Thursday, May 26, 2016

#Thursday Review - Scintillate by Tracy Clark (Young Adult, Fantasy) @TracyClark_TLC @EntangledTeen

Series: The Light Key Trilogy # 1
Format: E-Galley, 304 pages
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

"A mighty flame follows a tiny spark."
Cora Sandoval's mother disappeared when she was five and they were living in Ireland. Since then, her dad has been more than overprotective, and Cora is beginning to chafe under his confines.
But even more troubling is the colorful light she suddenly sees around people. Everyone, that is, except herself—instead, she glows a brilliant, sparkling silver.
As she realizes the danger associated with these strange auras, Cora is inexplicably drawn to Finn, a gorgeous Irish exchange student who makes her feel safe. Their attraction is instant, magnetic, and primal—but her father disapproves, and Finn's mother orders him home to Ireland upon hearing he's fallen in love. After a fight with her father, Cora flees to Ireland, both to follow Finn and to look for her missing mother.
There she meets another silver-haloed person and discovers the meaning of her newfound powers and their role in a conspiracy spanning centuries—one that could change mankind forever…and end her life.



Scintillate is the first installment in Tracy Clark's The Light Key Trilogy. The trilogy features 17-year old Cora Sandoval, a quiet, introspective, book lover who is half Latino (Chilean) on her father's side and half Irish on her mother's side. A mother who disappeared without a trace when she was five. A girl who basically only has only two real friends in her cousin Mari, and Dun, he who is of Indian descent. After finding herself in the Hospital with an extremely high temperature, Cora finds that she can now see colors around people.

What's even stranger for Cora, is that there are apparently different colors for different moods a person is feeling at the time. Cora's own aura is silver. Something no-one else apparently has. Here's where things get a bit crazy. First, why did her father take blood from her when she was in the hospital? Second, why has he been keeping secrets about what is happening to her, and what happened to her mother so close to his chest? Third, why does a stranger say to her "A mighty flame follows a tiny spark?"

The final curiosity in this book was the insta-connection between Cora and Irish McDreamy Finn Doyle which sort of goes through a strange rollercoaster ride that left my head hurting. Who is Finn really, and why after getting close to Cora, does he jet back home to Ireland without any explanation? If that doesn't raise several red flags, I dare not say what will. So, again, what does this all mean? Does what Cora is going through have anything to do with her mother's disappearance, or the research she was supposedly doing at the time of her disappearance?

Without any word of warning to her father, Cora jets off to Ireland in hopes of following the trail of her mother, Grace Sandoval. A trip that opens Cora's eyes into the fact that there are those people called Arrazi, who are hunting down and killing those like Cora, called Scintilla's. Have you ever wanted to scream because author's love to screw with readers heads by introducing yet another romantic possibility into the story? Meet 19-year old Giovanni Teso who Cora meets at the airport.

OK, so, even though Giovanni has his own secrets. Even though he is supposedly the one with the information that Cora is searching for, I think their relationship is more of a friendship, and the fact that they are both being hunted for what is inside of them. I will say that the second half of this book was the most exciting and entertaining for me. Especially when things really start to get dangerous, and even more secrets, and stunning revelations are thrown at the reader like rapid fire.

Since I requested this book, and the sequel Deviant from Entangled: Teen, I shall be continuing right until the final page of the final book. One of the biggest questions from this first book, is who can Cora really trust outside of Mari, and Dun? There are a whole lot of things that need to be explained. A whole lot of villains that haven't been revealed. And, whether or not Clark chooses to allow any of the core members of this cast to survive or not is truly up in the air at this point.





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