Tristan: Finding Hope by Jessica Sorensen

I was a little disappointed with this short.  I realized it was a short story when I started it, but it was like the ending literally just cut off.  And for the title to be Tristan: Finding Hope, it sure didn't seem like there was much hope finding going on.  The idea is definitely interesting and thankfully we should be seeing more about this story because otherwise there would be little to redeem it from the way it was handled.  I think I would much rather just read the whole story instead of what seems like an excerpt from a story.  Fair warning, if you get it on kindle, it is only about 50% of what you are actually getting.  The rest of it is a piece of Breaking Nova.

I can barely give this 3 stars out of 5.  2 1/2 would probably be more appropriate realistically.

Nova and Quinton: No Regrets by Jessica Sorensen

   In the latest installment of the series on Nova and Quinton, Quinton is just getting out of rehab and is about to face the world again.  At this point he isn't even sure if he is ready to or if he can even handle it .  So he's taking it one day at a time, one small step at a time.  Every day is hard.  Sometimes just the minutes ticking by are hard.  Everything seems to set him off and now that he is out of rehab, Quinton now has to deal with living in the same house as his father again.  The same dad that hardly had anything to do with him.  This alone is a huge challenge,  but then there is the new therapist he's seeing, who tends to seem pushy to him.  And right down the road happens to be a place or two where he knows he could score some drugs whenever he felt like it.
   Nova hasn't seen or spoken to Quinton since he left for rehab.  She can't help but think about him and wonder if he's ok.  Tristan is living with her and Lea.  Although Tristan has been clean for a little while now, he is getting increasingly familiar with Nova and it is making her uncomfortable.  She doesn't have feelings like that for him.  In fact, she knows she still has a lot of feelings for Quinton, but even after they start talking to each other again, she isn't sure how he feels about her.  He drops hints about being jealous Tristan is living with her, yet at the same time he says he isn't ready to go there with her yet.  As time drags on, she has to wonder if he will ever be ready.  Quinton wonders the same about himself.  Things get more complicated and painful when someone they  know comes up missing.
   Will Nova and Quinton ever be together?  Can Nova ever accept that she can't save everyone?  And will Quinton ever be able to let go of the past?


   Another intense installment about Nova and Quinton.  This is a different side of things though.  This book shows the after effects of getting clean and Quinton having to deal with the never-ending guilt that comes with having to face his past.  He makes a new friend that will help him in his journey to being able to handle life better, and Nova is always there for him.  There might come a time when he needs to be there for her just like she was for him.  Things are crumbling around her while they are progressing, however slowly, with Quinton.  But he has to decide just how much he cares for Nova and how far he is willing to go for her.

Saving Quinton by Jessica Sorensen

 Saving Quinton is the book following Breaking Nova, and it isn't the last in a line about Quinton and Nova and their very complicated lives.  At this point Nova has gotten herself out of the pit she was in almost a year ago.  She had been doing some drugs and drinking.  Quinton had been doing the same.  They were both running from things in their past that they just couldn't seem to deal with at the time.  Nova had found the help that she needed and was now in college and working at a suicide hotline.  When she decides to go back and get Quinton out of the mess he is in, her mom and best aren't so sure about it.  When she finally finds him in Vegas, she sees just how bad it has really gotten.  He hardly eats or drinks anything, just living for the high that he's getting off of the heavy drugs he is on.  Everyone living in the run down apartment with him is on some type of heavy drug.  Gone were the days of just drinking and smoking pot.  Things have escalated farther than Nova could ever have imagined.  And upon reconnecting with Quinton, her feelings come back for him as well.  It is almost killing her seeing him like that, but trying to get him out has taken a far bigger toll on her emotionally than she could begin to comprehend.  Her mother comes and gets her before Nova can fall back into that dark place that she was.  Nova does all that she can to save Quinton from that awful place, but even she starts wondering if it will be enough.

  This book was almost too dark for even me.  Dark because of the depth to which Quinton had gotten into drugs and the contemplation of death and its release.  His demons are never far away and the drugs keep them at bay.  But he never forgot Nova.  In fact, he draws her a lot still.  But then he feels guilty, like he is betraying his dead girlfriend and so he tries to drown out his pain and his memories.  Quinton  never feels like he is good enough or deserving of anything.  If he doesn't get help, he will slowly die from his lifestyle.  Nova, on the other hand, had her life all in control again.  She had goals and was working towards them.  She was trying to help other people.  But when it came to Quinton, he was a much harder case than anticipated and she would need all of the help she can get.  Every time she is around him she remembers how easy it was to forget everything.  All of her troubles had been much easier a year ago, and it would be so easy to slip back into that lifestyle.  Still, she is determined to do what she can for Quinton, even if it comes at a great cost.

