White Cat by Holly Black (Curse Workers, #1)

From the book: Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

 Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the con-men.

At first this book didn't capture my attention. Events and personalities seemed slow to advance. However, by the middle of the book, it really started to interest me. By the end, the slight twists the book gave were fun to read. The last twist, was the one that made me feel sorry and hopeful for Cassel as well as looking forward to the next installment to this series. Oh, and don't worry about that last statement. It isn't a cliffhanger, but it does set things up nicely for the next book.

Cassel believes that he is a horrible person because he killed his best friend. He has no memory about the incident except for standing over her body with a bloody knife and a self-satisfied smile. His family life isn't normal by anyone's standards, even those of the local mob in charge of most of the workers in the city. So what does anyone with these problems do? Try to act and become as normal as possible and blend in with the mass of kids at his new school.

The story really starts to take off when he starts checking up on his brothers. The mystery that unfolds when this happens really is the heart of the book. This is where he starts to learn who he is, what has happened to everyone and who he can trust. All things are a huge leap for a boy used to staying in the shadows.

I gave this story 4 stars. It is a good read and I'm looking forward to the next story in this series. The book will be published in May of this year. Not too much longer to wait!

I'd like to thank Lucille Rettino from Simon and Schuster for giving me this ARC for my honest review. No form of compensation was received.