books – Page 40 – Sincerely Karen Jo

bookreview

Hello lovelies! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Today, I’ll be sharing my review for Ember Burning, the first book in the TRINITY FOREST SERIES by JENNIFER ALSEVER. I’ll also be sharing some of my favorite quotes from the book and there’ll be a giveaway later on this week!

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emberburning

aboutbook

Published: My 6, 2017 by Sawatch Press

Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Paperback Format: 348 Pages

purchaselinks

AMAZON – BARNES & NOBLE – INDIEBOUND – BOOK DEPOSITORY

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Senior year was supposed to be great–that’s what Ember’s friend Maddie promised at the beginning of the year. Instead, Ember TrouvE spends the year drifting in and out of life like a ghost, haunted by her parents’ recent, tragic death.

At home, she pores over her secret obsession: pictures of missing kids– from newspaper articles, from grocery store flyers– that she’s glued inside a spiral notebook. Like her, the people are lost. Like her, she discovers, they had been looking for a way to numb their pain when they disappeared.

When Ember finds herself in Trinity Forest one day, a place locals stay away from at all costs, she befriends a group of teenagers who are out camping. Hanging out with them in the forest tainted with urban legends of witchcraft and strange disappearances, she has more fun than she can remember having. But something isn’t right.

The candy-covered wickedness she finds in Trinity proves to be a great escape, until she discovers she can never go home. Will Ember confront the truth behind her parents’ death, or stay blissfully numb and lose herself to the forest forever?

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mythoughts

A Wickedly Mesmerizing, Utterly Thrilling, and Deliciously Twisted Tale

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A hauntingly dark, but beautifully affecting read, Ember Burning by Jennifer Alsever had me holding my breath until the end.

This book completely consumed me and I finished it in less than 10 hours!!! It was intense, thrilling, twisted, mysterious, and quite disturbing. Actually, some parts were terrifying and/or painful to read, but the storyline was also so incredibly fascinating that I could not put the book down. The plot was well-written, fast-paced, and suspenseful. I love that I never really knew what was going on and couldn’t predict what would happen next. I went through the story as if I was Ember experiencing whatever she felt as she struggled with her own guilt and tried to figure out what was really happening to her. There’s definitely something intoxicating about Trinity Forest and with a cliffhanger like that, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens in the next two installments.

Alsever’s spellbindingly gorgeous writing style lured me in and never let go. It was wickedly mesmerizing, utterly thrilling and deliciously twisted and I was wonderfully entertained. I enjoyed the unique world-building, the mystery behind Trinity Forest, the supernatural elements, the intriguing characters, and the romance. This book without a doubt exceeded my expectations and I cannot recommend it enough.

If you’re looking for a beautifully written and relatable story about death, pain, guilt, self-discovery, and love with a paranormal twist, then I highly suggest you add this amazing book to your TBR.

Note: There are some trigger scenes in this book, so just be aware that you could read something you may not be comfortable with.

Huge thanks to the author for sending me a copy of this book which I voluntarily agreed to review. All thoughts, opinions, and feelings are my own.

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favoritequotes

A glimmer of sunshine pours through my personal Ember armor and into my heart. Something is happening here, and it’s like I’m waking up from a deep, deep sleep.

We’re all broken in some way, beat down, ready to give up. We want a second chance, and Trinity gives that to us.

The kiss sends me spinning, cartwheeling into another world. This is like an out-of-body experience. To open your heart and let someone crawl inside, write their name and take a piece of you. You carry them inside you, you take them with you, you breathe with them. This is what people talk about when they talk about love.

You can’t get so ruled by emotion that you do something you regret.

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GOLD MEDALIST

2018 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARDS

Best Young Adult Fiction E-Book

GOLD MEDALIST

2018 MOONBEAM BOOK AWARDS

Best Young Adult Horror/Mystery

QUARTER-FINALIST FOR PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 2017 BOOKLIFE PRIZE

“Excellently plotted, flows well and beautifully written.”
–Publishers Weekly

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addongoodreads2

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funextras

trinity forest.jpg

EMBER’S WORLD

TRE’S WORLD

LODIMA’S WORLD

HEAR OSHUN SING

WATCH VIDEOS

EMBER’S SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

TRE’S SPOTIFY PLAYST

OSHUN RISING SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

VENUS SHINING SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

(THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1)

THE CRAZY-WOMAN NOTEBOOK

SEE INSIDE TRINITY FOREST

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abouttheauthor

A teenager still lives inside author Jennifer Alsever. She spent two decades as a professional journalist, contributing to such publications as Fortune Magazine, the New York Times, Inc Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, before letting her imagination run wild in 2016. The result is Ember’s story told in the three-book Trinity Forest Series, her first published fiction work.

