I received a free copy of this novel from Goodreads in exchange for a review. I am a really big fan of YA books, most of them, while I did like this it set off some of my pet peeves and kept me from really enjoying the writing. These are personal pet peeves, had nothing to do with the writing because it was well written, and the characters were well developed.Scintillate has everything to do with auras. The light that comes off a person that can represent their emotions, secrets, and pains. After becoming deathly ill, Cora can see these lights, including her own. Only instead of a multitude of colors hers is silver. No one can tell her why, so she goes down to a local new age shop to learn about auras, the books there don’t say anything about it, but the shop keep knows something. Only the next day the shop is ransacked and they're warned to leave Cora alone. Now the cute Irish exchange student and her have suddenly fallen in love against all logic. Her over protective father is letting her go to Chili to be with her grandmother and friends, only it seems she has to go to Ireland to find out more about her mother, who disappeared there without a trace in Ireland, looking for the people with silver aura's.Alright, I mentioned this story has some pet peeves of mine, the main one was the romance edge of the story. Now I love a good heart stopping romance on occasion but if I didn't know any better I'd say the whole book is about a romance with everything else being secondary. I was literally drowning in their love. Now, I won't tell you the ending but it did make some of it make sense, why they were all over each other all the time. Still, it was too much for me.I was really sure what was going to happen with the whole aura's thing in the book, in fact I wasn't sure that something really interesting could happen. That's what I get for judging before I read. This book is an immense world that I did not expect, and was by far my favorite part of the book.I have this deep loathing for Cora, like most heroines she was nice, selfless, and a little on the defensive. However I hated her throughout the book because she was headstrong and stupid. There's nothing wrong with wanting to take charge, but to endanger everyone else and yourself because your suddenly angry? She did that more then once. So yeah, I couldn't like her for that. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a unique and different paranormal romance ya novel that had me interested from the very beginning. Perhaps it has something to do with my career in clinical psychology, the idea of auras fascinates me. I wished there would have been a little bit more interaction and character development with the interpersonal relationships between Cora and Mari and Dun, but there are two more books that may pave tge way for this development. I loved the creepy suspenseful parts the most...won't spoil, but I love things like that...where there are lil mysteries to figure out...people leaving cryptic messages and stuff. Overall, loved.this book and looking forward to book 2. hope I can get my hands on an ARC. I wrote to Tracy and she is such a sweetheart. Read this book!
What do You think about Scintillate (2014)?
Interesting read, but I did not like the ending.
—tahz
