Review for A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

**WARNING. SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED**

A Touch Mortal is the first book that I read for the Read-A-Thon for this month (link to the Read-A-Thon page: http://24hourreadathon.com/ )

A Touch  Mortal by Leah Clifford is a book that I have been waiting to read for a while, and I don't know why I didn't pick it up sooner.

Synopsis: "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 definitely not his wings. Yea. So long, happily-ever-after.

Now, trapped between life and death and cursed to spread chaos with her every touch, Eden is at the center of 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's 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."

Eden is an outcast everywhere. Probably because of her black and pink hair. Her parents don't care, she has no friends, and she's contemplating suicide. She wants to die. That's all she wants is to die. Then she meets Az and Gabriel. She makes friends with them that summer, but it was probably worse than when she had no friends.

Az and Gabriel (AKA Gabe) are angels. Az is a fallen angel, because he fell in love with a human. Gabe is a messenger of heaven, he is sent down to Earth to report what is happening there. Gabe decides to check Eden's path, basically her reason for being alive. The bad part, is the fact that Eden has no path, she has to die. She is a sider. Siders die, everyone in their life forgets them (except other siders and angels).

One day, Az and Gabriel decide that Eden needs to die before the big bad guy named Luke can get to her and get her to side with the Devil (Luke, Lucifer?). Az jumps off a balcony and fakes his death so Eden would kill herself. It worked.

She learns that she needs to pass her power or she will store too much and hurt herself or something. However, she finds out that she can cause other siders to pass to heaven, AKA she can kill them. She begins to "release" other siders because "they shouldn't have to live like this".

Along the course of the book, Eden moves in with different siders. Adam, Jarrod, and James. They also take in a woman named Libby later in the book. While Eden is looking for siders to release (which didn't show up on her doorstep like usual) James is released by someone else. Eden thought she was the only one with this power.

It is up to Eden to find out what is going on (obviously). So the answer is to go with Libby to see some band. They are invited backstage, and it turns out the singer is Luke.

It turns out he is after her, and he'd do anything to get her on his side.

As time goes on, Eden falls back in love with Az and passes him the touch. Which causes him to feel bad, so he begins to choose the side of Luke. She needs help, so she goes to her friends who have all joined with Luke for no reason at all, but they did. Libby was always on his side, because she is Luke's girlfriend.

There's a crazy battle on a roof. Adam gets killed, Libby can release siders, and Az almost falls completely. Until the biggest bombshell is dropped.

Eden didn't commit suicide. She was MURDERED!!!

 

 

She tells Luke that the siders she releases is sent to heaven, which tells Luke exactly who killed her.

She thinks it was Az, but it was Gabriel!

Gabriel killed her to jumpstart what was happening. But in return all of the siders were being sent to heaven because of him.

The book ends with Gabriel falling and siding with Lucifer to save his friends. However, it isn't over and Lucifer will be back!


Lets list the good and bad things about this book.

Good:

1. The storyline. It was pretty new to me. Not the whole angel part, but the fact that she had to die to get the story started.
2. The characters weren't all whiny and they helped themselves. Most of them anyway.
3. The plot twists were pretty good. I honestly thought it was Az that had killed her, but I didn't expect Gabe.
4. It was a long book (419 pgs.)

Bad:

1. Eden was stupid sometimes. Someone is after her, so she sneaks out to a club. And then someone is after her, she knows who, but she goes out to meet him alone? Everything she did was behind someone's back.
2. It reused the angel storyline. I like angel books, but there are so many of them.
3. Its a long book. For a Read-A-Thon it was a bad choice.
4. A few things missing in the storyline.

Overall, I really liked the book. I felt that there were a few holes in the story, like why do they have to pass the touch? What happens if you don't?

I give A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford 4 books.