Description from the back of the book:
Eliyana has always recoiled from her own reflection in the mirror. But what if that were only one Reflection—one world? What if another world existed where her blemish could become her strength?Eliyana is used to the shadows. With a hideous birthmark covering half her face, she just hopes to graduate high school unscathed. That is, until Joshua hops a fence and changes her perspective. No one, aside from her mother, has ever treated her as normal. Maybe even beautiful. Because of Joshua, Eliyana finally begins to believe she could be loved.But one night her mother doesn’t come home, and that’s when everything gets weird.Now Joshua is her new, and rather reluctant, legal Guardian. Add a hooded stalker and a Central Park battle to the mix and you’ve gone from weird to otherworldly.Eliyana soon finds herself in a world much larger and more complicated than she’s ever known. A world enslaved by a powerful and vile man. And Eliyana holds the answer to defeating him. How can an ordinary girl, a blemished girl, become a savior when she can’t even save herself?


I really wanted to love this book. I thought I would. Fantasy? Check. Adventure. Check. Female heroine? Check. I read the reviews and even I recommended it to my tween and let her read it. Before I read it. Probably not a good idea. She liked it quite a bit though. I had a hard time getting through the middle of the book. Is it possible to not really love a book but want to know what happens to one of the characters in the upcoming book? Because that is where I'm at.

I'm glad that my tween/teen got to read this book also and agreed to review it. We had different opinions on it, but we also both liked the book. She can't wait until the next book Unravelling is available. I am curious to know what happens next also.
I liked that this book has a new "world", really just more realms of this one. Interesting characters with cool and different abilities. I also liked that there was adventure and twists throughout the story until the very end. The ending really makes you want to keep reading. In that sense this book was a fun read.
Here's why I didn't love this book or had a hard time reading it:
It was hard to follow at times because there was SO much stuffed into one book, not enough pages to truly develop each character and ability so that the reader could feel invested. I don't even remember half of it unless I reference back.
Pop culture references all over the place. I felt like there were almost too many. Some of this is okay for me, it's humorous, helps get a point across. But too much and I feel it's overdone and compensating for what might be lacking in the original story. The story is a good one, the world, the abilities, the characters.
El's constant thoughts about boys and if they like her. I get it, you're a teenager but really? Every time one of the boys touches you it has to be heart pounding I wonder if he loves me or notices? Even in the midst of a dangerous situation are we really thinking about how good a boy smells? Umm no, everyone is just trying to stay alive. I don't know why this bugged me so much. I read romance novels. It usually doesn't bother me, but for the most part in those novels other people's lives aren't at stake. This could be an age thing? Maybe I'm too far removed, but as a 17/18 year old thing woman, I felt it was young for her character.
I felt El was very often thinking of herself and her love interests, so much so that the author several times brings us back to what her focus truly is... by putting in a little side note "mom is what matters now, rescuing mom is all that matters". Really? Well then let us focus on that then in the writing instead of reminding us after the fact.
Is this how teens think? Late teens, El is 17-18. Not a young teen. Maybe it just wasn't relate-able to me, like I mentioned above. Perhaps that's what it is. The ending was interesting and I so want to know what happens to Ky the only character I really liked. I do want to check out the next book in this series. At that point I might re read this book, and who knows I might feel different later. Get a better grasp on the nuances of the world and the characters.
I tagged this as a "clean read" because technically it is. There's just kissing, some violence but not graphic.


My tween's thoughts on this book:
"Unblemished is a great action, adventure, and fantasy novel by Sara Ella. The characters were well developed and there were several twists I didn't see coming. My favorite part was the magical concept. I love reading about mythology, and this book had a fresh take on a lot of universal ideas, such as portals and shape-shifting, among other things. I also enjoyed how Sara explained the way the magic worked, and gave background stories as the novel progressed, weaving a web of interconnected pasts.
Would I read it again? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? Yes
What about to teens? Yes."



