2 August 2013

Review: Shattered Promises by Jessica Sorenson

 
What they say: **Mature Content Warning** 17+ for language and sexual content. (A re-imagining of my young adult book, The Fallen Star, told as a New Adult Paranormal).

For twenty-one year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. She knows nothing about her past and has been haunted by the same monsters in her nightmares for the last few months. Unemotional and numb to life, she feels disconnected from everyone. Until the very first day she cries. After that, nothing in her life is the same.

Her emotions slowly surface and she starts experiencing love, happiness, and anger, feelings she never knew existed. But they leave her confused and she doesn’t know whether to embrace them or run away from them.

Her life only gets more complicated when she meets Alex. Sexy, arrogant, and secretive, Alex can get under Gemma’s skin like no one can. Yet she’s drawn to him by an invisible connection she has no control over. She’s also seen him before. In her nightmares.

Every part of Gemma’s mind is screaming at her to stay away from Alex, but every other part of her is begging to get close to him. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes Alex knows more about her than he originally let on.

As secrets about her past unravel, Gemma’s life becomes threatened. She needs to figure out what’s going on, before she winds up dead. But the only person she can turn to for answers is the one person she isn’t sure she can trust.
 
What I say: I read the Fallen Star series a while ago and although I enjoyed it I felt on occasion the tone of the story and dialogue didn't always match the plot. I wanted more detail on Gemma and Alex's attraction and to learn my about Laylen. This is where Shattered Promises comes in. Shattered Promises is basically a more adult version of the Fallen Star story!
 
I definitely preferred the older and sexed up version of Gemma and Alex. It removed a lot of the Twilight PG just-get-on-with-it annoyance. I also liked how Sorenson increased the action and pace in Shattered Promises.
 
In Fallen Star I found Laylen far more interesting than Alex and this interest carried over into Shattered Promises - there's just something about Alex which puts me on edge. Yes, he's swoon-worthy and mysterious and usually I like the brooding, sarcastic type (why HELLO Jace Wayland), but with Alex I often want to take a swipe at him!
 
Gemma, Gemma, Gemma! Well in this fantasy story (both the YA original and the NA reworking) she's really interesting and understated. Every time she's lied to, deceived or comes across another shocking revelation, I found myself routing for her and willing her on.
 
I enjoyed the more adult reworking Sorenson provided in Shattered Promises. As for whether it works across the series in general, well I'll reserve judgement until I've read them all. If you enjoyed the original, then you'll definitely appreciate Shattered Promises.
 
3.5 Stars in my Sky!
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