When not absorbed in writing, Alsever enjoys a good hike, doing some yoga, hanging with her boys, some moguls on skis, a rigorous mountain bike ride or indulging in the simple pleasures of life. Her favorites: untouched snow, frozen chocolate chips, savasina on a yoga mat and yes, bowls of pan fried brussels sprouts. Jennifer is working on her upcoming novel to be released in 2019.’

authorlinks

WEBSITE – TWITTER – FACEBOOK – INSTAGRAM – GOODREADS

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Thanks for stopping by loves! I hope you enjoyed reading my review for this book and be brave enough to travel into Trinity Forest. sincerelykjologo

authorinterview

Hello bookish friends!! Today, I have a fun author interview. Many thanks to Aaron Piper for taking the time to answer my questions. Hope you enjoy reading!!!

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titusfogg

aboutbook

Independently Published: July 25th 2018

Genre(s): Fantasy

Pages: Paperback 452 and Kindle Edition 328

purchaselinks

AMAZON – BARNES & NOBLE – KOBO – IBOOKS

synopsis

Titus Fogg hates magic, and with good reason. Born into a murderous family of cruel and powerful casters in modern Massachusetts, magic has contributed to every bad thing that has happened to him since birth. After finally managing to banish the most likely evil (but definitely dirty-minded) entity called Shade from his body to the sidelines as his shadow, Titus has the chance to have a normal, magic free, high school life. But, when Tess Roe, his classmate, neighbor and model of justice at their school realizes she can see the creatures Titus calls the Wyrd too, Titus must return to the world of the strange to help her. Soon Titus’s dark past comes to light as he must prove that he isn’t responsible for the death of one of Tess’s friends, and the theft of a magical book that could lead to the destruction of Arkham.

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What was your inspiration for Titus Fogg?

Short version; Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. Longer more accurate version; I actually got the idea by combining several ideas. The first influencer would probably be Rick Rhordian (Percy Jackson, others). His idea for books is to add old myth and gods to kids stories. I wondered what would happen if you did that with folklore, and strange creatures, but I didn’t like the idea of the noble hero that does everything fearlessly because he’s “the chosen one,” so I thought of Draco Malfoy. He is not the chosen one, but he still has to be there the entire time because he has his part to play, but he is afraid, excited, proud, ashamed, all because he doesn’t have a prophecy protecting him.

Describe this book in 3 words.

Haha – Magical math magicians

What is your favorite part about being a writer?

Getting to hear people’s version of my world. Listening to people talk about how they experienced the scenes or how they saw things happening.

Do you have any must haves when you’re writing?
Coffee, music…

Does any of your personality ever go into any of the characters?

Here and there, but not intentionally. I like logical conclusions, and have a off-kilter sense of humor with lots of sarcasm and sass.

Which author(s) have inspired your writing?

Lloyd Alexander, he wrote a magical coming of age story long before Rowling and his was magical, sad, real, and life altering.

Favorite snack while writing.

Gummy Bears

If there was a zombie apocalypse and you can choose 3 of your books to take with you which would you chose?

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, World War Z, Fight Club.

If you were a superhero, what would your name be and what power would you have?

Be able to recreate any action I could see done once; Call me Monkey See (because if Monkey See then Monkey can do)

What advice do you have for writers in terms of dealing with favourable and/or unfavourable reviews of their published work?

I have a bit different view of it since I’m published in a daily variety through newsprint, but I apply the same rules. You learn more from mistakes than successes, and people have to be able to tell you what they think you did wrong. You have this urge to defend your work like it’s a baby, but like a baby bird sometimes it’s gotta be kicked out to fly or fall on its own. You learn from it and wish it the best but you won’t always be around to argue every point to every person.

If you could change one thing about our world what would it be and why?

I don’t know, I mean isn’t that what writers try to do in their books? We write about the things we image would happen if we changed something, even if its something small.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Write. It’s gonna suck, they’re be people who don’t like it, but you’ll get better, step by step, piece by piece until it gets to a place where you can use writing to tell about the world.

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abouttheauthor

Aaron Piper grew up in farmlands of Ohio, reading anything he could get his hands on, in lieu of normal social interaction. When he complained one too many times about books he didn’t like, someone finally told him, “If you think you can do better, why don’t you write a book?” Many years and a minor in English from Ohio University later, he finished his first novel, Titus Fogg. Currently, he lives in southern Indiana with his wife and daughter and have worked as a photographer and journalist for more than ten years.

authorlinks