Soiled Mittens

I love books that pose questions, I feel they add “layers” to books that could have otherwise been straight forward and generic. What do I mean? Well… try these on for size.

1. What would you do if by simply touching someone, you could take their life?
2. What would you do if you could heal even the hardest of injuries with your presence?
3. What if you could influence every person you ever came into contact with, just because you wanted to?

Why are these questions so important?

Because these are the exact same questions Jenny, Ashleigh, and Seth are about to find out the answers to.

For years Jenny has been saddled with a curse; touch someone and they die. So, in an effort to protect the lives around her she keeps to herself. No touching, no talking, be invisible. All of that, however, is about to change. After a devastating accident, (involving the only friend she has,) Jenny makes a discovery; she’s not the only one with a secret, unfortunately… the secret she just discovered is only HALF of the story, the rest is covered in lies, deceit, and a giganotosaurus sized helping of love. That’s right, L-O-V-E, but not the gushy oh-isn’t-he-cute-I-just-wanna-squeeze-him-kind, nope, this love is the I-will-rule-the-world-one-pregnant-girl-at-a-time type love, (and that my friends is a pretty serious problem.) Will Jenny finally have the confidence needed to take hold of her own future? Will her curse turn out to be just what the dr. ordered when it’s all said and done, or will everyone around her eventually fall victim to the worst curse of all… Jenny Pox?

The paranormal/supernatural world is a difficult one to break into these days. There are vampires, werewolves and every conceivable type of demon lurking around every corner, so just the ability to form a well-rounded, ORIGNAL story is a feat, but to take that story to a level that was completely unpredictable and not skip a beat… that’s impressive.

If I’m am going be honest the first 3rd (or so) of Jenny Pox WAS a tad predictable. We (as readers) knew exactly what was going on with the lead character, so her internal dialogue did nothing but pave a golden path right to the solution. However…once we reached that plateau the story took a turn, morphing from what could have been “just another YA book” to “Oh holy crap!” As a matter of fact, it read as though J.L. Bryan took a step back, looked at his work in progress and said, “wait a minute…I can do better than this,” and lucky for us he did just that; demanding that his characters (which for the record were magnificently set up) face not only THEIR fears, but the fears of an entire community. This little twist managed to turned “Jenny Pox” from generic to gasp (and sometimes gag) worthy, and in the end created a book about acceptance, love, rebellion, denial and most importantly retribution.

Now, while I myself enjoyed this book, (and thought it was one of the more valiant efforts into paranormal literature I have read lately,) I do feel the need to issue a parental warning. While my synopsis (above) may not elude to anything more than a run-of-the-mill YA level read I assure you it is not. There are SEVERAL risqué parts spattered throughout the book so I advise a level of caution before allowing anyone younger than 17 to dive into this read.

Overall however…great read and well worth the mula!

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: Absolutely no one can encompass the love of EVERYONE, if you see that happening… run like hell something is fishy.

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