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

Darkness Fades by Jessica Sorensen

   Kayla and Sylas have been caught in the end of the last book. This one starts there with us knowing Sylas is changing into an abomination while Kayla is being tortured. Aiden comes to her rescue though. But Aiden isn't Aiden anymore. And Kayla has a hard time deciding whether he is good or bad.  And what's worse is that Aiden is still changing.  Sylas is constantly on her mind, although now her thoughts are being invaded by Aiden with his new found talents.  While Kayla is intent on finding Sylas, her top priority is saving the world.  Sacrifice a few to save many.
   As much as I have looked forward to this book coming out, I was a little disappointed that it lacked the punch that the other two had. It didn't seem quite as put together.  The first two books were a nice change of scenery for Jessica Sorensen.  They weren't a romance type of novel, with more energy and life in them.  The last one was not so much.  I would personally give it a 3.5.
   Although the ending is what you pretty much expect, it seems to have some redeeming points to it.  It was a satisfying ending.  And there was a little bit of surprise in this book for me personally.  But there are also a lot of questions, many surrounding Monarch, the man who Kayla looked up to like a father until she left the colony.  

Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen

   When I stopped in front of him, he glanced up at me, and I was taken aback by how much anguish was in his honey-brown eyes- the torture and internal suffering.  I'd never seen so much of it in anyone my age before, and even though I didn't know what was causing it, I guessed we were going to be friends  He looked how I felt inside, like I'd been broken apart and the pieces hadn't healed correctly. (Nova's thoughts on Landon)


   Most of us have had to deal with loss in our lives.  But Nova had to see two very important people in her life die.  Her father died when she was a young teenager of an unknown heart condition.  Then, years later she found her boyfriend, Landon, when he decided to commit suicide.  Over a year later, she still has trouble believing that he is really gone.  Landon was an artist.  He liked to sketch and he always looked so sad.  But they had become friends right after Nova's dad died and were best friends for a very long time.  Then their relationship escalated.  They loved each other.  His death had broken her down.  She was no longer the person she had been.  This girl was a depression ridden, obsessive-compulsive.  Now routine was everything to her.  She counted the seconds until the sun came.  She counted the pictures on the wall.  Counting gave her a sense of control over her life that she had lost.  And what was worse, no one, not even she, knew how to get herself out of this deep dark hole.
   Quinton was a normal teenage guy until one fateful event.  One night he had a car wreck that involved his girlfriend Lexi, his cousin, and some other unknown guy.  Both girls died.  Quinton was driving.  He held his girlfriend in his arms while she lay dying.  Quinton's heart stopped as well, but they were able to bring him back.  And now, serving as a constant reminder, he has a tattoo of the two girls on his arm.  He drags around the guilt of being the one that "killed" them.  In his depression he turns to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain.  Everyone blames him for their deaths so he moves in with Tristan, the brother of one of the girls that died.  He is more forgiving of Quinton than others seem to be.

I wonder if that's why she looks so sad all the time.  To see something like that-to see death.  It's the kind of thing that scars people on the inside.  And not just small scars, but long, thick, jagged ones that never go away.  The kind of scars that alter the appearance of things, change people. Ruin them. (Quinton's thoughts on Nova)

   Nova and Quinton meet when Nova's best friend, Delilah, decides to get back together with her ex, Dylan.  And Dylan lives with Tristan and Quinton.  Dylan is not a model citizen.  He is into drugs and alcohol as well.  It starts to make Nova wonder if maybe Delilah was still doing weed even though she had said she quit.  Seeing Quinton is physically painful to Nova.  He reminds her so much of Landon.  Not in the way he looks, but the sadness, the look of a tortured soul.  He is also an artist.  Their relationship is uneasy but they quickly realize that they are beginning to have feelings for each other.  They make each other feel like they haven't in a long time, spare moments of freedom from the pain that they both bear.  But neither of them are ready for anything like this.  Quinton doesn't want to feel like he is betraying Lexi.  And Nova is still trying to deal with the death of her father and Landon.  She can't help Quinton when she can't help herself.
 
...as I all too painfully know, you can't force someone to be happy, no matter how much you wish you could.

   The use of weed becomes Nova's quiet and solace.  Now she understood why Quinton and the others did the drugs that they did.  It helped, if only for just a moment.

...sometimes stuff happens and we find ourselves lost, and suddenly we're standing in a place we don't recognize and can't remember walking-or falling-there, and we're unsure how to get back or if we even want to.



   This book is so sad in some ways.  It hits home to me and I am sure to many more people.  It is a masterpiece of the pain and suffering one goes through when losing someone you love.  Not all of us cope in the same ways, and not all of us cope as well.  Death can be a difficult subject, and accepting it can be almost impossible.  Nova and Quinton both had seen so much of it in such close proximity that they shut down part of themselves just to go on living.  Life was hardly worth living to them anymore.  Instead of a world full of color, all they were seeing was the black, white, and grey.  Meeting each other caused that little spark of color to come back into their lives.  It took a while, but Nova started trying to deal more with her grief.  Quinton was not ready yet and dove further into his grief.  Even though this book has great sadness because of the stages of grief that we see these two go through, it is also about hope.  Hope that there is something better out there.  Hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

I know what I want in life. 
I want happiness. 
 I want hope. 
 I want a life.



