This was a great 2nd book to a wonderful debut from Sara Ella. Our heroine, El, newly crowned queen of the 3rd Reflection continues to discover along with the reader, her Calling, more about the new world she lives in and what...and who her heart really wants. Sara Ella takes us to new locales in this new world without going overboard and starting new people/places for the fun of it. I've read this book twice now and loved it--the light vs. dark, the super creative world, the characters and the fun, quirky, witty humor.

A solid 5 star read, I throughly enjoyed this book. From the cover to the content, it works. I managed to get things all out of order, but I'm fixing that ASAP. El and Josh are a good couple and the war between good and evil is awesome. It has some twists, and I really enjoy that. Now, I am off to read the first book and catch up!

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

Eliyana Ember is about to be crowned queen. Everything is perfect. Her mother is married, happy, (alive), and pregnant. Joshua is totally in love with her and waiting for her to be ready for marriage. Only Ky is missing. Then a disaster happens and everything goes haywire. The Callings are disappearing, and Eliyana's enemies are yet again on the move.

Unraveling is the second book in the Unblemished series, and it is pretty epic! I loved the first book so much, because of the Kiss of Infinity (aka. true love), all the talk about Real love, the contrast between light and darkness, and the imaginative story and characters. Unraveling didn't show up the first book, but it was just as awesome. I can see a potential, too, of the third book blasting the first two out of the eater. We shall see.

True love, good, and evil are definitely strong themes. Eliyana is the "human incarnation" of the goodness good, called the Verity. And the two men who shared Kisses of Infinity with her (yes, two, talk about a love triangle) are also the incarnations of the evilest evil, called the Void. It's does mean that Eliyana is perfect or that the guys are evil, only that they have a stronger impulse to go one way or the other, and the only way to moderate it is to love each other unconditionally. Or so I am led to believe. The themes are so amazing to me, so like the real Christianity (though they aren't quite perfect).

And that love triangle! It's so hurtful. Just, how are they going to work things out, especially now that the two guys who love her also have a tendency toward evil? Yikes.

Truly, I loved Unraveling, and I'm dying to read Unbreakable. May 1, 2018 is so far away! Eight or nine months!

As you can see, I highly recommend this book, to everyone and fantasy-lovers.

I received copy from NetGalley ... and then I bought a copy because it was so good. All opinions are definitely my own.

After reading Unblemished, I was super excited to get into this book. I liked the fresh story world and the spunky voice of Eliyana and all the musical references. All those great things continue in this second book. I loved the way some of the characters evolved-- Ebony, especially-- and enjoyed seeing Eliyana gain some confidence and independence of her own.

On the guy side... You know, in the first book, I was really rooting for Joshua and El to be together. I wasn't a huge fan of Ky's cockiness and attitude, and I liked Joshua's self-sacrifice and commitment to do what was right no matter the personal cost to him. In this book, I found myself struggling to like either guy. I felt like they both had agendas, and while the story vilified one guy for his, I didn't feel like I bought into the idea that the other guy should get off the hook because his motives were supposedly so pure.

I didn't mind the lack of Christian worldview, but I felt like Unraveling confused some Christian concepts and warped them into a lot of gray morality. Everything seemed to come down to human strength. The good guys fight the Void and the bad guys simply aren't strong enough to do so or flat out choose the darkness. I don't know. It felt empty, I guess, and kind of arbitrary, if that makes any sense.

Despite my reservations about the characters, I definitely bought into the romance and want these guys to figure out some way to be happy. All of them. Some of Eliyana's moments of comparison between how she feels about Joshua versus Ky made a lot of sense to me in terms of growing up and learning about love.

If you liked Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series, you might like the world-jumping, star-crossed love elements of Unraveling. Definitely start the series with Unblemished, as it introduces a lot of characters gradually, and Unblemished kind of throws you right into the middle of a huge group of them without a lot of preamble.

I didn't realize this was part of a series when I requested it and as I haven't read the other books I'm the series I don't think it would be fair for me to review it. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Really enjoyed reading this book!! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Unraveling started slowly but the pace quickly improved and kept me moving through the story. The plot is full of adventure, twists and turns, and I really loved where the story went,
It still has that fairytale feel but I definitely felt that this sequel was more action packed than book 1. We see El develop and grow into her new role, but we also see her doubts and struggles.
I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives of this book as it really opened my eyes to the events surrounding other characters.
The world is expanded in this book and I can't wait to see where they go in book 3.
4/5 stars.

