Illumine, by Alivia Anders Goal 3/60

And the book that brings me to a whopping 5% of my goal is Illumine, the debut offering by a talented, young new author, Alivia Anders.

Illumine tells the story of Essallie Hanley. Essallie was a typical teenage girl living in New York City; she went shopping with her friends, had a boyfriend, liked to party... but something was nagging at her this time. She didn't really want to go to this party at her boyfriend's place. She was getting tired of showing up only to find him drunk. Reluctantly she shows up at the party anyway, lured in part by her friend Cassie Knight's promise that Essallie's boyfriend, Chase, had a "wicked good" surprise for her.

Essallie had no way of knowing that the surprise would be all wicked, and no good.

Betrayed by her boyfriend Chase and her 'friend' Cassie, Essallie learns that she might not be so normal after all. Unfortunately this realization comes as her boyfriend is murdered right in front of her and devoured by the very demon that he intended to give Essallie to.

Now, months later, Essallie has to deal with the emotional trauma of what happened at the party. And as she learns that the demons aren't just in her head she has to race against the clock to figure out just what she really is-- and what that all means.

The story was fast paced and had plenty of twists to keep my interest. Demons and the supernatural usually make for good reading in my opinion anyway, and I liked the take on nephilim. There are some books, like the Hunger Games, that left me content to read the first in the series and not worry about the next part, but I will definately be looking to read the next in this series.

There were some threads that seemed undeveloped, but that may be resolved in other installments. I would have been more fulfilled with a little more story on some things. Cassie being revealed as a necromancer without any justification or development, the subtle but completely unexpected and well, out-of-nowhere romance between Essallie and Kayden.

The lack of deveopment of these threads does not, however, diminish from the story itself. And I found the story enjoyable, and worthy of my time.

Lots of Catching Up

So, I have been away for a while, working on my first novel, currently titled "Caym's Service." It's never a good idea to get attached to a title too soon, so that is simply the working title.

The novel evolved a great deal over time, the main character was named Bayard Ansital, he was a demon hunter searching for the demon that permanently altered his life years ago and returned to kill his wife and child.

Now the main character is named Bayrd Anstal (flows so much nicer) a demon ruined his life 5 years ago and he ran away from it, living a life of obscurity. When he finally, after 5 years, decided to move on a woman he had a date with is brutally murdered. This sets into motion a stream of events that will reveal to Bayrd what really happened five years ago and nothing is what it seemed or even now seems.

In my typical Xiao Wang duality there is a strong romantic theme in the novel that runs parallel to the violence and bloodshed. There are three significant women in Bayrd's life through the novel, and you are left guessing until the end how that turns out.

So, shameless plug over, I have read several books in that time and need to put up reviews for them. I will do so over the next couple days.