A Touch of Scarlet (Unbound #2) by Eve Marie Mont

Title: A Touch of Scarlet

Author: Eve Marie Mont

Publish Date: March 26, 2013

Publisher: K-Teen

Pages: 319

Other Books in the Series: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound #1), A Phantom Enchantment (Unbound #3) to be published in 2014

Buy the Book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Rating: ★★★★

The compelling heroine of Eve Marie Mont’s novel A Breath of Eyre returns to find truth and fiction merging through the pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter…

Emma Townsend is back at prestigious Lockwood Prep, but her world has altered immeasurably since her tumultuous sophomore year. The best change of all: her boyfriend, Gray. And though Gray is leaving for Coast Guard training, Emma feels newly optimistic, even if the pain of her mother’s long-ago death still casts a shadow.

Yet Emma isn’t the only one who’s changed. Her friend and roommate, Michelle, is strangely remote, and old alliances are shifting in disconcerting ways. Soon Emma’s long-distance relationship with Gray is straining under the pressure, and Emma wonders if she’s cracking too. How else to explain the vivid dreams of Hester Prynne she’s been having since she started reading The Scarlet Letter? Or the way she’s found herself waking in the woods? As her life begins to echo events in the novel, Emma will be forced to choose between virtue and love. But can she forge a new future without breaking her heart?

I love the covers for this series. There is something very beautiful about them. From the beginning, I could tell that it had some sort of ties to the past. So, these books are definite eye candy and the stories back up the beauty of the covers with its own beautiful story.

A Touch of Scarlet by Eve Marie Mont continues the story of Emma Townsend but this time instead of diving into Jane Eyre, she submerges the characters into the Nathanial Hawthorne book, The Scarlet Letter. After the crazy sophomore year, Emma is ready to just have a good year at school and be normal or at least seem like it. Her summer was one of love, her relationship with Gray growing to a deep bond of love. It seems like everything might be perfect for her but suddenly her life seems to be falling apart at the seams. Her perfection turned into hell in the blink of an eye. Can she hold herself together against the constant turmoil that has become her life? Will her vivid dreams of a different life be the one thing that keeps her sane or the key to her insanity?

Emma is a beautiful young woman who is conflicted with her past and the world she keeps having vivid dreams about. The resounding question is for the main character is: What does she want to be real? Her personality dominates the story with her outspoken words and untimely actions. The untimely nature of her actions makes it so she has the 'foot-in-mouth' syndrome and also the curse of 'kiss-everyone-at-the-wrong-time'. But there is something that makes all of her wrong actions okay. It's the fact that she doesn't seem to have a negative intention or bone in her body. She is frequently trying to do what she thinks is best for everyone else and forgets the things that she wants or needs along the way. I love her selflessness and the fact that she wants what makes everyone else happy. She has one simple thing that she wants, to love and be loved. Of course, she just has a hard time showing it and sometimes she picks the wrong moment to show it. Her character grew a lot over the course of the book.

Michelle was her best friend during the previous book but over the summer, they seem to have fallen out. There is something growing between them, an animosity that shouldn't exist between friends in the first place and Emma doesn't know what happened to make their friendship change. Suddenly her perfect best friend isn't so perfect. Their fallout seems to influence more than just them as certain girls such as Elise take aim at Emma because of it. A new friendship that developed during the book is between Emma and Jess, a girl who used to not even acknowledge the existence of our lovely main character during the previous book. It turns out that Jess is going to be the best support that Emma could ever have and she illustrates the true pattern of a good friend. To stand by them despite their differences.

Gray, the love interest, is the type of guy that I want to slap for being stupid. It's like a running case of stupidity among the young adult novel love interests. If a guy jerked me around like these guys do, I would definitely never speak to them again. I had a lot of hope for the blossoming relationship between Gray and Emma but suddenly, it just wasn't good enough. The love between the two of them goes from teenage love to serious adult love. It was as if they were signing their marriage certificate already. So, in that way, I guess I wasn't surprised when it fell apart but I had hoped that there would be some sort of scenario where these two could've been happy. 

I really think Owen is a good guy, he is loyal and faithful. It's obvious that he had a crush on Emma even though she never noticed which caused some strain on the friendship between Michelle and her as well. He is the type of guy that we all want to date and in fact, I bet most of us know a guy like him but he is also the type of guy that gets friend-zoned and never gets a chance. 

Overall, I really liked this book. It was a great story and I can't wait for the next book!