Full Disclosure: ARC for Unraveling provided by NetGalley.

So this review (or reviews, as it were) begins with a bit of a story. After browsing NetGalley one day, I came across a book that seemed interesting and requested it. (Real talk, it was the cover. So beautiful.) Easy enough so far. Well, after receiving it, I discovered it was a sequel. While I maintain that the copy didn't seem to particularly specify that, there were certainly context clues that could have pointed me in the right direction. My bad guys. Anyway, after agonizing about what to do about it, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy the first book. It was on sale on Kindle, so why not? 

What can I say? I do things right around here.

As a result, this is going to be a review of both books, which is fitting as the problem that ultimately led to my dislike of each book is the same between them both. But we'll get to that later. First, a bit of summary.

Unblemished is the story of Eliyana Ember, a teenager with an unfortunate face tattoo birthmark who just lost her mother. Oh, and she also just made things awkward with the boy she loves after confessing said love for him in a moment of emotional stress. So things are going really well for El at the beginning of the book. 

Not everything is as it seems, however, as it turns out that while her birthmark isn't doing her social life any favors on this Earth, it actually makes her very important in the second reflection, an alternate world resting parallel to our own. (There are seven reflections, with ours being considered the third.)

El is then kidnapped by the completely average second love interest, Kyaphus, who is working for her evil uncle. (Seriously, he has acne. Who could ever love this monster?) El's uncle houses the spirit of all human evil, the void, the opposite of which is the totally calm and chill Verity. 

Stuff happens and good triumphs, leading to Unraveling, which deals with the direct fallout of evil uncle's defeat. (Sorry, dude's not a long term villain.) That's about the gist of it.

So I read these two books pretty much back to back. And for me, the two books both suffered from the same problem. And his name is Love Interest #1. Sorry, I mean Joshua David. (It's a love triangle... get it? Please get it.) Even now I'm seething at how utterly obnoxious of a character Joshua is to read. 

Joshua's entire deal is that he loves Eliyana too damn much. After falling in love with her as a child, Joshua devotes his life to her, living for the one moment when he feels he can finally admit that he returns her feelings. While this seems super romantic (if over done), it's ruined by what an utter piece of shit he is about it.

Throughout the first novel, Joshua treats El like crap. This remains consistent throughout the first 3/4's of the book until suddenly he is honest with her. But by then it's too late, as she's found solace in the arms of the more interesting and better developed, yet still acne infested, Kyaphus. (The joke here is that the author feels the need to bring up that Ky has acne regularly enough that it stuck out. No, this doesn't stop happening even in book 2.) 

Despite the reversal that happens in book 2, Joshua still sucks the enjoyment out of any scene he finds himself in. (This is made worse by the fact that he gets pretty regular POV chapters in Unraveling, which, by the way, is super weird considering Unblemished was pretty much a solo affair.) What's really frustrating about this is that I feel like the book wants me to feel sorry for the guy. You could argue that he is a victim, whether due to circumstances or just bad luck, but I can't find it with myself to feel even a little bit of sympathy for him. I'm sure he'd even find a way to suck the fun out of his own death scene, should we be so lucky in book 3.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed the good majority of Unblemished. It was interesting and the adventure kept me turning pages to see what would happen, even despite my frustrations with Joshua. But Unraveling is where it all... well... unravels. The pacing is iffy at best and the adventure doesn't really even get going until over halfway through. And then, it just ends. We get this cliffhanger ending that just, kind of happens. And honestly, it left me with this feeling of disinterest, mixed with the relief that it was all finally over.

Will I continue on to book 3 next year? Probably not, and that's a damn shame.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review. (But I loved it so much, I purchased it too!)

This book picks up with El and Joshua together. Things should be perfect. El tries to forget Ky. Her heart is tethered with the Kiss of Infinity to him, though. She longs to be with him. She sets off to find Ky.
Meanwhile, Joshua looks for a way to severe El's connection to Ky. He becomes consumed with having her to himself.

This book is paced the same way as the first one. They are gut twisting moments as well as swoon-worthy ones. I love this series so much. Can't wait for the next installment.

DNFing at 40%

"Sometimes there is no solution. Sometimes there's simply an end."

