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!