Ink by Amanda Sun

Summary:
On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive. (From GoodReads)

Review:
I am of two mind when it comes to Ink. Some parts I really liked and others I could have done without. Why do authors have to make it so hard to figure out my feelings about books?!

We'll start with the good. I loved the setting. Japan is awesome and we got to see the country from an American (non-tourist) perspective, making it easy to relate to Katie. She talked a lot about the food, language, culture and education, making it a super informative read. It seemed like the author knew a lot about Japan and I would love to visit there someday. The other part I enjoyed was the mythology. The ability for your drawings to come to live seems really cool, but we learn that it's more of a curse than a blessing. I just love the originality and Ink is definitely a breath of fresh air to the YA fantasy genre.

What I didn't like was the romance between Katie and Tomohiro, the hero of the story. Sometimes I would really enjoy their interactions and then Katie would go and say how she couldn't live without Tomohiro, even though she's only known him about a month. We get the classic story of boy ignores girl, tells her to stay away from him because he's "dangerous," girl pursues boy anyway and they fall in love. It's just so predictable and Katie comes off as a stalker in the beginning. I was also disappointed in the ending. I thought for once we would have the heroine actually make the choice that is best for her, but alas that doesn't happen. 

So I don't know what to think. Ink has both good and bad qualities. I suppose you'll have to decide for yourself.

Rating: 7 out of 10.
FTC: copy sent by the publisher.

2013/Harlequin Teen/326 pages.