As a reviewer, I try my darnedest to get through a book, even if I'm not its biggest fan, so I may give it an honest review. Some books, I can hunker down and wait patiently, and am actually satisfied by the result that I did. With others, I get lost in a whirlwind of disinterest and disengagement, and cannot go further.

So, for the record, I really tried, and wanted to like this book!

Despite my overall appreciate of Unblemished (you can see my review here) I could not make heads or tales of what was happening in this plot. Amidst the massive info dumps featuring confusing and intertwined verbiage and metaphor, I found myself working far too hard to understand what was happening here. More than one character ends up being related to another, finds out they have some crazy familial past, an even-more awkward love-triangle unfolds, and so on and so forth.

The author uses references and descriptive terms that are, for lack of better term, cheesy, and awkward.

For example:

...and my stomach does the Macarena.

My most recent meal tumbles in my gut, banging around like a sneaker in the dryer.

...I pop a squat on the floor, criss-cross applesauce my legs,...

His coat collar is turned up, touching his car-door ears. (What does that even mean!?)

...To highlight a few.

I thought it may be a first book fluke (because they were present there as well.) These little additions turned out to be the way the author attempts at creating visuals for the reader. Unfortunately, they result in giving a more distracting, and perplexing image. Not to mention, made me feel like I was back in 3rd grade.

An unrelated point that resulted in a similar reaction were the "song" lyrics that Eilyana would sing during different scenes while using her gift.

Like in Unblemished, I had a difficult time following the action scenes, as well as when the characters transitioned from one reflection to the next. There is so much to this world, or, versions of the worlds that require more detailed explanation to make them clear to the reader.

I really liked, and appreciate the idea that the author had while tackling this series---the battle between the Verity and the Void (good vs. evil) with several underlying themes. After reading Unblemished, I was ready to LOVE this book. But because of it's overall lack of clarity, info-dumping, multiple character point of views, and so forth, I couldn't continue.

Vulgarity: None. HOWEVER, the characters say phrases like: "thank the Verity," or "scared the Void out of me" which is basically replacing "heaven" and "hell," leading the character to actually swear...so...I didn't care for that much.
Sexual content: Kissing only.
Violence: Minimal.

1.5 stars.

A big thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

https://laurinboyle.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/unblemished-unraveling-by-sara-ella/

Even though I felt the pacing was a little better in this book I still felt like it took too long for things to get interesting (about half way through for me on this one, versus 3/4 of the way on the first one). Like most second books, this one felt like a lot of filler. There were some things that happened that obviously will be important to story, but I didn't really feel like anything major that she set out to do in the beginning of the story really came to fruition, save for finding Ky.

Touching on a couple of my dislikes from the first book, I noticed the use of music and lyrics make more sense in this book and isn't quite as distracting as I felt it was in Unblemished. I'm still not a fan of how Sara Ella occasionally writes things out as hashtags. Not only do I think this dates the story to our current lifestyles rather than making it timeless, the use of the hashtags is not consistent throughout the book and don't make sense. They seem more like a halfhearted afterthought to try to appeal to the younger readers. 

To lighten the mood a little, I've got three positives form this book (I'm pretty sure that's more than I had for the first book). 1) El is significantly less whiny and annoying. She seems to have really stepped up her maturity level and got more focused, I like that she's grown up. But then she takes a step back at the end. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say why, and I get that it's not really her fault but I don't get why she had to return to the immature version of herself. I hope this issue is resolved in the final book because I'll be seriously irritated if it's not. 2) The book has a pretty cover. 3) Ky is this series and I seriously love him (but alas, he's fictional and I'm already married - haha). Kyaphus Rhyen has been my favorite character since the first book and he just keeps getting better. I honestly feel like he makes these books and he's the only reason I'll keep reading them (that's also a bad-ass name).

Overall, for me this book was only alright. It stepped it up enough from the first book to the point where I'm not completely dreading reading the final book. The story's plot in itself is interesting. Like I mentioned in my Unblemished reviews, I hope it grows and gets better. The daydreaming, tangents and scattered thoughts just loose me. I really want this series to get better and I need to know what happens with Ky.

A lot of series, in my opinion, are defined by the second book. The series can rise, fall, or become dependent on the third or final book to know how you feel about the transition that takes place in the second. Some people, even authors, won't read second books...

