ARC Review: Touched

Title: Touched
Author: Cyn Balog
Genre: YA Paranormal, Fantasy
Release Date: August 14th

See it at Goodreads

Nick Cross always listens to the voice in his head. Because if he doesn't? Things can go really, really wrong. Like the day he decided to go off script and saved a girl from being run over . . . and let another one drown. Trying to change the future doesn't work.

But this summer at the Jersey Shore, something's about to happen that Nick never could have predicted. He meets a girl named Taryn and finds out about the Book of Touch. Now the path that he thought he was on begins to shift . . . and there's no way to stop things from happening. Or is there?

In a life where there are no surprises, nothing has prepared Nick for what he's about to discover--or the choice he will be forced to make. . .

Touched was lucky it got two stars. Actually it was lucky I even finished this one. I’ve held off for quite some time on reviewing it because I honestly don’t know how to go about reviewing it without sounding too harsh. I wanted to really like this one too but unfortunately it just didn’t work out. The premise was there, and I really liked the idea of a YA Paranormal told in the male POV (we all know this isn’t too common in the genre) but it fell through after a few chapters and the boy met a girl. Personally, I think this focused too much on the romance rather than the unique mystery the author was trying to portray but that’s just me. It pulled away from the original story and ended up leaving a foul taste in my mouth because of it. I couldn't get drawn to any of the characters and I have to love at least a character or I get detached very easily from a book. Gah, I wanted to love this one. Even the cover is gorgeous.


Why did I give it two stars? Because there were details that I enjoyed and there was a story there that I knew I could like if I looked past the insta-romance. It was an interesting idea. I only wished that I could have seen more put into it. There’s going to definitely be an audience for this book, I can see that. But it wasn’t for me.