Awakening Blurb:
At
seventeen Colina began her training to be a healer, and now she is expected to
start wielding the magic that goes along with her calling. But then tragedy
hits and the young healer finds herself on the run for her life. Her only hope
of survival is to convince one of the members of the death dealer guild to take
her in and to train her in the dark arts, but to become one of the dark wizards
she must survive three trials. The trials are difficult and dangerous—she will
have to court death itself, suffer the possession of another, and if she makes
it to the third ritual, she'll have to do the unthinkable. Can she survive the
horrific trials long enough to gain the dark power? And if she does, what will
she become?
To
get this dark power she must first convince Luke, a boy about her own age, to
take her through the trials. He's only a novice himself in the dark arts. He is
reluctant to help the young healer, but he soon finds himself entangled in the
same web of danger. The death dealers are on the very top of the magic food
chain, their magic is the most powerful of all the clans and guilds—for they
have the power to not only see and communicate with the dead, but they can bind
the spirits to do their bidding. They wield banshees, tortured souls that can
harm and even kill. Luke soon realizes he is not just risking his life—he is
also risking his heart, for the young wizard is falling hard for a girl with
too many secrets. Can he help Colina find her way to the dark powers?
Possession Blurb:
Seventeen
year old Colina Campbell has betrayed her healer upbringing. In the name of
survival and revenge, she had no choice but to seek the ways of the Death
Dealers. She has gone through the Dark Rituals and the Awakening has taken
place. There is no going back. She thought the worst was behind her, but she
couldn’t have been more wrong. Now she must use her wits again to survive.
She’s willing to risk her life and to do whatever it takes to bring back her
lost love.
Review:
Awakening:
After witnessing the horrific deaths of her family, Colina a seventeen
year-old girl who recently started her healer training, turns to a death dealer
for help to find and punish the people who killed them. Becoming a death dealer will make her a
pariah among her own people, but she’s desperate. Unfortunately, the only death dealers she
finds are Luke, a boy her own age, and his younger sister, Darla. Luke has been trained as a death dealer, but
he’s not that experienced. He’s not sure
he’s strong enough yet to train someone on his own. But the people who killed Darla’s family are
still after her. There’s no time to wait
two weeks for their family to return from the retreat they’re attending.
Luke
agrees to train Colina, and she undergoes the three trials, but her Awakening
brings powers neither anticipated. In
fact, she manifests powers no one has seen before—something that leaves us with
a cliff-hanger ending, which I hate.
Possession:
Colina awakens in a padded room with no memory of who she is, or how she
got there. She is in an insane asylum
and has been given electric shock therapy. Eventually her memory returns and
she realizes she’s there trying to save Luke, who is also there. But there’s a murderer possessing someone in
the asylum, and Colina doesn’t know who.
It could be someone she cares about.
It could even be Luke. They plan
to escape, but she has to find out who the murderer is possessing before they
leave. She couldn’t forgive herself if
she turned him loose on the world.
Again, the book ends with a cliff-hanger, one of my pet peeves.
Colina
is a strong young lady who overcomes a myriad of obstacles. She’s not co-dependent on any sparkly
vampires or overly-buff werewolves. She’s
really a good role model for modern young girls, and I would have liked to have
given these books a higher rating. But,
again—even though they’re part of a series, I believe books should be written
to stand alone. Awakening is a bit better than Possession. It hints that there’s another book at the end. If you’re willing to accept the story as it
is, you don’t necessarily have to read Possession. But if you want a happily-ever-after ending,
you do. And you won’t find it at the end
of Possession, either. There’s at least one more book to be read,
coming out sometime this year. It’s
because Colina is a strong character and these books are engaging and
fast-paced that I’m giving them roses and not thorns.
If
you don’t mind cliff-hangers, these books are quite good.
Awakening Length: 257 Pages
Awakening Price:
$0.99
Awakening Buy Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-The-Dark-Rituals-Book-ebook/dp/B00GZOEAQU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389831477&sr=8-1&keywords=Awakening+%2B+Catrina+Burgess
Possession Length:
287 Pages
Possession Price:
$2.99
Possession Buy
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Possession-The-Dark-Rituals-Book-ebook/dp/B00GZOE812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389832463&sr=8-1&keywords=Possession+%2B+Catrina+Burgess
Thanks
for visiting. RIW
