Book Review: A Touch Mortal

A Touch Mortal (ARC)
Author: Leah Clifford
Pages: 432 pgs
Reading Level: YA
Published: February 22nd 2011
Review Source: GreenWillow Books
Available: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Borders

Summary: (from HarperCollins website) 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.

A Touch Mortal had my interest since I read the blurb when I added this book for my Debut Author Challenge. Leah gives us a new kinda tale to read about. The characters were all very interesting at times. The plot was great but the delivery fell a bit short for me. I would loose connection with the characters when the book would jump. The talk of suicide also put a small damper on my reading, I just questioned if there could have been maybe a different option for the Siders to turn. Suicide is just such a strong theme and I don't know if the amount of talk and action was needed. The foul language actually didn't affect me as much as the talk of suicide. Now that being said Leah wrote the story that you feel when they hurt and when they are sad and of course loved. It's definitely a new paranormal world to read about. Just took me a bit to understand the whole gist about it. 

You meet Eden, she is a somewhat depressed and having thoughts she shouldn't be having. She meets Az one day down by the beach and its a instant connection. Now what Eden doesn't know is that Az is a partially Fallen Angel. He was punished for being in love with a mortal and now has to bear wings. Az best friend is a Angel still bound to heaven and discovers that Eden is path-less. So they know they have to rush her to take her own life because if not the Fallen will come after her to torture her so that Az will Fall. So this is when things fall into motion and jump around until the end. Eden has to discover what happen to her and why. Will she forgive Az or will she move on. Then she learns she is not your normal Sider and all Siders are now afraid of what she can do. Then finally she discovers why she has this certain power, will she accept who and why they did it. You will have to read to find out. Can't wait what see what happen in the next installment in the series. I do recommend this for a mature YA reader due to strong context and language.