I received this book from NetGalley. I was under no obligation to give a positive review. All opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Honestly, I wasn't too into the story. I picked up the book because the writer is Christian and I wanted to support her work. And I do. I praise it for a very appropriate development. Having said that, I couldn't get too into it. Mostly wrong timing. I stil recommend it as an appropriate read for all ages. 😊

This book is like Alice in Wonderland meets The Mortal Instruments. Unblemished follows Eliyana or El, a girl who has lived a pretty sheltered life due to a fairly unsightly birthmark on her face and has had a rough go at it because of it. Her birthmark in one world is ugly but in another Reflection or dimension is actually a mark of something exceptional. The plot starts out with a story we've seen before, chosen one has been hidden away until her 18th birthday for her own protection, when all of a sudden crazy stuff starts happening and she has to save the world with her magic. In this story there is a ton of family drama, starting with the death of El's mom and things just kind of get more chaotic from there. Her best friend Joshua ends up being her guardian in both the legal and magical protector sense, and El is dragged quite literally into a world she never knew existed. The unique twist was on the magic system and the world building. I really enjoyed the aspect of the reflections, a kind of multi-dimensional world accessed through Thresholds, where each is kind of a mirror image of the other. I really liked the Callings, some of the people in the magical part of the world whether light or dark has an ability and there weren't too many. I thought that the Verity and Void, aka light and dark, could have been explained a little better. El's whole story is based on her being tied to the Verity and saving everyone, but I'm still a little confused about the whole Verity and Void concept as it applies to the vessels and the Kisses of Infinity. Love plays a big part in the storyline, and I was hoping that El would eventually come to love herself as she was pretty self loathing about her birthmark and the fact that Joshua wouldn't love her back for much of the book. She seemed very love sick and immature in the beginning, but eventually she kind of figured out what she needed to do. I kind of didn't like her in the beginning, she was weak and always having a tantrum, but given all she was going through I guess that was kind of acceptable. She eventually accepted her fate as the savior and grew up a bit, and I ended up liking her by the end. I liked the kind of twist at the end regarding the love triangle where both boys have equal claim, and you just don't know where either of them stand. I know who I want her to end up with and I think I know where things are heading, but I'm not sure where the story is actually going to head. I kind of like that. I'm anxious to get to the 2nd book.

This was an imperfect novel with an interesting storyline and a pretty unique way of blending fiction with reality to create an incredible backdrop for her multitude of characters. Sometimes it was a little difficult trying to keep all the characters and their place in the story straight but the author developed them fairly well so they never came off feeling like filler pieces since they all had a place to keep the story moving.

The plot leads to an interesting idea of a mirror world with a pretty cool fantasy twist. The mythology takes some digging into as she slowly reveals the rules of her world a little at a time which can be irritating when you want everything up front but it actually works out better this way to keep you engaged.

My only super irritation with this book was how it was narrated through the main character because the sentence structure used didn’t flow well and she could be hard to like which had its own problems since the story revolved around her.

Her ending is definitely the best part of this book and will make you want to check out the sequel.

This book, while has a good story, was pretty difficult to read. The story and the characters were difficult to keep track of and it made the story pretty confusing.
I like the concept and the characters weren't bad, but the writing was so hard to follow that it sort of ruined the experience for me.
This is definitely a book I will try to read again in the future to see if I enjoy it more, but I was fairly disappointed by a book I had hope for.

Unblemished is Sara Ella's debut novel, and I'm on the fence about it. I read a few reviews before I requested it on NetGalley. The description of the book seemed right up my ally so I was pretty excited when I got the approval to review it.

17 year old Eliyana is not a normal looking girl. Half her face is covered in a crazy red birthmark which makes her the target of a lot of jokes and ridicule. After her mother goes missing in a New York City art gallery fire she's is presumed dead, El's world is turned upside down. It's always just been the two of them. Her best friend Joshua becomes her reluctant legal guardian, which is awkward for her because she has a HUGE crush on him. He's the only person aside from her mom that treats her like a normal person. While wallowing in her sadness (which is understandable because her mom supposedly just died), El makes some bad decisions. She sneaks out of the house and runs into a school frienemy and they go to a party where El meets Kyaphus aka Ky, who treats her like a normal girl. El almost gets kidnapped, but Joshua comes to her rescue. Then things get weird[er].

