Casted by Sonya Loveday

Synopsis:
“My mind absorbed everything in the spell book I clutched tightly to me. Pages ruffled inside of my head, urging me to remember things and then to forget them. Voices chanted with tempo rising at the breaking points of pain until the book vanished and words to an ancient spell scribed across my arms. Each stroke brought blood to the surface, imprinting words I could not read; words that would forever change who I was.”

Jade had spent the majority of her life running from the Triad. A powerful group, who would stop at nothing to obtain Jade and the missing spell book for leader, Lorenzo’s, nefarious plans. And now that she has absorbed the highly coveted magic contained inside the missing book, there is nowhere left for her to hide.

With the help of her friends, Jade steps out from the shadows and learns how to fight back. But no one is prepared for Elinor-the woman bound inside of the book that’s trapped in Jade’s mind. Now she not only needs to protect herself from the Triad, but from what’s hiding inside her mind as well.

Jade never expected the answer to it all would revolve around love.

Edge is dark, mysterious, and a sworn member of the Triad. He also hides a secret past that threatens the thin line he walks between good and evil. Lives are at stake when Jade and Edge’s two worlds collide. Can Jade learn to trust him when he says he is her pre-ordained and vows to do everything he can to protect her? But more importantly, can she trust herself and the woman in her mind?

    

My Review:
DNF @ 31% — There wasn’t some huge badness about this book, I was just simply not engaged.  I felt like I was forcing myself to read, and when I have 40+ books I want to read in just over a month, well, I just have to make some tough decisions.  I have a feeling this book would have ended as a 2.5 or 3 stars if it maintained where it was going, and I doubt I would have read more in the series.  I wasn’t feeling any connection for any of the characters, most especially not for Jade our heroine.  She wasn’t necessarily annoying or bugged me, I just didn’t care about her and couldn’t really tell you much about her except some facts.  There was a depth missing there.  I guess she did annoy me a little with how she quickly she trusted people (like Jessa and Rainy).  It felt a little bit suspect, what with her being on the run for unknown reasons since she was young.

As for the paranormal aspect, I found that it was kind of laid out in facts too, and I just wasn’t enchanted.  I wasn’t clamouring to learn more.  And occasionally I found myself kind of confused — almost like there were pieces missing that would have helped the story flow better (for example when Dagger all of a sudden tells Jade about being there with the vial…when?  Was this when her parents died?  Why did he all of a sudden bring that up?  It didn’t feel like it flowed naturally from what they were doing or talking about).

So yeah.  Just not a book for me.  It’s too bad too, b/c I won it.  For some reason I feel an obligation to finish books when I don’t buy them for myself, you know?  Oh well.  On to the next!