Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Death Collectors Series by Jessica Sorensen

The silence of a heart...the shadow of trees...the blackened lake.  Bones Breaking.  Someone can't breathe.  It hurts...there's so much blood.  A last breath is strangled away.  A red "x" stains it all.  An empty hour glass.  Murder.

 
 Ember Edwards has a very unique gift.  She knows how someone will die just by touching them.  And she occasionally sees the Grim Reaper hanging out around her.  It's more than just a little creepy and with having to stare death in the face so much it wears on Ember quite a bit.  There are down sides to having such a gift.  She found out long ago people were not accepting of it.  Like when her father went missing and she called the police saying that he was going to die.  While she was just trying to stop it, it made her a prime suspect.  They never found his body.
   Two new guys show up at her school and the weird thing is that she can't sense their deaths.  One of them; Cameron, makes her feel like she is coming unraveled when she touches him while the other; Asher keeps her calm.  Ember starts having feelings towards Asher, but is still attracted to Cameron as well.
   While she deals with the two of them, Ember starts learning about Angels of Death, Grim Reapers, and Grim Angels (which are a product of the two plus human blood).  Grim Angels are tortured souls.  Easily depressed because of their "gift" of seeing death, their minds can break because of it and they go insane.  The more that Ember learns, the more she wonders whether she is a Grim Angel.

                          Who are Asher and Cameron really?

   In the second book, Ember is an even more precarious situation.  If her life wasn't threatened enough in the first book, it's even more so now.  She has to come to terms with her blood line and the fact that she may become the very last Grim Angel left.  If so, she must make a choice between good and evil.  But first she must survive the taunting of the Reapers.  They constantly mess with her mind and the whole town is getting crazy possessed by them.  Ember's "gift" has also evolved some and now she can see dead people as well.
  Cameron has found a way into Ember's thoughts and now is her constant companion whether she likes it or not.  He insists that he cares about her and is just trying to help, but Ember has her doubts about that fact.  She misses Asher.  He had to leave at the end of the last book and hasn't been seen since.
   Later in the book Asher suddenly returns.  He can no longer stand by and just watch while Ember is in so much danger.  Ember's own brother tried to kill her because he has given in to his Reaper blood.  Raven, her best friend, is possessed by the most powerful man/Reaper around.  Everyone is out to get Ember but Cameron and Asher.  But can she even trust them?  Her dad always said to never trust anyone.  Maybe he was right.

"Everyone thinks I'm a traitor and Michael made...he made me..." He sucks in a sharp breath  and the words spill out of him. "He made me human again, or at least, stripped me of my wings."
My jaw drops. "Like your mother?"
"Yes," he whispers, shutting his eyes. "I've been banished."  (Asher and Ember)

   This series is a real mind bender!  It's like a thriller/paranormal/romance wrapped all into one!  The thriller side being the mental side of it.  Ember has to deal with a lot of mental hardship as she sees things that she always has to question whether they are real or not.  Then there is death every step of the way.  It tortures her to no extent that she cannot touch anyone without seeing their death every single time she touches them.  Then there is Ember's family.  They seem just as crazy as she is, or worse.  Her mother drinks and does drugs.  Her brother is on depression medicine.  He smokes pot a lot and stays closed up in the attic painting.  Then there was her dad.  He used to steal cars until his disappearance.  Naturally, Asher and Cameron offer her somethings that she didn't think she would ever have.  But a normal life is not one of them.  And in the end, the decisions she makes will shape what happens to humans and Angels for the rest of eternity.
   There are two versions of this series.  There is this version and then there is the adult version.  For the adult version look for Ember-X or Cinder-X.  They are more explicit and romance oriented, while still giving it an air of suspense and danger!



*quotes via Jessica Sorensen (Ember-X and Cinder-X)
*images via Jessica Sorensen



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