The Fallen Star by Jessica SorensenReleased: April 11, 2011
Free e-book on Kindle for Amazon
Description from Goodreads:
For eighteen year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. Up until recently, she has been incapable of feeling emotion. And when she's around Alex, the gorgeous new guy at school, she can feel electricity that makes her skin buzz. Not to mention the monsters that haunt her nightmares have crossed over into real-life. But with Alex seeming to hate her and secrets popping up everywhere, Gemma's life is turning into a chaotic mess. Things that shouldn't be real suddenly seem to exist. And as her world falls apart, figuring out the secrets of her past becomes a matter of life and death.
Review after the break...
Jessica Sorensen, the talented author of The Secret of Ella and Misha, The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden, The Darkness Falls series, the Death Collectors series, and the Fallen Soul series is ALSO the author of The Fallen Star series. Sorenson has proven herself to me through her character's witty dialogue, complicated love interests, thrilling action scenes, and insightful plots. I've enjoyed her contemporary New Adult books, and I've also enjoyed The Fallen Star, which is a YA paranormal series about a girl who learns she is more than she ever thought she could be.
After stumbling on The Secret of Ella and Misha which I LOVED a few months ago, I saw on Amazon that the first book in her other 2 series, The Fallen Star and the Darkness Falls series were both free for the Kindle. Since Kindle's can hold like, an infinite amount of books in the Cloud, I figured, what the heck? And downloaded them. I wasn't sure I would like a paranormal written by her as I had loved the contemporary novels of hers I'd read. Boy, was I wrong!
The Fallen Star offers the same ingredients in a Jessica Sorensen book. You've got a fiery female lead who discovers her world is larger than she realized, she meets a new group of people who she has to rely on to continue her path (whether it's stuck at home for the summer or a group of paranormal crime fighters), and a steamy, slow building romance between a guy the girl can't stand. What does this all equal? A highly amusing paranormal story that deserves recognition. While I believe most of Sorenson's work is mainly e-book format, I believe she has the talent to become a published author.
One of the reasons I say she deserves to move up in the book world is because there are some typos and spelling errors in the story, but they were far from distracting. Some e-books I find that I can't get over the typos and grammatical errors because they seem so careless. But with Sorenson, it might just be a loyal reader trait, but I see past the small errors and can see her successful writing style shine through. Amanda Hocking started off as a self published author and she is now a published best selling author. I believe Jessica Sorenson has the makings of impressing a publishing house just as grand and influential as HarperCollins or Harlequin Teen.
If I find myself buying all of the sequels after finishing the first free e-book in a series, I know I'm hooked. Typically, the e-books range from $.99 to $4.99, so it's not a bank breaker. But these are stories that I can see people buying for $10 + with a little more editing and help from a publisher. Self published authors and authors who publish their books as e-books first are becoming a hot commodity because publishers are realizing these people out there have high caliber talent and they are missing out on being apart of it. I believe readers are also picking up on this trend because they realize taking a chance on a book unattached to a publisher will be less expensive and could be just as good. It makes me wonder if publishing houses have people who just sit around all day and look at reviews of self published novels online and determine if they "have what it takes" to make it in the publishing world. This is my brain wondering off from the review and getting a little off topic... My bad!
Lately, I find my reviews evolving more about how I see these books fitting into the models of published books instead of the content of the actual story. I almost feel like I'm ruining the book by talking about what happens, even if it's just that character A and B make great head way with character development. You never know what might sound like a spoiler to someone and that's what I want to avoid the most. So I apologize if my reviews are coming out a bit scrambled and preachy, maybe it's just a phase.
Have you read any of Jessica Sorensen's work?
Happy Reading!
I admit, I haven't read any of this author's books myself. Though now that I think of it, this one does seem sort of familiar and I'm pretty sure I picked up a free copy of it, as well - BONUS! I am so happy to hear you say that this one, despite being self-published, is worthy of a publishing contract. I tend to avoid self published works myself, mainly for the reason you mentioned - I get caught up in typos and grammatical errors. Professional editing is what makes a book, I think! So I do hope this one can get enough exposure to warrant that because it really does sound fun.
ReplyDeleteIt can be tricky to avoid spoilers while writing reviews sometimes. I'm someone who wants to know how each aspect of the story was handled - characters, writing, pacing, world building, etc. - but not reveal too many details of the plot. It's hard finding a balance, but it does get easier!
I think what I'll end up doing as I review is stick to non-spoiler reviews for stand alone books and first installments in a series, and then if I happen to review a second or third book in a series, I'll warn about spoilers. I think it's almost impossible to review a sequel or prequel in a series without giving SOMETHING away that might seem small, but could ruin it for someone else.
DeleteAlthough there are people, myself included, that want to read the spoilers to see what all the hype is about. I did that with Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire and I still read the book to get my own opinion. Annndd even though I believe the story to focus on an unhealthy relationship, which happens in real life, I'll probably at least download a sample of the next book in the series, which is technically the first book but in Travis' point of view.
Thanks for stopping by, Aylee! Hopefully you'll give The Fallen Star a try, especially since it was free! :)