A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

Release Day: February 22nd, 2011

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Pages: 432pgs

The Story

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

And that's only the beginning of the end.

The Review

When I first heard about Leah Clifford's debut novel, A TOUCH MORTAL, I instantly wanted to read it. The premise of the story seemed very interesting (who doesn't love another angel/demon story) and it also seemed a little different compared to a lot of supernatural young adult books that are out lately . . . but I was - unfortunately - disappointed. While the mythology was cleverly written and the author had a really great idea on her hands, but the story and its characters had their own share of problems.

The story starts off with the main heroine, Eden, who is on a beach and contemplating suicide. Then, she meets the mysterious, good-looking and charming Az and Gabriel. In between the second and third chapters, out-of-nowhere, Eden and Az are completely "in-love" and it all happened in a few weeks. Um, okay? What was even more surprising, there is a sudden friendship between Eden and Gabriel, and they've become BFFs . . . which seems kind of impossible. Anywho, the story lacked within the first chapters because 1) these relationships happened way too fast and 2) I would've liked another chapter or so, to explain how these "relationships" came about . . . because I didn't believe in them!

Without revealing too much of the plot, what disappointed me more was the swearing and the characters themselves! The book has thrown quite a lot of f-bombs around and I know teenagers swear a lot, but please . . . surely there are other ways to express yourself. As for the characters, I couldn't really care for them because I didn't know them well enough. I didn't see the chemistry between Eden and the half-Fallen Az. I didn't see the greatness in Eden and Gabriel's close friendship. All of this took place within 60 pages of the book that is well over 400 pages. The whole shenanigans was confusing. If there was better character and relationship development, I would've loved this book way more!

Take for example . . . Eden. When I first read about her she was pretty likeable and then she died like the angels had predicted, then she became a Sider, then she was killing people with the Touch to send them off to god knows where, then from that point on she became very unlikeable. I understand her predicament and what drove her to that dark, hollowed place of wanting to killing herself . . . but she frustrated me when she started to have some purpose. Stubborn. Whiny. And misguided. This is Eden. And it's a real shame. We don't know Eden as a character and I wished I knew more about her before she was swept up into the angel and demon world, so from then on I didn't really care about her as much as I should.

While I've seen great reviews for A TOUCH MORTAL on the likes of goodreads, I won't necessarily say it was a "bad" book, just that it's one that needs to be improved both in the terms of character development and writing. Perhaps, the sequel to A TOUCH MORTAL might prove me wrong. Despite a few flaws, I enjoyed the action-packed ending which made up a lot for the books disappointments. So, should you give it a go? Yes, definitely! Everyone has different tastes and the book itself is pretty impressive since it's written by a younger young author. Anyway, A TOUCH MORTAL is going to be blessed with 3 stars!

The Rating

3/5 stars