El finds herself being ushered off to a parallel universe, or Reflection, as they're called in this book. Her giant facial birthmark turns out to be more than a birthmark, making her a very important part of this other Reflection (the Second Reflection) she knows nothing about. What has always been a great weakness for El could just well become her greatest strength. The Second Reflection is slowly dying and she's the only one that can save it. She just has to figure our how to harness this new strength and wield it.

My First thoughts: There were a lot of music analogies and they felt kind of weird and confusing. The writing is choppy and written in an abundance of fragmented thoughts and sounds. Too many scattered thoughts is what it felt like I was reading. I'm going to assume it's the authors style, but I wasn't really feeling it. It was confusing and hard to stay focused while reading and it was putting me to sleep. I had to stop and read something else a few times to reset my brain. It took until nearly 3/4 of the way through the book for me to actually understand what was happening and become interested. This is far too long. My biggest problem with this book, unfortunately, was the main character Eliyana aka El aka Ember.

El seemed like an idiotic, spoiled, self-absorbed, oblivious and petulant child. I felt like I was reading the character of a 12 year old, not an almost 18 year old. This girl was so singularly focused on saving her mother. She had absolutely no regard for anyone or anything else. Some may say she was selfless in this quest, I say she was acting an imbecile. This really bothered me because I thought she was supposed to be super smart. She had completed all required classes to graduate pretty much before her senior year of high school even began. All I could think until about 3/4 of the way through was "I can't with her. How is this super smart girl this naive and singularly focused?! She's an idiot." I felt trapped in this chicks empty head with no way out, I really just wanted to throat punch her. A little violent, I know, but she was really that irritating.

Half-way into the book this girl still has no clue. No one has explained jack to this girl about why people are after her and why she needs to keep herself safe. There were all these people telling her that she was their number one priority in safety and she just didn't get it. She kept trying to run blindly back into the danger zone to save her mom. This would be one thing if her character was a strong person capable of taking care of herself, but she wasn't. She was soft, pampered and clueless.

At that point I really just wanted to give up, but I'm not a quitter so I gritted my teeth and kept on reading. Sometime between the half-way and three-quarter mark, a Joshua-Eliyana-Kyaphus love-triangle-conflict started to develop, which finally made things a little interesting. It seemed to be the ticket to keeping El from whining about saving her mom every other thought as well, which helped significantly. The story picked up, things started to make sense and kind of come together. El was miraculously no longer an idiot and somehow her personality became stronger (finally).

Enough about El. Let's vent about the other characters and how I wish they had more depth. I think my favorite was Ky. Probably because he seemed to be the only one with backstory (aside from whiny El). He was the only one we really got to know at a reasonable point in the book, which was half-way in. You get Joshua's backstory towards the end, but that doesn't make him any less of a jerk who doesn't deserve El. I get wanting to keep his character mysterious, and sometimes that's what you need to do in the story because of the plot. I also understand why we didn't learn as much about him until much later, but El was just too annoying to be the only one we knew anything about.

The only thing I liked about this book is the last quarter of it. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm planning on reading the second book, Unraveling, which is scheduled to be published July 11, 2017. Also, because I want to know what happens to this love triangle. I just hope that the writing style evolves some and that the characters develop more. This is Sara Ella's first novel, so I'm sure her writing will get better with practice.

Let me note that my opinion is of no consequence to these brilliant minded authors. I don't think I could dream up the worlds these authors do, I just sometimes wish they were expressed or portrayed better. It's kind of like that feeling when you go to see a movie that you're sure is going to be awesome only to be disappointed and thinking it could have been done better if given better circumstances. The story and world really do have potential for greatness. I'm an optimist so I'm seriously hoping for the best with books two and three since this will be a trilogy.

Loved this book! If your a fan of court of wings and roses then this is the book for you ! It's so fast paced yet the story pulls you in and doesn't let go until the very end ! You will never want to stop reading!! The author gives amazing detail that you can picture each image placed before you- and since it's based mostly in NYC a place I know very well it was very easy and fun for me to picture everything happening there! I will be telling everyone I know who loves to read about this book !

Eliyana has a very noticeable birthmark across her face, and society around her never lets her forget. And then her mother dies, and she discovers there's more to her world than she ever knew. It almost seems impossible, but the proof is irrefutable. Eliyana ushers readers through her own looking-glass.

