Review of The Touch: The Cotiere Chronicles #2 By Michelle Bolanger

The Touch: The Cotiere Chronicles #2 By Michelle Bolanger

4 stars
Reviewed by Char Webster for Late Night Books and Reviews

This series centers on a group of people who have extraordinary long lives if they find and meet their intended. If they do not find their intended by 25 years old, they are free to marry and live a normal human life. The Touch, book 2 in the Cotiere Chronicles, begins about a year after the first book, The Kiss, ends. In the first book, one of the supporting characters, Alexander, is accidently bumped by a young woman whose touch instantly relieves the horrible pain that Alexander has carried with him for years. The young woman rushes off and Alexander is left wondering who the woman is and how he will possibly find her. He knows that she is his intended.

Alexander is a super-rich, super-strong character that is used to getting whatever he desires: Business deals, materialistic objects and women. In The Kiss, he started off as not the nicest guy in the world, but by the end, he became a great guy who was in the process of changing who he was for the better. Since his teenage years, Alexander could not stand physically touching another member of the Cotiere race without excruciating pain. He would carry the pain with him all the time without any sort of relief. After a brief encounter with Jessi at one of the Cotiere’s gatherings, he realized that she was the only one who could ease his suffering. Because of the constant pain he is in, he tends to have a hot temper and can sometimes react violently to situations.

Jessi is a beautiful, sweet, caring and frightened young woman in hiding from her abusive father, who terrorized her throughout her youth. Growing up in the Cotiere was restricted, privileged and terrifying. She didn’t want her mother’s abused life, so she ran away from everything including her intended Alexander, who she feared was as abusive as her father. Alexander manages to find Jessi and the book launches into a modern version of Pride and Prejudice.

I liked the storyline and the concept for this series. The characters are strong and well written. I was never a big fan of men with long red hair but I must say, Alexander makes a really good book boyfriend. He demonstrated how much he wanted to be a different person and be better than he had been. It was great to see such growth in a character. Jessi changed throughout the book as well. She had to overcome her fear and preconceived notions of who she thought Alexander was to discover the man underneath all the glitz.

Four stars * * * *

Late Night Books Reviewer Char