This book was a quick easy read but I didn't feel like I loved it when I really wanted to. It was interesting and different from other things I've read. It includes a bit of fantasy that never really makes sense to me. Olivia becomes "poisonous" after growing a garden with her father of poison plants. This in turn makes her drive everyone away for fear of hurting them with her touch. Her teenage love comes back after years and they still love each other but she doesn't want to hurt him so she tries to push him away again. He has been in an accident and can't physically feel anything anymore. There are a couple of sexual scenes which don't go into a lot of detail but it still was more than I wanted to read. This is an adult book, not for teenagers in my opinion.
Anyway I think it would be a good book club discussion and even includes some great questions in the back, but I feel like I need to think about it more to decide if I really like it. There is a theme of temptation and touch. How important is touch? Can you have a relationship without it? I feel like Olivia was so afraid she just pushed everyone away when if she had been open they could have been closer and understanding and found ways to get around her toxic touch. I felt like this book everyone was hiding something...hiding the poisonous touch, hiding that the "saving gene" skipped them, hiding the fact that you caused your daughter to be this way...and all the hiding made everyone miserable for years. I did like the ending which seemed hopeful and old hurts were resolved.
Sorry this is a disjointed review but overall I enjoyed reading this book. I didn't love it like I had hoped and was frustrated with some of the decisions of the characters...they all need to learn how to talk to each other!!
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