Monday, September 10, 2012

Embers & Echoes - Karsten Knight

Synopsis: Fan the flames: A teen goddess fires up her search for love and family in this sequel to Wildefire. Ashline Wilde may have needed school to learn that she is actually a reincarnated goddess, but she’s ready to move beyond books. She leaves her California boarding school behind and makes for Miami, where she meets a new group of deities and desperately seeks her sister Rose, the goddess of war. But she’s also looking for love—because even though her romance with Cole had to be snuffed, Ash is a volcano goddess—and she doesn’t get burned.
This sequel to the edgy and action-packed Wildefire continues a fiery drama on an immortal scale. (From Goodreads

Ever since the meanest ending in perhaps all the history of cliffhangers, I've been awaiting the day when I could know if there would be a heroic rescuer who would swoop from the sky in the last minute or if Ash and all of her readers would hit the ravine and that would be that. Some part of me has been suspended in time for a year, and it's kind of a relief to be able to move on. Book two starts of right where book one left off and then Ash is once again full steam ahead.

So without spoiling any of the first or second books, I'm going to tell you the three things that make the second book even better than the first - which is saying a lot because the first was incredible.

1 - Ash! She's always been a strong character, but her strength evolves in this book. She's still impulsive and reckless. But now that she's come into her own power and she has a mission, she's also focused and determined. Where I may have called her crazy, possibly a little psycho, in book one, I now call her fierce - and okay she's still a little crazy, which is part of what makes her awesome.

2 - The narration. I have to say that Karsten Knight is one of the handful of people who can pull off second person narration with out driving me up a wall. He uses this great technique where he switches to second person when Ash is having a vision. This was something that took me awhile to catch on to in Wildefire, but in Embers I knew what was going on and I actually looked forward to those swtiches. Which also brings me to: I loved the flashbacks. These are also things that generally drive me crazy, but learning more about who Ash was in the past was so cool. Plus, he flashes back to the 20's - my favorite.

3 - WES. Holy...wow. I lovED Colt. But he so loses to Wes. Because Wes is FUN. And caring. And wealthy. And still a little tortured. All of the new characters kind of rock, but Wes is amazing. As far as falling for fictional characters go, well, he's the one.

This is a series that started out epic and just keeps getting better. There are tons of other things that I would love to gush about here, but I won't spoil it for you all - because you absolutely MUST read this series. So much awesome.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Embers & Echoes - Karsten Knight

Synopsis: Fan the flames: A teen goddess fires up her search for love and family in this sequel to Wildefire. Ashline Wilde may have needed school to learn that she is actually a reincarnated goddess, but she’s ready to move beyond books. She leaves her California boarding school behind and makes for Miami, where she meets a new group of deities and desperately seeks her sister Rose, the goddess of war. But she’s also looking for love—because even though her romance with Cole had to be snuffed, Ash is a volcano goddess—and she doesn’t get burned.
This sequel to the edgy and action-packed Wildefire continues a fiery drama on an immortal scale. (From Goodreads

Ever since the meanest ending in perhaps all the history of cliffhangers, I've been awaiting the day when I could know if there would be a heroic rescuer who would swoop from the sky in the last minute or if Ash and all of her readers would hit the ravine and that would be that. Some part of me has been suspended in time for a year, and it's kind of a relief to be able to move on. Book two starts of right where book one left off and then Ash is once again full steam ahead.

So without spoiling any of the first or second books, I'm going to tell you the three things that make the second book even better than the first - which is saying a lot because the first was incredible.

1 - Ash! She's always been a strong character, but her strength evolves in this book. She's still impulsive and reckless. But now that she's come into her own power and she has a mission, she's also focused and determined. Where I may have called her crazy, possibly a little psycho, in book one, I now call her fierce - and okay she's still a little crazy, which is part of what makes her awesome.

2 - The narration. I have to say that Karsten Knight is one of the handful of people who can pull off second person narration with out driving me up a wall. He uses this great technique where he switches to second person when Ash is having a vision. This was something that took me awhile to catch on to in Wildefire, but in Embers I knew what was going on and I actually looked forward to those swtiches. Which also brings me to: I loved the flashbacks. These are also things that generally drive me crazy, but learning more about who Ash was in the past was so cool. Plus, he flashes back to the 20's - my favorite.

3 - WES. Holy...wow. I lovED Colt. But he so loses to Wes. Because Wes is FUN. And caring. And wealthy. And still a little tortured. All of the new characters kind of rock, but Wes is amazing. As far as falling for fictional characters go, well, he's the one.

This is a series that started out epic and just keeps getting better. There are tons of other things that I would love to gush about here, but I won't spoil it for you all - because you absolutely MUST read this series. So much awesome.