Review: Touch - Jus Accardo

Title: Touch (Denazen #1) 

Author: Jus Accardo

Release Date: November 1st 2011

Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Pages: 251

Source: Bought

When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.

Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.

Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.

A secret Kale will kill to protect.

It's been quite a while before I read a paranormal that grabbed me from the beginning. Paranormal is one of those genres that's a love-hate relationship with me, and so I wasn't preparing to devour this one as much as I did. TOUCH has everything (except someone - see below) I love and missed in the paranormal genre. It will constantly leave you breathless and then some when you read those very lovely sexy (sexytimes?! hell yes!) kissy scenes! (And have I mentioned? There's a sex scene! Not to sound like a total creep or anything :P!)

The love story was also very sweet and endearing. And what I appreciate from the author, was she didn't stick to the same old cliche formula - instead she created the girl as having more experience (about love and sex), and then the innocent one is the guy. Which I find very refreshing because it's not that common in YA. Their interactions were hilarious and awkward at times :). I laughed out loud whenever Kale didn't understand relationships with people and  Dez would get so embarrassed when she has to tell him about hand-holding and stuff. Cute.

Kale. *blushes* He is just so swoon-worthy he needs his own paragraph. He was so naive, innocent and so isolated from the world that you can't help but feel some sort of sympathy for him. He reminds me a bit of Juliette from Shatter Me (Tahereh Mafi) as their 'powers' are quite similar and the way they think about themselves, how they think they don't deserve happiness, that they're a monster, but even though countless horrid things have happened to them, they still remained themselves - kind, true, and compassionate.

The reason why this book didn't get a Grade A or A+ was because of Dez. Bet you figured that out ha? That it has to do with the heroine? Yep. What is up with all the books that I've been reading lately? Where's all the Katniss, the Tris, the Juliette etc? Lately I've been reading books with freaking annoying female narrators. Eugh. *Deep breaths*. Okay. Right, back to Dez. I liked her in the beginning, she was just so stubborn and don't give a shit to what anything says or thinks, and especially likes to piss off her dad. Bonus. Then throughout the middle, she just turned into this stupid, irritating slut who can't pick between two boys and keeps going back and forth between them. And she's just so stupid when it comes to love (which a lot of people her age is). Nevertheless - make up your mind,woman!

This book had so many twists and turns and there were some very suprising and unexpected stuff discovered that my mouth was hanging open by the end. Jus Accardo's writing also deserves some round of applause. Her writing is so addictive, that you can't put the bloody book down! I'm looking forward to her future books, and I love that the Denazen novels are a series! Yay! THAT MEANS = MORE KALE! (which is never a bad thing, people!)