Alas, I couldn't finish this. The way the main character narrated just wasn't my style.

My review is up in amazon, I was a netgalley reader. I enjoyed this book, fairy-tale like, whimsical in some places, thought provoking in others. Truly well written and I liked it enough took for more from this author.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but I just couldn't get into it. The idea was brilliant, and with so many positive reviews I really wanted to enjoy it, but I found the actual story confusing. Did not finish.

The beautiful cover drew me right in! 'Unblemished' is an excellent YA paranormal read, what with hidden magic, other worlds, and a young heroine trying to make sense of it all.a

2 out of 5 stars

Unblemished tells a story of a young woman, with a large birthmark upon her face, whose mother died and she is not left in the guardianship of Joshua. But, not all is at it seems. Eliyana soon finds out that she a chosen one, protected by Guardians, her mother is not dead and she is thrown into a completely different dimension of New York City. I had very high hopes for this as the description reminded me of The 10th Kingdom (which I adore!) However, it was not to be.

While Ella is an extremely gifted writer (her imagery is INCREDIBLE!) I was completely confused for most of the book. What I thought was true at the beginning turns out to be untrue at another instance. Additionally, her characters seemed a bit odd and stilled. Eliyana's fixation on her mother (while I understand it to a degree) seemed completely out of proportion and a bit unhealthy. And the love triangle - what happened? Who did she choose? Will Ky be back?

However, if you enjoy clean contemporary fantasy (i.e. Twilight) this is definitely the book for you. It was just not for me.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Whoozers! Where to begin??? I LOVED this book. It intrigued me from the first paragraph. The characters have depth and differences. I could clearly picture each one. El surprised me throughout the book. I loved that she was a balance of strong in some moments and weak in others. It makes her very relate able. Ky and Joshua are the oh so swoon-worthy friends that frame her in this story.

I read this ENTIRE book in one afternoon. I could not put it down. The writing was great. Sara Ella's storytelling is memorizing. She imagined a world of Reflections and Callings and brought her imaginations to life spectacularly. This book is one that highly recommend if you enjoy YA with a touch of fantasy. I was delightfully surprised by this one.

Holy cow, that was intense. I wasn't expecting Unblemished to be that good. I saw all the rave reviews on Goodreads, and felt skeptical. "Well, might as well give it a try, I suppose." I'm glad I did.

I'm normally not a fan of allegories--I suppose that only contributed to my skepticism. However, it was really well done here. Very subtle, and not in your face at all. I'm interested to see where the author takes it in following books. The entire story kept me riveted, and I couldn't wait to see what happened to Eliyana next. I found the world-building to be believable, and very fascinating. I'm not normally of fan of alternate reality stories, but...this book is an exception to a lot of my dislikes.

But not all of them. (Warning! Warning! Minor spoilers ahead!) This book does have a love triangle. And yes, it is very frustrating. It was convincing at the beginning--the author had me rooting for one guy, until the tables turned and I was rooting for the other, just like Eliyana. Unfortunately, I remained rooting for that one character for the rest of the book. Guy #1 totally and completely lost my vote by acting like a total jerk. 'Nuff said. Most of the characters were well-rounded, and sympathetic. Eliyana was especially endearing, as we spent the most time in her head, experiencing her every emotion. Her character transformation was excellently done.

I liked how it started in our world, before transitioning into the fantasy realm. All the pop culture references were really fun. It was neat to watch El transition into the new realm, and start to unconsciously use 2nd Reflection phrases in her thoughts and dialogue. I also loved the idea of Callings, and Thresholds. However, quite a bit of the world-building was very confusing. What, exactly, happened to Reflections 5-7? (Is that correct? There are 7 Reflections total, right? Ugh. See, it's totally confusing.) And I'm not sure I totally got the concept of what the Verity and the Void are, and what they can do. Things only got messier towards the end, and I'm still not sure what happened. I can't share much more details, as I'll only spoil the plot.

Overall, I'd rate the book 5 stars, minus 1/2 for confusion, and another 1/2 for the love triangle. I can't wait to start Unraveling, as Unblemished left me with a bit of a cliffhanger. Let's hope it's just as good--or dare I say, even better--than the first!

