Scintillate (Light Key Trilogy, #1)

by Tracy Clark

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Scintillate sounded really exciting, fun, and different. Unfortunately, I found myself mostly bored and annoyed, although I liked the premise a lot. It opens with Cora being extremely sick. She's rushed to the emergency room with an insane fever. Of course, she survives, but she's different afterward. She thinks the fever caused some brain damage because now she sees colors around everyone. It doesn't take long for Cora to learn that these colors are auras, but why can she see them now? Her dad refuses to acknowledge her ability, and makes some vague comments about her mother, who has been missing for 12 years. Now Cora is set to find some answers, even if that means she has to travel to her home country, Ireland, by herself.

Scintillate started out well enough. I was interested in Cora's ability to see auras, and I tend to really like stories about family secrets. But then the romance happened. The first 40% is some awkward, instalove romance that I just did not enjoy at all. Finn is a foreign exchange student (from Ireland, of course) and one of the popular kids (duh!). He only starts noticing Cora after she comes back from the hospital, which is an immediate red flag, but Cora can't realize that or else the story wouldn't move forward. In addition to the obvious fact that Finn is probably not who he says he is, he doesn't sound like a teenage boy. Every time he opens his mouth, it's some ridiculous, cheesy nonsense. I wanted him to just shut up. Then there's the issue of Cora whining that he says he loves her but leaves her. HE'S A FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT! The school year ended and he went home. My gosh! I felt like they were together for like a week, but supposedly this all happens over six months.

Then things started getting exciting once Cora confronts her dad for being a liar and runs away to Ireland to find her mother and some answers. I actually quite liked this part, but I saw the twist coming from the beginning, so it was just a matter of waiting for Cora to find out. Once the twists happen and bad things are occurring, Scintillate completely lost me. Another super obvious thing is starting Cora in the face, and yet she has to have it explicitly told to her, because...I don't know. Then the author threw in some science stuff and tried to relate auras to dark energy and environmental change. What? No, no. Just stop. I love science, but that made no sense. Leave it supernatural!

In the end, Scintillate was disappointing. It was a great idea, but the plot was bogged down by a super cringe-worthy romance and predictability. The weak scientific explanations were just completely out of left field and left me annoyed.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.