By Lynne Ewing
Hardcover, 288 pages
Expected publication: February 11th 2014 by Balzer + Bray
From the bestselling author of the Daughters of the Moon series comes a gritty, sexy novel about a teen who is forced to become a "lure"-a beautiful girl who is used to lure victims of gang violence.
Fifteen-year-old Blaise Montgomery lives in the gritty outskirts of Washington, DC, where a stray bullet can steal a life on the way to school. Drugs and violence are the only ways to survive, so Blaise and her friends turn to gangs for safety, money, and love. When Blaise is invited to join Core 9, one of the most infamous crews, she jumps at the chance. Though her best guy friends, Rico and Satch, warn her about the danger, she agrees to be beaten for a minute straight as part of the gang's initiation ritual.
Now Blaise is finally part of a crew. A family.
But things get only more dangerous when she becomes a member of Core 9 and tensions with a rival gang heat up. Trek, the head of Core 9, asks Blaise to be his "lure," the sexy bait he'll use to track down enemy gang members and exact revenge. Rico and Satch tell her it's a death sentence, but Blaise can't resist the money and unparalleled power. As Trek puts Blaise in increasingly dangerous situations, she begins to see that there's more to lose than she ever realized-including Satch, the one person who has the power to get under her skin. With death lurking around every corner, should Blaise continue to follow the only path she's ever known, or cut and run?
When I first picked up the book I glanced through it to see what the layout was, prologue, page count, epilogue...
The writer chose not to add a prologue, the page count is 275, and at this time there is no epilogue.
Since there wasn't a prologue, Ms. Ewing jumped right into Chapter 1 but the first sentences were a bit unpolished forcing me to reread them a few times before I was able to get started. My impression was that she was picking up the thoughts from a previous book, after some research I found this was her first book.
Continuing on through the first page I found myself unable to put the book down, but when I had to, I picked it back up any chance I got!
Ms. Ewing chose a first person narration for this story which makes me feel like I am part of the story moving through 15 year old Blaise Montgomery's very intense days as they roam the rough streets of the Washington, D.C. neighborhoods.
Ms. Ewing uses a lot of description in talking about each character's presence in the story which often leaves you on the edge of your seat. I found that although it was a story of struggle, some moments between Blaise & her friends carried some humor and love.
I would recommend this book to teenagers over the age of 15 and adults due to suggestive behavior (drugs, sexual behaviors, and violence).
I request of you Ms. Ewing that you please write a follow-up to this book because I need to know more about Blaise Montgomery.
My overall recommendation of this book based on 5 stars...3.5!
Guest Reviewer,
Fiona
The Lure definitely sounds engrossing. I hadn't heard of it before, but this is definitely one I want to read. I've never read about the concept of a "lure" and I'm curious about gangs. They suck, but they're such a huge part of the life of so many, and I can't help but wonder how someone gets tangled up with them.
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