Book Review: Redeem Me (Lost Souls, #2) by Eliza Freed

Redeem Me (Lost Souls, #2)
Eliza Freed

Published: February 3, 2015

Publisher: Forever Publishing
Age Demographic: New Adult Contemporary

Pages: 384

Some things can't be forgiven...

Charlotte O'Brien should forgive God for her parents' death. She should forgive her boyfriend for his one horrific mistake that separated them, and she should forgive herself for cutting them both off, but instead she hates everyone. 

But when her childhood friend Noble Sinclair arrives, his passion reignites the spark that had vanished so completely in Charlotte's gray existence. And in Noble's arms, Charlotte finally begins to wonder if she might be ready to choose the future with Noble over her shattered past.

Redeem Me is book 2 in the Lost Souls series.

To Order Redeem Me (Lost Souls, #2) 
by Eliza Freed 
please visit: Amazon & Barnes&Noble

(Note: I received a copy of this book via the publisher, in exchange for an honest review which I have posted here on the blog and on Goodreads.)

My God, I am wrecked in the best possible way imaginable. Emotionally compelling and incredibly intense, Redeem Me is an absolutely stunningly beautiful novel. Noble Sinclair is insatiable, gorgeous, and the absolute best thing for Charlotte. The chemistry between these two remarkable characters is undeniably electrifying. Their emotional connection will leave you breathless and wanting more.

Eliza Freed has gutted me from the inside out and ruined me so perfectly with her beautiful way of telling a story about the messy, irrational, and complicated journey of love. I am just shattered in so many ways and I wouldn't change a thing. Noble has saved Charlotte in so many ways that it's incredible, how much love he has for her. It's honest, bone deep, and genuine. If there ever was a perfect love, Noble would definitely fit that bill for sure.

The only thing that bothers me, is the fact that Charlotte still can't let go of that little piece of her that Jason Leer still has a hold of. Even when she's with Noble, there's a moment or a space in her both her head and her heart, where she isn't with him and it just doesn't seem very fair to him. It is so very clear that he is all in and she's going along with him, because it's easy and it feels good. There's nothing hard or manipulative or emotionally abusive about the love that she shares with Noble. 

It was hard watching Charlotte fall apart after learning about what Jason had done to her and then watching herself slowly knit her heart and spirit back together, with Nobles gentle love and kindness. The realistic portrayal of raw heartache and torture that one goes through when they endure the fall out of such a tumultuous and emotionally gripping relationship, is one of the things that draws me to Freed's books and keeps me hanging on until the last page has been read. It's gorgeously dark, intense, and so amazingly hopeful while at the same time being sad, wistful, and surreal. You don't just read her books, you feel them all the way through from the beginning until the end.

There is so much growth and evolution and forgiveness and finding oneself in this book, that it's hard not to immerse yourself in it and wade out into the deep end along with the characters as they take that plunge. If you're looking for a book that will give you ALL OF THE FEELS then I suggest this one.

Full review coming soon.

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Eliza Freed graduated from Rutgers University and returned to her hometown in rural South Jersey. Her mother encouraged her to take some time and find herself. After three months of searching, she began to bounce checks and her neighbors began to talk; her mother told her to find a job. 

She settled into Corporate America, learning systems and practices and the bureaucracy that slows them. Eliza quickly discovered her creativity and gift for story telling as a corporate trainer and spent years perfecting her presentation skills and studying diversity. It’s during this time she became an avid observer of the characters we meet and the heartaches we endure. Her years of study have taught her laughter is the key to survival, even when it’s completely inappropriate.

She currently lives in New Jersey with her family and a misbehaving beagle named Odin. An avid swimmer, if Eliza is not with her family and friends, she’d rather be underwater. While she enjoys many genres, she has always been a sucker for a love story...the more screwed up the better.

Please stop by and visit her on her Goodreads page and don't forget to fan her as well!

Book Review: Forgive Me (Lost Souls, #1) by Eliza Freed

Forgive Me (Lost Souls, #1)
Eliza Freed

Published: July 4, 2014

Publisher: Forever Publishing
Age Demographic: New Adult Contemporary

Pages: 368

When two lost souls find each other, are they still lost?

Charlotte O'Brien is lost in the devastation of her parents' death. With her foundation in ruins, she buries herself in an unlikely lover, Jason Leer.

When they're together it's everything, but when they're apart it's utterly frustrating. Can love survive when distance is measured in more than just miles?

Forgive Me is the first book in The Lost Souls Series.

To Order Forgive Me (Lost Souls, #1) 
by Eliza Freed 
please visit: Amazon & Barnes&Noble

(Note: I received a copy of this book via the publisher, in exchange for an honest review which I have posted here on the blog and on Goodreads.)

Emotionally compelling and incredibly intense, Forgive Me will leave you breathless and anticipating more. Eliza Freed has cornered the New Adult market on writing completely obsessive and dysfunctional romance. Jason Leer isn't one of my favorite characters, I found him to be completely controlling, manipulative, and an all around ass in the way he treated Charlotte. There were moments in the book where I wanted her to realize just how unhealthy their relationship really was. I swear, I just wanted to shake her shoulders and tell to wake up, because there was a much better guy staring her in the face and she never looked twice at him that way once.

Noble Sinclare is one incredibly hot, swoon-worthy guy that would be absolutely perfect for Charlotte if she would just open her eyes. He knows her and it's apparently obvious how much he cares for her. He's the one who could best take care of her, without expecting her to just completely uproot her life and be someone she's not. He certainly wouldn't do to her what Jason did over some stupid fight they had about which function they were going to.

Charlotte is an angry mess right now and that is understandable, given the fact that she just lost both her parents and then hopped into this crazy intense relationship as a way of avoiding the whole grieving process. I sort of have a love hate relationship with this character, but I do like her quite a bit. I'm just not necessarily crazy about some of the choices that she makes in the way that she lets Jason make her feel guilty. This is part of the charm in her character, because her faults make her a little more human and achingly vulnerable. It's a breath of fresh air to read a complicated love story as this one written so realistically that you almost feel a personal connection to it. That's always something that I look for in a book, something that grips me, and makes me reel back in a million and one different ways.

After Noble, Charlotte's friends were probably my second favorite thing about this book, because there were many of them and they each had their own facets and quirks that made me stand out and shine brilliantly on the pages. I love the way they rallied around Charlotte, knew what she needed, and wasn't afraid to tell her what they thought even if it meant an argument because they were doing it as means of having her back and taking care of her in the process. Good friends like family are hard to come by and the honesty that this lot showed was pretty amazing. Charlotte's relationship with her brother was also endearing to read about, because the level of care and love was so apparent between the two. I'll admit I might have chuckled a time or two, when he was trying to buy her a Hummer because he needed her to be safe and he couldn't lose one more person who was that important in his life. As over-protective as he was in a sense, he was really sweet and enjoyable as a character.

As hot and steamy as I like my romance books to be, I have to say that my only little minor frustration with this novel was the amount of sex that was written into it. For a second, I almost felt as if I was reading Fifty Shades and nearly put the book down. Luckily, I came to my senses and decided to keep on reading it. It's not that I have problem with sex written in books in general, with this particular story it was more to the point of it feeling like that's all that there was between Charlotte and Jason and that just didn't sit too well with me. I get that sex is an important and healthy part of a loving relationship and I'm completely fine with that and fine with reading it, but when it starts being all consuming with more of physical nature to the relationship and less about talking and actually communicating on an emotional level that's where I sort of start to draw the line. There needs to be a little bit more of a healthy balance there, in the relationship. As I mentioned before, Charlotte jumped into this crazy intense controlling relationship with Jason, without giving herself enough time to properly grieve the loss of her parents. I wish she would have taken a step back and let herself go through that experience, before deciding that she was all in whatever she was carrying on with that Leer boy.

Forgive Me isn't an easy read in the least little bit. It's messy, complicated, addictive, highly emotional, and definitely manipulative in many ways. It will drag your emotions through the gamut and then leave them gutted. If you are looking for a New Adult romance that will leave you burning in the darkest parts, then this is the book that you'll want to sink into. Eliza Freed does a brilliant job of illustrating just how addictive and emotionally intense a dysfunctional romance can be. Her characters shine on the pages, her writing is beautifully imaginative, and the cliffhanger will leave you gasping for more.

Website Twitter Facebook

Eliza Freed graduated from Rutgers University and returned to her hometown in rural South Jersey. Her mother encouraged her to take some time and find herself. After three months of searching, she began to bounce checks and her neighbors began to talk; her mother told her to find a job. 

She settled into Corporate America, learning systems and practices and the bureaucracy that slows them. Eliza quickly discovered her creativity and gift for story telling as a corporate trainer and spent years perfecting her presentation skills and studying diversity. It’s during this time she became an avid observer of the characters we meet and the heartaches we endure. Her years of study have taught her laughter is the key to survival, even when it’s completely inappropriate.

She currently lives in New Jersey with her family and a misbehaving beagle named Odin. An avid swimmer, if Eliza is not with her family and friends, she’d rather be underwater. While she enjoys many genres, she has always been a sucker for a love story...the more screwed up the better.