Rating: 4 stars

Recommended: Yes. 14 and up. (Too confusing for younger readers, and some content issues.)

Content guide:

Language: 2/10 (at least one bad word and unfinished sentence that implied foul language)
Sexual content: 6/10 (frequent non-sexual nudity, desire to kiss or touch, heavy kissing, some touching, innuendo, implications of rape, adultery, fornification)
Violence: 6/10 (quite a few injuries and deaths, but most non-graphic)

*Many thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy to review!*

For more book reviews, or to request your own book to be reviewed by yours truly, visit gabriellenblog.wordpress.com

This was an interesting read. There is a LOT of world-building in this book, which felt like it took a little away from the story itself. I think book 2 may be stronger simply because so much of this will already be in place.

The characters felt wishy-washy, which was also frustrating. Each of them went from good to bad or from one love to another faster tHan I could keep up with. I like the premise of the story, but I never really came to care for the characters because at any moment they might turn , and then turn back, and then turn back again. It was hard to follow who was good and who was bad at any given moment.

Overall, I wanted to love this book, but it fell a bit short. I did like it and will most likely give book 2 a try because this debut author can definitely write. Looking forward to reading more of her work.

Unblemished is a breathtaking story of love and bravery wrapped in a magical, fairytale world with elements of truth for all.

Sara Ell's imagination is boundless. From the minute I opened the pages of this book until the very end I was transported to a world where anything is possible, nothing is as it seems, and love conquers all.

I loved Eliyana's character and transformation through this story. From her struggle with wanting to be loved to her passion for music, I resonated with her and couldn't wait to see what would happen.

And oh what a journey. I won't say much here because I don't want to spoil anything but MY OH MY Sara killed it with regards to this books amazing plot. There is a lot to set up and understand when creating a fantasy novel, but she did so in such an amazing, imaginative way. I found myself talking out loud to the book (I can't be the only one who does that...) during some parts just wondering what was going to happen.

I also really loved Sara's writing style. It's fresh, relatable, and deeply personal. After reading this book I feel like I know Eliyana--that we're friends. To me, that's what makes or breaks a first person story - the main character. I so appreciated how Eliyana's character was written in a way that allowed me to know her and to struggle with her, but not to be burdened by her (if you know what I mean).

If you love YA Fantasy's you will flip over this book - seriously! That ending - oh man! But, even if you aren't usually a fan, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. There is a beautiful truth written into these pages and a deeper sense of strength and bravery woven throughout the story that all will enjoy.
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I received this book for free but was under no obligation to post a review. I do so under my own motivation and the opinions I have expressed in this review are honest and entirely my own.

Sara is a new author for me. This book grabbed me from the beginning and didn't let go. The world building and characters were superb! She did a great job weaving spiritual truth throughout the story without being overwhelming.

3.5 Stars

Unblemished is an original young adult fantasy that will have readers dreaming of Reflections for days to come. I loved the world building in this story - there were Reflections (similar to parallel universes) that some people were able to travel between using Thresholds. This concept was fascinating and I enjoyed learning about it as much as I could. The author does a fantastic job of bringing these elements to life and making them almost seem plausible. I've always been intrigued by the thought of parallel universes, so this was right up my alley and fed my imagination. The Reflections and their inhabitants were all detailed with vivid imagery and descriptions that allowed me to easily picture them in my mind. I loved meeting all of the various people and learning about their "Callings" - abilities they are given early in life. Some were shape shifters, others healers, and some had creepy abilities like causing others pain and paralyzing people just by locking eyes with them. These traits made the characters all the more fascinating and fun to read about. Eliyana was a good main character for the book. She was realistic and easy to connect with right from the beginning. I liked how the author made her "flaw" - the red birthmark on her face and neck - into a powerful symbol in the other Reflections. Some parts of Eliyana's attitude bugged me - it seemed like she was pitying herself a lot and was pretty depressing for most of the book. I understand that it's part of her character and was caused by her hatred for the birthmark and how people treated her because of it. It just felt like she was throwing herself a pity party for most of the story, which did annoy me enough to make it hard to slip inside the story completely. The other aspects of the novel were all well done and were great additions to the book. I definitely recommend this book to fans of fantasy and science fiction!