*images via Jessica Sorensen
*quotes via Jessica Sorensen

Early Release

Jessica Sorensen's new book The Redemption of Callie and Kayden is being released early!  They are releasing it Tuesday, July 30th!  That's a week early!  Can't wait!

*image via Jessica Sorensen

Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls Series Book 1) by Jessica Sorensen

Rule #1- Never go out after dark.
Rule #2- Always have a weapon in hand.
Rule #3- No matter what, never EVER get bit.

   The colony; a place where people were safe.  The outside was no longer a safe place.  A virus had gotten out of hand and now after dark the world belonged to the undead; the vampires.  They were awful looking creatures that were shedding their skin so much you could see bones.  They were fast and strong, and crazed for blood.  When they were hungry, their eyes would rain blood.  All the more reason that if you were a Bellator, a retriever of things, to stick to the rules (as shown above).  Kayla a.k.a. Juniper, was a Bellator.  She was the best.  She was strong and fast.  Her wounds healed inhumanly fast.  But she was also not very good at following the rules.  Her adopted father, Monarch (who is the colony's doctor), is always reminding her not to ask too many questions.  The Highers don't like it.  They run the colony.  But they run it with fear.  The mark of the Highers were their white hair, the language they speak, and their ghostly eyes.  It is forbidden in the colony to know how to read.  And breaking the rules could mean the end of your existence.  "...the Highers are always right, even when they're not." The strange thing is that when someone dies or they are chosen for The Gathering, it's like people just forget that they ever existed.  The Gathering is like a weeding out process that is done.  And Bellators are always chosen.
  Because of her defiance, Kayla is chosen for The Gathering and thrown out in a body bag into the desert
with two others, Maci and Bernard.  Maci is just seven and has the gift of fore sight.  And Bernard was a fellow Bellator.  The problem is that when you are in the colony you forget things.  People don't remember who they were before or much of their past period.  No one is to even hint that they remember the world before the vampires.  With the medicine that Monarch pumps into the Bellators, they heal so quickly that Kayla does not know what a bruise or a scar is, or even a broken bone.  When Kayla, Maci, and Bernard get out of the body bags, they have syringes for each one of them with vials of black liquid.  The black liquid is supposed to save them, keep them from dying.  Bernard uses the vial and starts acting strange, aggressive. That's when Aiden and his group catches up to them.  Aiden seems like a very nice guy looking out for Kayla.  He has some feelings for her and knew her when he was in the colony.  But she doesn't remember him until she regains a few of her memories later on.  Time and time again Aiden lies to Kayla saying it was to keep her safe.  Kayla doesn't like to be lied to.
   Aiden and Kayla make a treacherous journey to the city where fires always burn and there are more than just vampires hanging out at night.  There are also Day Takers.  The Day Takers are those that chose the vial after they came out of The Gathering.  They have fangs and drink blood but look human still and act somewhat human still.  Day Takers have more of an ability to control their thirst.  They cannot come out in the sun either but they, unlike the other vampires, can stay in the shadows and not be burned to death.  When in the city they run into several Day Takers, including Aiden's brother, Sylas, who was also a member of the colony.  While Aiden is less willing to help Kayla get her memories back, Sylas is more than willing to help her.  After all, if she gets her memories back, she just might be able to do what Monarch programmed her to do; save the world.

   The colony, no matter how safe it seemed to those blissfully unaware, seemed more like a cult where the Highers were influencing the mind of the regular people there, the Adeptis.  Why live life like that?  I guess given the alternative of living outside where every minute and hour is a fight for survival, it makes the choice easier for most.  But Kayla is not most people.  She craves her freedom from that influence.  But the choice of whether she stays in the colony or not is made for her and Kayla ends up in the desert with other people.  The only thing is that besides seven-year-old Maci, pretty much everyone is afraid of her.  Not even the vampires outside will touch her.  They are afraid of what she is and what she could be.  According to Maci, people were afraid of her because she was different and people didn't understand her.  It would stink to think that there might not be a place in the world for you.  That you were probably the only one that could save it and yet at the same time no one was accepting of who you truly were.  That was where Sylas came in.  He was more accepting of her than anyone else.  Aiden wanted her to be who he thought she was.  He fancied himself in love with someone who probably in reality did not even exist.  Kayla was tired of pretending so once she is free of the colony and the group she met with Aiden, she becomes more like herself.  Well, as like herself as she could be considering the circumstances and her lack of memory.  Aiden doesn't like what he sees so he decides to lie to her a lot to save her from herself.  He decided to stay human instead of becoming a Day Taker.  But Kayla is still on the fence and he fears that she will choose the life Sylas did.  Aiden fears he will lose her forever.

Such a great book!  The second in the series is Darkness Breaks and the third is due to come out soon!  Be looking for Darkness Fades on Amazon!  Right now you can get Darkness Falls for the Kindle for free on Amazon.

*quotes via Jessica Sorensen (Darkness Falls Series Book 1)
*image via Jessica Sorensen (Amazon)