A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden
My Rating: ★★★
In the distant future, what remains of mankind lives under the harsh leadership in the Kingdom of Cutta. Hailing from a rich family close to the king, Catherine has a perfect sheltered life until her fiance's brother gets in a fight that leaves the pair traveling through land that has been mostly untouched for a thousand years. They contract a unique disease that leaves them unable to touch anyone but each other, and her soon to be brother in law begins to rot from the inside out. One wrong move leaves them running for their lives and trying to find safety beyond Cutta.
I really enjoyed this story. I have a soft spot for dystopian novels, so I knew this was going to be right up my alley. The characters are strong willed, clear, and vibrant. I found myself loving the relationships between them and found myself sad the few times well loved characters were leaving. One of the things I love about this story is the world building. Crunden carefully works to create a clear vision of what this world looks like and how it works without taking her readers out of the story. It was also interesting to watch the wool slowly get snatched from Catherine's sheltered eyes. She's forced to think about the world she thought she lived in and see how it really is. She's rather naive and stubborn when it comes to this, so she's constantly fighting with Nate and herself about reality.
That said, sometimes the arguing between Catherine and Nate got to be too much. I knew they were going to continue to clash throughout the story, but their arguments started to become redundant and wordy as I got closer to the end. That's my only complaint about this great series opener. Crunden did a wonderful job at setting up the plot for future books, and I can't wait to get my hands on the second installment.
No comments:
Post a Comment