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Saturday 21 April 2012

A Review for Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

StruckPosted by Donna
Expected Published Date: April 26th, 2012
Finished Date: April 26th, 2012
Publishers: Double Day Children's Books
Source: ARC, For Review
Format: Paperback
Pages: 432
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The Blurb from Goodreads: Mia Price is a lightning addict. She's survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her. Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn't who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.
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The Review: Struck follows the life of Mia Price a teenage girl who is addicted to being stuck by lightning. She has been struck countless times, which has left red lightening strike marks over her body but still, she craves more. When Los Angeles is hit by a massive earthquake which leaves everything in ruins, it is there where Mia runs into two cults – who both believe Mia is the key to saving everyone from the doomsday prophecies but Mia can’t help think can she really be the key when all she has done is get stuck by lightning?
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I went into Stuck with very high expectations and I think they may have been too high because while I liked the story, I didn’t love it. The story is based around religious prophecies, the 7th seal, the bible, God and so on, and as an Atheist, I don’t believe in God, so honestly it was hard for me to buy into it this story. Now I understand there are people that do believe in God and everyone is entitled to their own opinion but for me, I felt religion aspect in this story was just too much. From start to end people were preaching, following a fake prophet and quoting parts from the Bible and I just didn’t like it. Now while Jennifer Bosworth did a good job introducing a new story that was very unique, exciting and thrilling, I do feel like the religious aspect could have been toned down a bit and who knows maybe I would like it more, but because it was a such a huge part of this book, this is the reason I didn’t love this story.
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The characters were fun to read about. Mia does make some silly mistakes and she seems to land her in even more trouble. She tends to let her feeling for her family over rule her, like trying to keep her brother out of trouble and I feel a lot of her problems could have been avoided if she’d just aired them out with her brother instead of trying to keep him in the dark. Same goes with Jeremy – he is very secretive and constantly tells Mia not to go to the Waste but never really tells her why. It was a little frustrating to start with but still if things didn’t work out that way…then there’d be no book.
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What I did love was the relationship between Mia and Jeremy. I always enjoy a good romance and this really hit the spot for me. Their relationship was very secretive at the start but once they started opening up with each other, it was touching, heart-felt and really swoon-worthy and their moments together were really sweet. Honestly, this is why the book got a three star rating instead of a two.
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Now, then ending of the book was concluded very well I thought but, I was told that it’s looking like this book is the first in a series, and because I felt everything was concluded so well, I’m just not sure where I can see the book going next. I guess only time will tell.
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Overall, I believe Stuck will be a hit amongst the readers, so I do urge you to try it and see for yourself and honestly I’m glad I read it – even though it isn’t a favourite of mine. 
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A huge thank you to Double Day for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

11 comments:

Erin W. said...

Nice review! I absolutely loved this book and I was surprised by how much I loved it. I agree with you . . . the best part was Mia and Jeremy's relationship. It was a slow burn romance - it took some time - but I loved it nonetheless.

Giselle said...

The religious aspect really throws me off of this. I have a copy but I think I'll be putting it off until I'm in the mood for it. The reviews haven't been amazing either a lot of my friends said it was just same old same old so we'll see.

Elodie said...

Glad you overall liked it .. I really wanted to read this book but I read a lot of so so reviews on it and the fact that religion plays such an important part in this book doesn't please me that much so I actually don't think I'll read Struck afterall.. Thanks for the honest and great review Donna, you've helped me decide if I was going to buy this book or not =)

Carina said...

Thanks for your honesty, hun!
I always try to avoid books with too religious topics, because that tends to ruin the fun for me, so now I'm actually glad that I didn't request it on NetGalley or even pre-order it. While it does sound like an interesting read, I might put off my plan to read it now for a longer while - there are just too many other books that I should get to first. :D

Carina

Cass said...

Yeah, for me, religion really muddles things up. I'm not so sure I'll be tackling this book at least right now. Thanks for sharing! :)

It really is a shame that the religious stuff really brought down your enjoyment of the book as a whole.

Suzanne (Parabooklover) said...

This wasn't one that I was really drawn to so I didn't request it. I'm glad now I didn't, fellow atheist here and I just wouldn't be into a book with big religious elements. Thanks for the brilliant review.

Andrea @ Cozy Up said...

I'm really interested in this book, but I didn't realize the religious aspect was so overdone in the story. It throws me a little because I'm not a fan of stories that goes overboard on the religious. I am still a little intrigued and glad you still found things you liked about. Thanks for the great review!

Bex said...

Hmm, interesting! I can't wait to give it a go and see what I think. It sucks you felt the religion aspect was a bit too much and I'm curious to see if I'll agree or not! While I do believe in God myself, just like with politics I think it can sometimes be too much in books etc. Great review!

Alyssa_Susanna said...

I just got this book in the mail. It's one of the summer reads for me that have been on my list forever. It's had so much hype and whatnot, during the release month, so I actually won a copy and it just came. I haven't read it yet though. I hate insta-love, but if it works, then maybe I can get past it. As for religion, it has to like clean. Ms. Bosworth had to have written the religion REALLY well. And I hope it's not too much like any real religion, because then I couldn't handle it. But, I am going to read it soon. 3 stars! Nice! Thanks for the review!

Alyssa Susanna

Lisa 'Li-li' Harwood said...

I enjoyed this book a lot but I agree with what you said about there being too much of a religious aspect.
The characters were great especially Mia & Jeremy. 
And I absolutely love the cover =) 

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