This book is not like that. This book makes the series. I love the new El (or Em). I think she is finally putting roots down and developing relationships now that she doesn't have the birthmark on her face to hold her back. She has a family, and its not just her mom anymore. I did not love the ending, but I did. It was beautiful!

I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you like pirates, adventure, sisterhood, romance, a good guy turning evil, a villain becoming the hero.. this book is for you!

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson--Fiction for the opportunity to read and review Unraveling by Sara Ella. The story continues on from Unblemished as El struggles with her role as Queen and her relationships with others. Her insecurities still hamper her ambitions and self-esteem, while many of the relationships she thought she understood keep changing. Her life and surroundings are unraveling. It ends as though there will be more to come. The story has many twists and the characters have many layers and more secrets continue to be revealed. This did get a bit tiring because I never knew what the characters were fully dealing with and could not get a grasp on what was going on, but I suppose that's why the title is Unraveling. Interesting and complex characters and creative world building earn a 4 star rating.

Story continues in Unbreakable, scheduled for release May 2018.

Here is what I was waiting for! This is one of the few times I think the sequel surpasses the original. It had everything I was wanting, from some pretty extensive world buildilng to some real character development. I wasn't left feeling like something was missing with this one (which could totally be because the first book was kind of just exposition, which actually was kind of nice). Really great! Can't wait for the next one!

The second installment in the Unblemished trilogy is a great read that will leave you aching for more.

Eliyana Ember has always wanted her world to be a fairy tale. After a defeating her grandfather and saving the second Reflection, El starts to only trust what she can see and touch. The Kiss of Infinity she once shared is nothing but a memory and now that she is becoming queen she doesn’t know if she is prepared to deal with any of it. The Verity is cast within her soul and therefore leaves Joshua by her side ready to rule her birth land. Even with all she has, she feels something is missing. The Callings, she and others have had as magical powers, begin to fail and El wonders if her connection to Ky Rhyen is somehow involved. Light and dark cannot coexist and El needs to find the answers before the Callings disappear altogether.

This book is outstanding, as long as you have read the first. If you come into this having as a standalone or don’t have Unblemished fresh in your mind, you will likely have difficulties. There is so much that is set up in the first book that is relevant to Unraveling in order for everything to make sense that it is very important to have the first firmly in your mind when starting this one. The characters develop much more fully here along with the world. This is very different from our own, but also similar in many, many ways. I enjoyed the introduction of new characters and the interaction they had with already established characters. One of the best aspects is it is a very clean book without losing the intensity of the story, a very rare trait to be found today. Other than making sure you have read the first book, I can’t think of anything negative to say about this book. I can’t wait to see what the third installment has in store.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

