Toxic by: Jus Accardo

Synopsis: When a Six saved Kale’s life the night of Sumrun, she warned there would be consequences. A trade-off. Something taken for the life they gained. But Dez never imagined she’d lose the one thing she’d give anything to keep… And as if it’s not enough Dez finds her immunity to Kale fading, the Six brought in to help Kale learn to control his killer touch starts drooling on him the moment they meet. Worse than that? Jade can touch Kale. But bimbo Barbie is the least of Dez’s problems.

After Dez and Kale got away at Sumrun, her father lost not only his most powerful weapon but an important piece of the Supremacy project. Forced by Denazen to remedy the situation, he poisons Dez and offers her a choice–surrender to Denazen for the cure…or die. Determined to find a solution that doesn’t involve being bagged and tagged–or losing someone she loves–Dez keeps the poison a secret. But when a rash of Denazen attacks hit a little too close to home, Dez is convinced there’s a traitor among them. Jade.

Sacrifices, broken promises, and secrets. Dez will have to lay it all on the line if there’s any hope of proving Jade’s guilt before they all end up Residents of Denazen. Or worse, dead…

Thoughts: Jus creates one of those stories that I can imagine in my head. Each scene I fall in love with or even hate I can imagine it so vividly and I absolutely love when stories can do that. Toxic literally attacks your emotions right in the first chapter and it’s one heart-pounding adventure all the way until the utterly torturous ending.

Toxic starts us off at the end of summer, where Dez, Kale, and her friends are having a reckless end of the summer get together. Unfortunately for Dez, she quickly find outs that her ability to touch Kale is fading… and quickly. Then for Dez problems get even worse. A six comes to help Kale try to control his powers, Jade, and she isn’t hiding her dislike of Dez or her wanting of Kale. And, if all that isn’t enough Deznee is then poisoned and told that the only way to the cure is to turn herself over to her father and Denazen. She decides to hide her poisoning and all the while Denazen attacks keep happening too close to home and Dez suspects a traitor. Can Dez save herself and Kale before it’s too late?

I adore this series to no end. When I received an advance copy of Touch way back when, I instantly fell in love with everything about this series. The characters, the concepts, the writing, the story line… everything. Now, reading Toxic it just solidifies my love for this series. There are so many thrilling moments, so many bittersweet and heart-breaking scenes, so many laughs, so many bad-ass scenes, and so many moments to fall in love with.

These characters are ones I’ve grown to love as well… three in particular. Deznee is such her own person. She may not have the most amazing gift in the world, but she’s okay with it and content with herself. She’s strong and witty as hell. The strength she shows throughout Toxic is remarkable because if I were her, I’d honestly probably take the cowardly way out. Kale is unfortunately being pulled away from her, and she keeps up her strength and love. Also, she decides to keep her poisoning to herself, which was most likely a bad idea on her part, but her reasoning for doing it is heroic. Then of all the hardships she goes through, the ending is a killer for her in more way than one and I felt my heart breaking for her. Dez is definitely one of my favorite main characters.

Then the boys that I absolutely love like no other… Kale and Alex. Lets start with Alex, since if you’ve read my review of Touch or have seen me tweet to Jus, you know I heart him. Even though in book one, we find out he hurt Dez, I decided to still love him for all the things he did right versus the one thing he did wrong. Alex is sexy and it’s so completely obvious that he cares a great deal for Dez. There’s just something about him that I keep finding myself falling for… especially in Toxic. In Toxic, Alex is there for Dez. He protects her and by the end of the book I was sitting there going ‘I knew I loved Alex, I knew it’. Then on the other side is Kale. Kale is his own definition of hot, and built, and blue eyes and dark hair, and adorable innocence. His love for Dez isn’t like anything else in the world. Their love is pushed to the limits in Toxic too, yet Kale’s heart is always in the right place and he is so, so protective of Dez. All throughout Toxic I was rooting for Kale, and I am dying for book three so I can continue to root for him and all the amazingness that comes with him.

And, I must mention that I have officially joined the “I hate Jade” club.

I truly loved every moment of this book and by the end I just wanted to hold onto the book and hope for the best. The end is a heart-breaker. But, it also left me nervous for Alex and realizing there’s going to be some extremely tough and exciting times ahead. This series honestly has every element I could ask for in a book… love, betrayal, amazing abilities, suspense, heartbreak, laughs, and an amazing set of characters to tie them all together. I need Tremble so badly!