"Ember X" by Jessica Sorensen

Series: Death Collectors #1
Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance
Format: Kindle (FREE)
Publication: April 19, 2013
Cover Rating: 5/5 Stars
Links: Goodreads, Amazon

From Goodreads: For nineteen-year-old Ember, life has always been about death. With a simple touch, she can see when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person that knows her secret is her best friend Raven. 

But that changes when she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous and mysterious and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. The silence he instills in her mind and body allows her to feel things she’s never been able to before, so despite her initial reservations, Ember lets Asher into her life and lets herself to get close to him. But the closer they get, the more Ember realizes that Asher is keeping secrets from her.

When unexplained deaths begin to surface in her town, Ember questions why she can’t see Asher's death and what it is he’s hiding from her.

My Thoughts: Can I just say that I am *loving* this new thing (or at least new to me) that authors are doing where they're amping up their YA novels and turning them into NA? Because even though I love YA, sometimes I just want some extra steamy extra violent R-Rated goodness. And I totally get it in Ember X.

I'll be honest, I read J. Sorensen's The Secret of Ella and Micha a while back and just felt "eh" towards it. Nothing really stood out in it for me, and I could take it or leave it. In fact, I had kind of decided that Sorensen's work was probably just not for me (especially since everyone else seemed to rave about it). But then I ran across a FREE Kindle version of Ember X and downloaded it because A. The cover was HOT and B. It was PNR NA (which oddly I don't run across often enough). And I'm really glad I did, because while it was not a blow-my-mind-five-star read, it was definitely quick, interesting, and original.

Ember Edwards is a nineteen year old girl with the creeptastic, uncontrollable gift (or curse) of seeing death omens- which basically means if you touch her, she sees how you die.What I really liked about her though is that she's kind of the anti-heroine. We see all these shy, nerdy girls in YA novels now days and while they're all awesome, it was nice to have a change. Ember is creative and dark, with a wicked sense of fashion (I totally covet this girls closet).

I did have some issues with Ember X, though. The relationship(s) Ember has between Cameron and Asher are made of pure instalove. And while I wouldn't label it a love triangle exactly, the basic formula is still there. I didn't really feel like I had time to bond with either of the relationships she forms with the guys, and honestly I couldn't really get on board with the friendship between her and bff Raven, either. It was all just kind of shoved together in a neat little package of "because that's just the way it is".

Also, the story gets a little foggy here and there, and not always in the good mysterious way. Sometimes I had to re-read paragraphs to keep from getting confused on all the grim reaper/ grim angel/ death angel talk. But in the end I found it enjoyable and immediately went and downloaded the second book in the series Cinder X. I have high hopes that this series will only get better the deeper I go into it. Also, I'm a sucker for anyone who puts Poe in their work :)

My Rating: