Hey everyone! Today is my stop on the Ashes and Ice Tour. I have a review and an excerpt for you all.
Title: Ashes & Ice
Author: Rochelle Maya Callen
Release Day: February 4th, 2013
Genre: Young Adult
Blitz Host: Lady Amber's Tours
Synopsis:
She is desperate to remember.
He is aching to forget.
Together, they are not broken.
But together, one may not survive.
Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands.
Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough.
LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice
My Review
Jade has no memory. She has someone help her and she does think she is called Jade. There are times she hears voices calling for her. After leaving a new friend she ends up living with a kind woman. The woman tries her best to care for Jade. Connor has just lost his father and wants to be invisible. He isn't in with the cool crowd and is surprised when Jade wants to talk to him. As their friendship blossoms Jade hears more voices and blacks out more often. Another problem is bodies seem to be piling up from a serial Killer and they seem to be coming for Jade. She needs to get her memory back and soon.
There is several characters but I wanted to describe just Jade and Connor. Jade waking with no memory at first made me think of an alien that had crashed on earth. She really couldn't remember anything at all. I liked this girl for a lot of reason but mainly because of Connor. The more she was around him the more you really get to see her feelings. She is a strong girl and smart. She does her best to solve her mystery by herself. She is also not afraid to take on anyone she thinks is picking on Connor. Connor isn't a wimp he just wants to get thru high school by trying to stay invisible. He really has no friends until he meets Jade and she stands up to the cool crowd.
I really liked this story as it has a certain air of mystery to it. You keep trying to figure out Jade's past and who the killer is. It keeps you on your toes and flipping pages. I loved watching the friendship between Jade and Connor grow. You can tell they care for each other but neither want to say or show it. The killer is one who I hated when I found out who it was. They have a lot of power and really seem to want all of Jade and don't care who gets in their way. It was a nice touch when you find it out. I won't say who it is because I am not giving spoilers. Which is hard to do cause I do want to ramble on and on to tell you everything about it. I instantly loved Connor and sure you will as well. Jade I really liked and I really can't wait to read more in this series cause I have to know what happens next.
4 out of 5 Bats~Pam
Excerpt
Connor
Tears burn. I never realized it before, but they do. Tears reach down my throat and settle in my gut until the pain cripples me. I clutch my stomach as I look into the casket. His face doesn’t even look the same. Bloated like a Mardi Gras float, discolored like a mannequin. This isn’t my father.
But it is.
If I have learned anything in my short life, it is this: funerals are bullshit. People dress in carefully pressed black suits. Parents give me “meaningful” nods as if that could ease the grief. It doesn’t.
Then there are the kids from school, the ones dragged along by their parents. People drag their kids along as if filling the church was a necessary thing. As if the more pews filled somehow expedite the dead’s trip to heaven. I doubt it does. Maybe some of the girls went shopping to buy just the right outfit so their cleavage to respectability ratio was just right, or their ass to waist ratio was cinched properly.
People sit in the pews dressed in their finest let’s-go-pay-our-respects-to-the-dead-guy-we-never-knew wear, smacking the gum in their mouths, cupping cellphones so they can LOL any comment buzzing in, and drumming their fingers because the pastor is going on too long. All they want to do is go home, sneak in a make-out session with their girlfriends, eat their dinners, and maybe catch a 7 o’clock movie.
I hate these kids. The ones who stare at me, roll their eyes, and yawn. The ones who trip me at school and slam me into lockers. The ones who sit in a pew, contributing to the headcount, while I sit up here in front, holding back the tears fighting to make their appearance. I swallow them down. I won’t cry. Not here. Not with these people.
Dad’s funeral should be an empty church with mom, his three brothers, and me. It should be the five of us having a messy, sloppy, sobbing affair where we cling to each other because we are all we have left. The marble floors should be slick with our tears. It isn’t. We sit here, straight backed, completely composed as if death is just a passing expiration date and our small, insignificant world has not been split open and left gaping.
***
I’m in my room, staring at the ceiling. The funeral service was hours ago.
The house feels empty and cold. I hear a stifled whimper from down the hall.
Mom.
Probably crying into a pillow so the house can’t hear, but it can. It seems unfair she can’t wail aloud, so loud the house’s hundred-year-old studs tremble.
She doesn’t. I don’t either. We cry in our own rooms, remembering a man who will never be here again.
The house creaks. Maybe it feels the weight of our grief, maybe the floorboards are buckling because the burden is too heavy.
I ache, desperate to forget the long battle with cancer, the blood sputtering out of his mouth with his last words—what where they? I can’t remember because the fear in his eyes overshadowed anything he said. Now the loss. I don’t want to feel this loss. Some divine entity has taken dull scissors and cut out a piece of my life and now I have jagged scars to remind me I lost too much. Too much.
I want to forget, because it hurts to remember.
I bury my head in the pillow, hoping to suffocate the memories, to choke out the pain.
Author Bio:
Rochelle grew up dreaming up stories. When she entered high school, she tucked away her creative side and jumped head-first into academics, work, and service projects. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Political Science and Communication when she was twenty years old. After years away from her writing, Rochelle picked up a pen and started fleshing out a character sketch that she outlined when she was twelve. That sketch was the start of the Ashes and Ice story. Rochelle lives in the DC metro area with her husband and daughter. By day she works as a behavioral therapist. By night, she is a dreamer and is busy tapping out new stories on her keyboard.
Links:
twitter: rockyiswriting
Nice review, Pam. I wish I could start A&I tonight. ;)
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