Descendants of the Curse: Jessie's Awakening is the first book in the young adult fantasy series by C.S. Kendall. The Descendants of the Curse series is a spin off series to Kendall's original series, The Killing Cure. I have not read The Killing Cure yet, but I found that I did not need to in order to enjoy this book. Descendants of the Curse: Jessie's Awakening is the story of Jessie as she turns 17 and learns of her families role with the fountain of youth. I thought the origin story of how life was when the fountain was discovered was fascinating. It was part magical society and part pandora's box/garden of eden. Life was basically a Utopia until someone broke the forbidden rule of drinking the fountain's waters. It was an interesting setup that I have not seen explored in young adult fantasy yet. (let me know in the comments below if you have any other fountain of youth  book recs for me!) 

Jessie is our main character in this tale. I liked Jessie. She is just an ordinary girl who loved participating in school plays until her parents turn her life upside and dumped her true role- as a descendant of an original immortal who drank from the Fountain of Youth. In order to maintain her immortality the fountain demands a payment in the form of lives. To make things more complicated, there are also a group of descendants of the families that did not drink from the fountain that are trying to restore balance by eliminating all of the immortals and their descendants. I thought the concept for the story was really great. And I loved Jessie and Tyler's relationship. He really stepped by big time with everything that was going on 

The plot was my favorite aspect of the story. I was annoyed at Jessie and her parents at times. Jessie is a full blown teenager- prone to extreme dramatics and she has a tendency to bury her head in the sand when she doesn't want to deal with something. I get that this whole situation was a huge shock for her but I do wish she stepped up and took charge a little sooner. And don't get me started on her parents. I have never been a fan of parents keeping their kids in the dark with some big family secret in fantasy novels. I think it always leaves the kids ill prepared to face the new scary adventure that is thrust on them, and I think that was exactly the case here. I wish her parents would have let her and her sisters in on the deal early on, which would have helped with her training and helped her to implement their "iron clad plan" that they have in place for the urges to kill that the fountain was going to impose upon them. You would think they would want their kids to have as much of a fighting chance, but no they decide the time to tell her is about 1 day before the urges start. It just never makes much sense to me to keep everyone in the dark until the last minute. But once I got past that pet peeve of mine, the story was really great. I can't wait to continue on with the series. I am hoping for some good character growth in the second book, and I also want to read the original Killing Cure series because I think I will learn more about the Fountain of Youth in that series. 

Bottom line: This was a solid start to a series. The premise is fresh and interesting. I did have a few annoyances with the main character and her parents, but overall I enjoyed the plot of Descendants of the Curse: Jessie's Awakening and I am interested in finding out where the series will go next.