I Knew You Were Trouble

Expected Publication: March 26th, 2013

A Touch of Scarlet (Unbound # 2)

By: Eve Marie Mont

K-Teen
ISBN-13: 9780758269492

The compelling heroine of Eve Marie Mont’s novel A Breath of Eyre returns to find truth and fiction merging through the pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter…

Emma Townsend is back at prestigious Lockwood Prep, but her world has altered immeasurably since her tumultuous sophomore year. The best change of all: her boyfriend, Gray. And though Gray is leaving for Coast Guard training, Emma feels newly optimistic, even if the pain of her mother’s long-ago death still casts a shadow.

Yet Emma isn’t the only one who’s changed. Her friend and roommate, Michelle, is strangely remote, and old alliances are shifting in disconcerting ways. Soon Emma’s long-distance relationship with Gray is straining under the pressure, and Emma wonders if she’s cracking too. How else to explain the vivid dreams of Hester Prynne she’s been having since she started reading The Scarlet Letter? Or the way she’s found herself waking in the woods? As her life begins to echo events in the novel, Emma will be forced to choose between virtue and love. But can she forge a new future without breaking her heart?

Review

     I am starting this one out by diving right into my thoughts on the book.  In two words: major disappointment.  And this makes me extremely sad because I really liked the first one and thought the premise was great.  I had seen nothing similar to it in YA books, so I was excited to see the follow up.  I really appreciated the character development with Michelle and former enemies Jess and Elise.  I thought that the plots pertaining to them were by far the strongest in the book.  I also liked that Emma finally got a back bone and did what she knew was right for her.  The only catch is that it took most of the book for her to manage this.  And by the time she did, I was so frustrated and disgusted with her weak willed choices/character that I wanted to knock her out and promote someone else to MC status.  I also thought that the scenes with Emma (and Gray this time too) in the plot of The Scarlet Letter were very melodramatic and didn't really make much sense to the plot - at least for me personally as a reader.  I thought that they made their relationship a Romeo & Juliet thing, when really they were just two dumb teenagers who needed to get over themselves.  Emma's lack of personality without Gray for the first 2/3 of the book was angering.  It harkened back to New Moon for me and the complete helplessness displayed by Bella Swan.  But the kick-ass attitude that she gains near the end did have me cheering.   The action seriously lagged and I felt like the book could have been somewhat shorter than it was in actuality.  A lot of the pointless introspection could have been axed by a good editing decision.  The next book will hopefully have a distinct lack of Gray, because he is in Coast Guard training and Emma will be in Paris - with someone that readers of the first book would never have thought to be a potential friend.  I will be reading the next book, as it's the conclusion to the series.  But I hope that it escapes from the lazy plotting and Mary-Sue tendencies that this one displayed.  I recommend it to those who read the first book, if they are brave enough to stomach it.

VERDICT:  2/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is May 26th, 2013.*