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Title: Enlightened
Author: A L Waddington
Genre: YA Fantasy
Reviewer: Aly
Book Blurb:
The barrier between Jocelyn Timmons consciousness continues to dissolve as she better understands the two lives she lives and enormity of her newly discovered inherited gift of EVE (Essence Voyager Era) which allows her to fall asleep on one plane of existence and awaken on another as her soul travels nightly.
Present-day Jocelyn uncovers the vast wonderment of the Victorian era but soon learns that life then was not as grand for women as she has read in the classics. Still, she finds comfort in the support of family and friends; a bolstering contrast to her overly hectic, career-oriented family in the twenty-first century. Her love for Jackson Chandler strengthens across time and becomes the light she so desperately needs as the world she has always known no longer makes sense. Yet, the closer she is drawn to Jackson by their mutual ability, the more strain develops amongst those she loves in 2009.
On the other side of Jocelyn’s consciousness in 1878, she remains ignorant of EVE. Her life is crumbling around her, yet she finds herself anxiously awaiting the images that invade her dreams. Jocelyn longs to be the woman she portrays in that world yet her jealousy is unbearable. Miscommunication, betrayal and hidden agendas make trust near impossible. The clearer the visions become the more she questions motives of her closest confidants and foregoes revealing the images that plague her perception. As her life seems to unravel, Jocelyn’s two worlds collide, and she is enlightened as the pieces start to fall into place. But is she strong enough to survive the truth? Is Jackson really her destiny? And can their love transcend time? Find out in Essence’s highly anticipated sequel, Enlightened, Book 2, EVE series.
Review:
Enlightened starts out with a prologue, which pretty much goes over what happened in the previous book just not in detail. This could be beneficial if it’s been a while since you’ve read Essence but at the same time if you’ve already read the previous book just before diving into Enlightened it might not capture your attention as fully.
It was much easier for me to be drawn into Enlightened, probably because I was more familiar with the characters and the biggest mystery of what was happening had already been solved. Enlightened was more focused on the difficulties the characters faced, specifically Jocelyn in dealing with this EVE. And wow, it really was far from easy. I kept reading and it just seemed that things kept getting more difficult instead of being easier. It really brought me closer to Jocelyn to see her struggling so much and I felt myself cheering for her much more in this book.
Then there were the interactions between the characters. Now that Jackson and Jocelyn can touch without causing her fainting, I just wanted to sigh over their interactions. They were so sweet. And yet not all was well in romanceland, and the happiness is quickly taken out of the relationship. It had me to the point of tears, and almost ready to sell my soul to the devil so that Jocelyn wouldn’t do what she was planning to and praying that they would work everything out.
Then there’s the fact that Jocelyn’s family for the most part is far from supportive for most of the book. This probably helped me feel even more sympathy for Jocelyn and cheer her on. But I do have to mention that there’s such a stigma on getting married young that I had a creeped out, scared, ready to bolt reaction to Jocelyn and Jackson contemplating that path. So I think that that stigma is particularly deep. And the fact that A.L. Waddington touched on it, definitely brought that to the forefront of my mind.
And then there was the ending. It left me curious about how everything would work out especially with Jocelyn and her family. No lies, I did read the preview of the next book, and could not believe what I was reading. I will certainly be adding the third book in this series to my TBR list and keeping an eye out for it.
Rating:
