Touching Fate

(Copy provided by NetGalley.)
From Goodreads:
"Aster Layne believes in physics, not psychics. A tarot card reading on the Ocean City Boardwalk should have been a ridiculous, just-for-fun thing. It wasn’t. Aster discovers she has a very unscientific gift—with a simple touch of the cards, she can change a person’s fate.

Reese Van Buren is cursed. Like the kind of old-school, centuries-old curse that runs in royal families. Every firstborn son is doomed to die on his eighteenth birthday—and Reese’s is coming up fast. Bummer. He tries to distract himself from his inevitable death…only to find the one person who can save him.

Aster doesn’t know that the hot Dutch guy she’s just met needs her help–or that he’s about to die.

But worst of all…she doesn’t know that her new gift comes with dark, dark consequences that can harm everyone she loves."

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There is an idea in Touching Fate that is loosely played with, and that I would have loved to seen more of--can science be applied to magic? Aster is supposed to be scientifically minded and that scientific mind makes the magic work properly. Unfortunately, there aren't many examples of Aster thinking scientifically, and so it felt like a shaky connection.

Actually, that was the weakest point of the book. The plot was strong and interesting, but the characterization was mild at best. My favorite characters were all side characters--Jan, Tillie, Gram--which speaks to how underdeveloped the main characters were--Aster and Reese come off as shallow puppets, really. Add to that fact that the romance felt forced AND rushed and suddenly my investment in the story took a nosedive. HOWEVER, the plot was just strong enough that I read quickly to the end to see how the ending was handled.

Gentle Reader Alert: If you do decide to read this book, be aware that there is some strong PG-13 language and some frank talk of characters having sex, though there is nothing graphic or indecent.