Book Review: Unraveling by Sara Ella

My love for fantasy YA novels knows no bounds, as my Harry Potter addiction can attest, so when I received the opportunity to review a fantasy YA novel with a female protagonist, I jumped on it. A few things that you should know about Unraveling from the onset:
It’s book two of the Unblemished trilogy
The premise is that there are 7 different worlds that are linked and are variant echos of each other (Reflections) which are governed by two major power sources: the Verity, a source of light, and the Void, a source of darkness
The relative size of each Reflection is roughly the same size of the NYC area (boroughs and all)
Each world includes people with magical abilities, or Callings, but they are only open about their abilities within a few of these Reflections
There are 7 Callings: Amulet, Scribe, Shield, Mask, Mirror, Ever, Magnet
You should definitely read book one, Unblemished first — it would be quite confusing otherwise
Unraveling begins approximately two months after the ending of Unblemished. The lead character, Eliyana, is facing difficulties with her new leadership responsibilities and has conflicting feelings about the guy she’s pined for during the past few years and a guy she’s only recently met. However, the largest obstacle in her newfound role is the frightening changes occurring to people’s Callings, and those plotting to use this to their advantage.
As Eliyana, or El, as she prefers to be named, works to solve why the Callings are disappearing, one by one, we see her revert back to the self-doubt she exhibited in the first book. She has always been a loner and when she feels other’s expectations, she wants to avoid disappointing them. Her journey towards regaining self-confidence is tied to her and people’s diminishing powers but it is also a vehicle for the reader to examine the issues faced by women in leadership positions. El is only one of the leaders that we see in this series and is the leader who has most recently come into power. It is interesting that her male peers have either been trained to lead their whole lives or have taken on responsibility over time so that leadership is familiar to them. Yet, El is constantly comparing herself to their abilities and often doubts whether she has what it takes to fix a problem that she feels is her fault.
El’s plight is a great example of the Imposter syndrome that researchers have explored, especially when it comes to young women who are flexing skills that they are unfamiliar with. Fortunately, her instincts — to go to the library and learn as much as she can directly from experts, even if they are people she has been at odds with in the past, are exactly what’s needed. In fact, it is when El disregards her instincts, especially when she sees red flags, that she or someone she loves ends up in peril. Unraveling does a great job of depicting women’s leadership by showing us women in power in addition to El, in the form of the story’s primary antagonist, the Fairy Queen.
The author’s foreshadowing in the first book, Unblemished, comes into play in this book. These come in the form of the origin of the Verity and the Void, the parentage of one of Eliyana’s love interests, and a few tertiary characters having more to them than meets the eye.
While the author excels in crafting a well-organized plot led by characters’ motivations, I would be remiss if I did not bring up a few issues that I have with the portrayals of people of color in this series. Namely, that one of the few identifiable people of color in the series so far meets their untimely demise pretty early, another character could easily be coded as a ‘Mammy’ stereotype, and one event near the end feels eerily reminiscent of Rue’s death in Hunger Games.
Despite these issues, I look forward to reading the conclusion of the series and learning the answers to the still unravelled threads to this story. What do we still have left to learn about these worlds? Who will Eliyana choose? Will she come to recognize her true powers on her own? Will we finally meet the dragons that keep being hinted?
Perhaps there is truly more than meets the eye when it comes to the story arcs of the people of color in this series and how the author answers the questions above and more. I anticipate this in the final book of the series, Unbreakable, which is scheduled for release in 2018.

First Line: I'm not ready for this.

Summary: Eliyana is now queen of the Third Reflection. She is with the man she has loved for many years but she is also in love with another. Who does she choose and how does she run a country? When the Callngs begin to fail she soon learns that something she has done is causing it. She must travel to the Fourth Reflection to find Ky and fix her kingdom.

Highlights: I love the cover. So pretty. The idea and plot are promising. I liked the first one.

Lowlights: The problems I had with the first only intensified in this book. I was so lost with all the different pieces and names. The references to pop culture items was too much and too often. Plus the love triangle was overdone and talked out. It didn't seem to fit.

FYI: Confusing.

Unraveling picks up shortly after Unblemished (book #1) leaves off. El is the vessel of the Verity and she is about to become queen, Ky has left her without a word, and Joshua is by her side and wants to be with her. Everything seems perfect, but we quickly find out that all is not well.

Much like the first book I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the stuff going on and it took my a while to figure out what was going on. The book jumps around alot from El and Joshua's perspective, and we even get a few chapters of Ky's perspective. Everyone is researching the Verity and the Void, and it jumps from El speaking, to El thinking, to El reading, and it was sometimes hard to keep track of who voice we were truly hearing. I really appreciated getting more backstory on the Verity and the Void. I felt pretty confused at the end of book 1, but I really feel like the Void and Verity concept was developed alot more in book 2. I like where it is heading and feel much more comfortable with the concept and where that part of the plot is going. With El being the Verity's vessel, and the Void being split between both Ky and Joshua, El is on a mission to destroy the Void and free both boys she cares about and save the the Callings and the Thresholds from disappearing. As they learn more and more about the history of the Verity and the Void, the Fairy Queen becomes more and more important to the story.

I really liked the relationship development between Ebony and El, I wasn't sure where that was headed but I like where it went. I'd like to see that same type of development with their other sister Khloe. The love triangle, but there are hints that it might actually be a square, comes on really strong. El is still pretty love sick for Joshua in the second installment, and she is still pretty unsure of herself. Many of her actions are driven by Joshua's influence or her memories of Joshua. I thought that she had finally broken through the "I'm worthless because of my birthmark" thing at the end of book one, but that theme emerges again in book 2 and she still feels those same emotions of worthlessness. I do like that the story make a play to build her up and work with her abilities to make her strong on her own. Her journey of self discovery is still centered around the boys, but she kind of figured out how to break away from them and find her way on her own.

I'm anxious to see where book 3 takes us. If Josh/Joshua can fight the Void and if the Void can truly be destroyed. I really enjoyed book 2 and liked where things ended and feel like things ended in a good place.