BOOK REVIEW: GOLDEN BLOOD BY MELISSA PEARL

Title: Golden Blood
Author: Melissa Pearl
Genre: Fantasy

Published on: November 4, 2011, self-published

Gemma Hart never knows when her father is going to whisk her back in time. Her toes start tingling and she has a few minutes to find a secret haven where she can disintegrate and appear in another time and place. While “across the line,” her training and skills are put to the test as she completes a mission that will change history for the lucky few her father has selected.

Gemma's parents are adamant that secrecy is paramount to her family’s safety. If people knew what they were capable of, they could be "used and abused", as her mother always says. Afraid she might accidentally utter the truth and break the ancient oath of her people, Gemma spends her school days as a loner. Only one thing can throw her sheltered life askew... Harrison Granger.

Harrison never expected to talk to the strange Hart girl, but after a brief encounter he can't stop thinking about her. He begins a campaign to chisel away her icy veneer and is met with unexpected consequences. As he slowly wins this girl over, he enters a surreal world that has him fighting to keep his newfound love and his life.

I found this book while browsing the fantasy and sci-fi section of the Kindle store. The synopsis caught my interest. Golden Blood is the first entry of the Time Spirit trilogy. The main character, Gemma Hart, is a high school student with a supernatural ability. The reader doesn’t learn about this right away, though. Most of the first part of the book introduces Gemma, her family, and her friends. You learn about their normal lives and the status quo before anything supernatural is revealed.

The love interest, Harrison Granger, shows up early in the book. He and Gemma have a crush on each other. They’re a bit too intimidated to make the first move, though. Gemma has a curious reputation at school. Students see her as a weird girl. Some of them go as far as calling her a “freak”. Even Harrison himself wonders if Gemma is a witch or an alien. Gemma earned this reputation for a reason. She and her family have a big secret. Because of it, Gemma’s parents compel her not to get too close to anyone. They only allow casual friendships. Gemma’s ended up a sort of outcast because of this.

BOOK REVIEW: 10 YEARS LATER BY J. STERLING

Title: 10 Years Later

Author: J. Sterling

Genre: Romance, New Adult

Published on: March 25, 2015, self-published

Cammie:

It’s been ten years since I've seen him. Ten years. I have no idea what he’s doing, where he’s been or if he’s even still single. Have I thought about him over the years? Of course. Absolutely. But that doesn't mean anything, right? Just because you think about the boy you used to be in love with doesn't mean you’re still in love with him now. Does it?

Dalton:

I haven’t seen her in ten years. She’s the whole reason I’m even coming to this reunion. If it wasn't for her, I would have stayed home. I made mistakes back in high school. Hell, I was just a kid then. But I’m here to right my wrongs, tell her I’m sorry and win her back. She changed my whole life and she doesn't even know it. It’s time she knew.

Before I bought this book, I had some doubts about it. The reason isn't that I've yet to read a J. Sterling book that wows me. No, I simply cringed at how long the couple in this novel stayed apart. Going a whole decade without seeing the love of your life would be unbearable. It’s much like the situation in The Best of Me, in which the lovers are kept apart for a long while. How these couples did it, I have no idea. Even if I don’t have a significant other, I still feel for these characters.

10 Years Later is a somewhat quick read, compared to other books I’ve finished. The main characters are Cammie Carmichael (that’s a cute first name) and Dalton Thomas. They’ve known each other since their freshman year of high school. Cammie claims that she’s had a crush on Dalton since the first moment she saw him. They became friends for the next few years, until they started dating near the end of their senior year. Their happily-ever-after doesn’t come that quickly, though. Due to a silly misunderstanding, Cammie and Dalton fall apart.

BOOK REVIEW: BREAK US BY JENNIFER BROWN

Title: Break Us

Author: Jennifer Brown

Genre: Mystery, Young Adult

Published on: February 13, 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books

Nikki Kill doesn’t see the world in black and white. Her synesthesia shades everything in view, transforming numbers, words, and emotions into colorful clues. Which means she’s a dangerous commodity to anyone with something to hide.

Nikki has already taken on the Hollises—one of L.A.’s most powerful families—for murdering her half sister, Peyton. However, Nikki’s next steps are clouded by the gray of uncertainty. Before she knows it, Nikki is on the trail of a cold case that couldn’t be any more personal—the death of her mother.

But when the web of lies and secrets she uncovers leads back to the people who have tried to silence her, Nikki must pursue the sunbeam gold of justice, or everything—including her life—will be lost.

The way Dare You ended had me highly anticipating the final entry in this trilogy. It's the conclusion of Nikki Kill's story. She's a high school graduate with a special condition: synesthesia. Emotions, words, letters, and numbers have specific colors to her. This makes Nikki see clues where other people don't, for instance. Over the past two books, Nikki's been investigating the murder of Peyton Hollis, the half-sister she never knew she had. The Hollises were the most powerful family in California, but they had dark secrets. After a long trail of clues, Nikki managed to catch up to them, nearly losing her life in the process.

The second main character in the series has been fighting for his life as well. He's Chris Martinez, a police detective who's been looking after Nikki. She trusts him because he glows yellow, the color she associates with justice. Chris saved Nikki from Bill and Vanessa Hollis when they tried to kill her at the end of Dare You. A surprise attack from an unknown enemy left Chris in the hospital. It's been months since then, and Nikki's learned that Chris lost several of his recent memories. She's partially disappointed, as she wanted to open herself up to him. It's hard to win Nikki's trust, and Chris got through her defenses easily.

STATUS UPDATE: NEW YEAR AND NEW CHANGES

Hello! It’s been a little while since I write a status update. Given that it’s a new year now, I thought this was due. As you may have noticed, I’ve given this blog a fresh coat of paint. In my opinion, Ivan’s Insights has never looked better. The color scheme is slightly altered, and every font was changed for improved readability. This is a text-heavy blog, so that was a must. I also redesigned the header. It better reflects what Ivan’s Insights is all about. That image is part of my real bookshelf. I did arrange my favorite novels so they’d show prominently.

The changes aren’t simply aesthetic. For instance, the sidebar has different functions now. I’ve permanently switched from Goodreads to The StoryGraph, so I removed the Goodreads widget. In its place I’m adding a makeshift Currently Reading widget for TS. I’ll have to manually change it, but that’s very little hassle. I’m also exclusively focusing on book-related posts now. I’ve hesitated to call Ivan’s Insights a book blog, partly because I wasn’t sure it qualified as such. Pretty much every book blogger I’ve come across only reads novels released in the current year. If I limited myself to that, I wouldn’t read as many books as I do now. And I post reviews in all of my favorite genres, not just one or two. I don't read very many genres, though.