Ink

Ink

by Amanda Sun

When Katie Greene's mom died suddenly, leaving her an orphan, Katie was forced to move to Japan to live with an aunt she barely knew.  As the months have gone by, she's learned the culture and the basics of the language, but she still hasn't learned how to fit in.

When she meets Yuu Tomohiro, she finally finds her voice and a possible connection, but it's short-lived.  Tomo is a Kami, a descendent of the former Japanese emperor's family and even one of the Japanese gods.  His gift is creating life from ink and that life doesn't always follow his directions.

Now that Katie's in his life, the ink starts to become more dangerous, as do the people around Tomo, including his friend who has ties to the Yakuza. 

Are they meant to be together or does the world need them to stay apart?

Final thoughts: This started off well, but began sinking into the realm of Twilight, including all the bad boy/shy girl plot points of Meyer's book.  He's not really human.  She's not safe with him, but she can't stay away.  There's a few background friends and a second love interest.  It's kind of messy and a few people are only brought in for moments just to forward the plot, not to really be part of the book.  What really annoyed me was the constant use of Japanese words.  It makes sense in the beginning, especially as she's learning the language, but later it's just THERE.  If she's become fluent in Japanese and they are all speaking in Japanese, but it's translated into English for our benefit, why keep using a couple of words again and again?  Prime Example: Keitai.  That's the Japanese word for cell phone, but "cell phone" is NEVER used except in the glossary at the back.  If everything else can be translated into English, why not "cell phone"?  Why keep saying keitai over and over and over again?  First in a series and there's a prequel novella out there somewhere, but I don't much care and won't search it out to read it.

Rating: 2/5