Touch

Touch (Denazen #1) by Jus Accardo
Release Date: November 1, 2011 (released early as an e-book in October from publisher)
Entangled Publishing
ISBN13: 9781937044459

5/5 Stars!

Goodreads synopsis:
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.

After only hearing good things about Touch, I decided to give it a shot and hope for the best.

It. Blew. Me. Away.

In the heart-stopping-can't-put-this-book-down-what's-sleep? kind of way. And I'm calling it, this will make one of my top 2011 books easily.

Reasons to Read:

1. Stand Out Characters:
   
   Kale and Dez completely caught me off guard as characters, and I love them for it. They're nothing like I expected, and break out of the common YA-protag mold. Dez has her own distinct voice and sassy attitude, and she's unapologetic about it. I normally don't appreciate the "rebel without a cause" but I really appreciated this about her. She was sarcastic and fierce but it FIT her so perfectly, you know? And Kale is this sexy and innocent all mixed together into one swoon-worthy love interest. He's almost like anti-bad-boy "bad" boy.
2. Action!:
   
   Touch is ripe with action scenes; something that the paranormal genre seems to be strangely lacking recently. But these ones are exciting and done so well, that it's painful to put down. Literally painful...
3. Romance:
   
   Speaking of pain, the romance in this book is going to leave you begging for more because going too long with it just seems cruel. I don't want to spoil or tease you with anything, but there are a few scenes that are well worth reading the book all on their own... ;) Enjoy!

Jus Accardo writes this story as if this is her masterpiece, and it's done so well that you're well-immersed into the story. Finishing the book felt so jarring, like waking up from one really, really good, really hot dream.

Also, the story is just so cool. It definitely has that X-men vibe, but in more realistic way. You get these people with special powers, but I really appreciated the amount of thought Jus put into the limitations on their powers in particular.

I demand more Denazen books, with more Kale & Dez, more of THOSE scenes (if you've read Touch, you know what I mean. if you haven't, you need to read it to go find out), and fast because this withdrawal period IS NOT FUN. *pouting*

Guys, I can't even express to you how amazing this book was. My review totally doesn't do it justice. You really need to find out for yourself and the GOOD NEWS is that Amazon now has it listed for only $10! And it's available NOW! If I've convinced you to give it a chance, you can buy it from Amazon here.

And, stop by here on November 3rd because I will then be a part of Touch's blog tour and will be hosting an author interview with Jus Accardo!

e-galley was very kindly received from Entangled Publishing via netGalley in exchange for my honest review; no other compensation was received.