My Rating ~ Four stars

4-gold-stars copy

RELEASED: 18 September 2018

Publisher: Harper Teen

Format: Hardback

Pages: 309

Blurb

Cottonwood Hollow, Kansas, is a strange place. For the past century, every girl has been born with a special talent, like the ability to Fix any object, Heal any wound, or Find what is missing.

Best friends Rome, Lux, and Mercy all have similar talents, but to them, their abilities often feel like a curse. Rome may be able to Fix anything she touches, but that won’t help her mom pay rent or make it any easier to confide in Lux and Mercy about what’s going on at home. And Rome isn’t the only one. Lux has been hiding bigger, more dangerous secrets.

As Rome struggles to keep her friendships close, she discovers the truth about life in Cottonwood Hollow—that friends are stronger than curses, that trust is worth the risk, and sometimes, what you’ve been looking for has been under your feet the whole time.

Review

The girls of Cottonwood Hollow are all born with different abilities that go far beyond normal, and often mark them as ‘freaks’ to the higher class kids from the neighbouring town. Rome (a Fixer who can mend anything that’s broken, but is living a life of constant financial stress with her mother), Mercy (an Enough, who will always find she has exactly enough of anything she needs) and Lux (a Siren who can entice men to do anything she wants with just a smile), are best friends who all see their talents as a curse. As they try to navigate their way through life, and the secrets they feel they have to keep from each other, they discover a big secret about their town, and the curse itself. As they work together to unravel the town’s secret, their own secrets start to come tumbling down around them.

I really enjoyed this book. The friendships were complicated but fierce and wonderful. The struggles the girls faced were real. There was a bit of humour, a splash of romance and even a few spooky parts to the story. I did struggle to see how the ‘talents’ were much of a curse, save for the problems they caused Lux. How can you think being able to fix anything, find anything or always have enough of what you need is a curse? I’d be more than fine with any of those abilities haha. But that aside, the story was engaging and had my heart racing in the last third of the book. I couldn’t put it down, especially towards the end (which resulted in a much later night than I intended last night!)