The Life & Times of a Book Addict: Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst

Publication: September 3, 2013

Publisher: Walker Children’s

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

I was sold on this book as soon as I read serial killer, magic, and the witness protection program. Even though it was a good, it wasn't everything that I had hoped it would be.

Eve does not remember who or where she is. All she knows is what she is told from her handlers/caregivers Malcolm and Nicki. They do end up telling her that she has the ability to do magic, but not to do it in public. Her caregivers are hoping that her past memories will resurface and will help them identify and locate the serial killer.

Eve does happen to meet a boy named Zack at the library where she works at. I found his pick-up lines to be incredible cheesy, but Eve however didn’t mind them and was smitten with him almost immediately. I wasn’t quite sold on that romance.

I really wanted to like Eve, but it just didn’t happen for me. I couldn’t really connect to her. When something happened or someone was mean to her, she would not stand up for herself at all.

The writing and world building were good, but the story didn’t always seem well connected to me. It felt a little choppy. I was a little disappointed that the serial killer didn’t appear more often in the story.

It wasn’t until I was close to the end that the story started shaping up and things began to make sense.

Conjured was not a book that I was overly impressed with. But once I got through the first half of it, the story got more interesting and I found it to be entertaining.

If you do read this book, I would recommend sticking with it till the end, because then you would have the missing answers.

RATING: 3 out of 5.

** I received this book on behalf of the Publisher in exchange for nothing, but my honest opinion. Thank you. **

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