Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Struck #1

Release Date: March 8^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 373

Publisher: Farra, Straus and Giroux BYR

Source: NetGalley

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.

The premise of Struck made me really curious about the novel. I mean, a girl addicted to lightning, that sounds interesting! How can that turned out. I have to say that I was disappointed at first, but I did get a little more into the story the more I read. Still, it wasn’t love.

The story was slow to start to me. I found that it starts getting interesting after the first third of the novel. The thing is, I was expecting more about the whole lightning idea. Yet, it is more a war of prophets. On one side, you have the Prophet that claims to hear the word of god. On the other side, the Seekers. I was simply expecting more about Mia’s past and struggle with her addiction.

Now, the characters didn’t really make the book to me. Mia slightly annoyed me. I simply couldn’t support her. She just can’t seem to make one right decision. And I can’t believe she didn’t recognize her Nightmare Boy! Still, I liked that she really wanted to protect her family. Family matters after all. Yet, she seems so all over the place sometimes that she actually put her family in more danger than anything.

Jeremy? I kind of have a love and hate relationship with him. I liked him at first, the way he acted with Mia, but after a while I was feeling like he was manipulating her. He kept telling her not to go there, not to spend time with the seekers without saying why… Then, there’s the romance between Mia and Jeremy. It was a little too fast for my taste. I mean, the novel last three days!

Now, the beginning may have been slow, but the ending was one of its strong points. I liked that they brought back some elements from earlier in the book. I liked that there is a complete ending, even though it is a series. That was a great aspect of the book.

Overall, this book simply wasn’t my cup of tea. If it is the kind of book you think you would like, do give it a chance. The story and the pacing do get better as the story advances.

Have you Read it? What did you think? Do you want to read it?