main character Ever (which is sooo not a name...) wakes up from a near death experience and discovers she has psychic powers.  Let me clarify that--she doesn't just have ONE psychic power like an ability to see the future, but she has EVERY POSSIBLE psychic power that has ever been imagined.  Seriously, this girl can suddenly see auras, hear others' thoughts, see the future, manifest objects/change the future...the list goes on.  At one point, she also casually mentions that she sees dead people "all the time," and then never mentions anything about that again!!  Um, I'd say that's an important thing that might factor into the story, but I guess not??  My personal favorite, though, is that mid-way through the book she explains that school doesn't really matter because she can sweep a finger over test questions and know the answer and just touch a book and absorb all information.  Okay.  I KNOW this is not realistic fiction.  I KNOW all of her other abilities are pretty much fictional too.  But really?  REALLY???  


Okay, enough about that.  Moving on.  I know Twilight is super poorly written and a horrible example of a manipulative borderline-abusive relationship, and I hate myself for saying this, but I cared about those characters!  I wanted Edward and Bella to just be HAPPY!  As silly as their romance was, I was on board.  In this book, I don't even LIKE the male lead, Damen!  I don't understand what she likes about him at all, and their relationship isn't even interesting.  And that's saying something, because I am usually a sucker for any boy-meets-girl story.  This one?  Completely dumb.  


Never read this book.  Enough said.  Phew, that felt good!  1/5 stars

Impossible by Nancy Werlin
Summary: Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that she is the latest recipient of a generations-old family curse that requires her to complete three seemingly impossible tasks or risk falling into madness and passing the curse on to the next generation. Unlike her ancestors, though, Lucy has family, friends, and other modern resources to help her out. But will it be enough to conquer this age-old evil?  A beautifully wrought modern fairy tale from master storyteller and award-winning author Nancy Werlin.  Inspired by the classic folk ballad "Scarborough Fair," this is a wonderfully riveting and haunting novel of suspense, romance, and fantasy. (source: goodreads.com)


My Thoughts: I have some mixed feelings about this book, but overall I really enjoyed reading it.  It wasn't what I expected, for sure.  When I picked it up, I was expecting it to be more of a twisted fairy tale story, like Ella Enchanted or something along those lines, but it is set in modern times.  Unlike Evermore, I loved the characters in this book and was completely hooked into the story.  I wanted to read more and more as the characters tried to figure out how to break the curse, and I thought it was really cool that the plot was based on a familiar song.  My only small complaints  are that the ending is a little weird--without saying too much, I feel like the book was so grounded in modern times that when some fantasy elements were thrown in towards the end, it just felt...weird.  Also, again trying not to spoil the book, I struggled with the fact that the story almost glorifies teen pregnancy and worry about the message it may send young readers...buuut at the same time I did love the little romance between the characters that developed as they worked to break the curse.  Just read it and you'll see what I mean!  I would give this one 3.5/5 stars. :)


What have you been reading this week?