Book Review: Connection

Connection by Emily Ann Ward

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Anna and Aaron have read each other's minds - literally - since they met as kids.  Eight years later, their touch sets off massive electric currents and a mysterious agency claims there are others like them.

I'm just going to jump right in with this one, since I can't come up with an introduction.

The characters in this book were realistic and varied.  Some of them were more irritable, while others were definitely lovable   I enjoyed the spectrum of people shown, especially the siblings that you could tell were related but were still very distinct, different people.



The plot was okay.  I love the premise of mind-reading kids who find out they're not alone at the same time they start having weird powers with any contact.  I don't love how I felt like it took nearly half the book for the story to go anywhere.  The first half of the book was Anna and Aaron healing their estranged relationship from a year-past fallout, while hanging out with friends/love interests and discovering their new power.  The second half was them learning they're not alone, practicing their powers, and cool stuff like that.  I felt like the two halves shouldn't have been distinct - the scenes should have corresponded more, with the appearance of other Pairs being sooner in the book.  Since this is the first book in a trilogy, the pacing of this book's plot might make more sense in the trilogy as a whole.  As its own book, it felt imbalanced.

The writing was good enough to keep me reading despite the first half's slow pace.  I felt like the book was lacking something up until the other Pairs showed up, but the writing still drew me in enough to get me to that point.  However, there's a lot of strong language and innuendo/inappropriate content I certainly didn't appreciate.

In all, I give this book 3.5 stars.  I'm not sure if I'll get the other two books when they come out; it will probably depend on the price.

I received this book for free through LibraryThing's Member Giveaways program.  No promise of a review was given.  All thoughts expressed are entirely my own.