Title: Tainted Luck
Author: Cynthia Austin
Publisher: Britain’s next bestseller
Date: July 30th, 2018
Pages: 129
Format: eARC
Source: from Author for a review
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Levi Kast was content living his life in the shadows. He didn’t want much, just his dad’s attention and the girl of his dreams to notice his existence.
Instead, he got more than he had bargained for.
Taylor James was the new student at Kennedy High. She was eccentric, impulsive, Gothic and…dark.
She always got what she wanted, and she decided instantly that she wanted Levi Kast. He became her obsession.
Despite Levi’s initial response to retreat from her other world presence, he was eventually drawn to this girl and her obsession of death and ghosts.
But Taylor had skeletons in her closest, including a dead boyfriend, and before Levi could understand them, he found himself her next victim.
Review:
Trigger warning: This book talks about suicide and mental illness.
This book is short, so I’ll try to make my review short as well.
I have to admit that if I haven’t been contacted by the author I would probably never read this book. It’s not that I wouldn’t want to, but because I simply haven’t heard about it before.
This is why reviews are so important.
Tainted luck is a story written from Levi’s POV, about a new girl in the school who is mysterious but also a bit addictive.
It has paranormal elements and talks about witchcraft in bits.
If you ask me, the biggest part of this book centers around mental illness.
The story itself is good. I loved how it was developed, from one atmosphere when everything was mysterious and cutesy to the other when it became dark and dangerous.
I loved that, and the whole story was really good. Yes, it had some problems and holes that could be easily fixed, but my main problem (and I hate to say this) lies in the writing style.
I really feel sorry to say that, especially because I was contacted by the author, but I feel that if the story was told in a different, better way it would be so much better.
It had potential to really become Britian’s next bestseller, but sadly, I don’t think it will.
It wasn’t just the writing, I had some issues with characters too.
Levi was not totally unlikeable, but he was annoying at times. However, I would ascribe it to the writing style. With his unpleasant comments he would throw on almost every time when talking about Taylor or describing certain situations.
One sentence even made me feel uncomfortable, and I am quoting it here for you, so you can get the picture what I’m talking about.
“…I turned to her, my patience as shaky as an anorexic supermodel…”
Taylor was unlikeable and rude. This is the was she talked to her own mother:
“Yeah, whatever Mom. How about doing your fucking job and put some dinner on the table?”
What is even more troublesome, that sentence right there made Levi see Taylor in a different way, he started to respect her because from then on.
As for others, they were just stupid most of the time. Didn’t have the courage to stand for themselves, but let that Taylor girl do whatever she wanted, even though their destiny was in question.
I don’t think that anyone could start a seanse in my presence against my will.
I won’t say anything else, I think you got the idea.
Even though you maybe wouldn’t say from my review, I am glad that I read Tainted luck.
I would recommend it to fans of paranormal and to those who want to read something quick and easy, since it has only 129 pages and it reads pretty fast.
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