Please stop by and visit her on her Goodreads page and don't forget to fan her as well!

Release Week Blitz: Save Me (Lost Souls, #3) by Eliza Freed

Guys, I'm super excited to be a part of the Save Me Release Week Blitz, for the Lost Souls Trilogy by Eliza Freed. I'm already a little more than half way finished with the first book in this amazing New Adult contemporary series, Forgive Me, and I absolutely cannot put it down or read fast enough to see what happens next. It is literally that captivating and enthralling. So far, I think my favorite character is Noble Sinclaire! 

Oh my god! Can we say swoon-worthy times ten, because seriously this boy is brilliantly amazing. I am in love with him and I can't wait to get to the next book, Redeem Me, in this bold, edgy, and wonderfully written trilogy so that I can read more about him. I can't even words properly, I'm that excited. Charlotte, is absolutely something else. An angry mess, is the first thing that comes to mind, and then this crazy abusive obsessively intense relationship she's embroiled in with Jason Leer in the first book is just utterly...ugh! I mean, I don't like the guy let's just put it that way. I'm definitely a Noble Sinclaire girl, first and foremost. 

This is a messy, complicated, and intensely amazing New Adult trilogy that is definitely worth reading. I almost want to say that it's unlike in anything else I've ever read in New Adult and yet at the same time, I feel like I've read something similar. There are aspects about it so far, that have definitely tested my comfort zone and challenge me, but I'm totally fine with doing that. It's all about diversity this year and I'm embracing it as much as I can. So, I can't wait to continue my journey through this series and see what happens in the stunning and breath taking conclusion, Save Me. 

Enough of my rambling, let tell you what this book is about...

Save Me (Lost Souls, #3)
Eliza Freed

Published: July 4, 2014

Publisher: Forever Publishing
Age Demographic: New Adult Contemporary

Pages: 368

"You need to be careful with perfection. It's brilliant at hiding its flaws." 

Having lost everything she holds dear—and then some—Charlotte O'Brien had almost given up hope. Until an unepexted love opened her heart to the possibility of second chances. 

But now, will Charlotte be brave enough to take the risk that love be enough to save her wounded soul?

The stunning conclusion to Eliza Freed's provocative Lost Souls series.

To purchase a copy of Save Me (Lost Souls, #3) by Eliza Freed please visit: Amazon & Barnes&Noble.

Need a little more enticement?!
Check out this scorching excerpt from Save Me (Lost Souls, #3) by Eliza Freed.

Excerpt from Save Me (Lost Souls, #3)
Written by Eliza Freed

“This is going to end soon and I don’t want to be without you. I can’t be.” This cannot be happening. “You don’t love him.”

“Why is it so hard for you to believe that I do? I do love him,” I snap at him. I don’t know how I’m capable of loving anyone after a tour with you, but I love him.

“Because with every cell of my body I know you belong to me. Next to me, on top of me.” I swallow hard at the thought of him beneath me. “Inside of you.”

“I get the picture.”

“And because I know that. Because it’s true. You can’t be in love with him.”

“You didn’t want to pull me away from New York City? You so selflessly fucked Stephanie Harding to make sure I ended up where I belong, but now you’ll have me leave Noble? You are fucked up,” I spit at him.

“If you give us a chance, I will never let you go again. I promise. Annie, you’ve got to give us another chance. You’ve got to know it’s not a life unless we’re together.”

The waitress brings our food and Jason and I just stare at each other. I am baffled. I hate him. I love him. I want him…to leave.

“I want you to go away with me when this is over.”

“What will be left of me? You think it will be enough for you. If I hurt Noble like that, I won’t be the same person. You wouldn’t want me.”

“Impossible,” he scoffs. We sit in silence until he finally takes a bite of his sandwich. I eat a little and stare at my glass of tea. I wish I could be drunk, unconscious actually. I’m no longer capable of living my life. Not this one, at least.

“You’re always sure of everything. Even when you’re wrong you’re sure,” I say,watching him finish his meal, completely unaffected by his plot to ruin my life, and Noble’s, and probably my brother’s because why should he be exempt from this torture. “I’m never sure of anything. Do you know why?” 

Jason looks at me, bracing himself for what’s coming.

“Because the last person I was sure of, I was completely wrong about. I never thought you would be capable of doing what you did. How could you?” 

Jason just stares at me, taking every word he deserves.

“How could you put your hands on her? Put your dick in her?” I lower my voice. There’s no need to yell; it’s grotesque without the dramatics.

“I guess you were lying when you said you forgave me,” he says.

“This is what you’re asking me to turn Noble into. A person who no longer believes in anything he’s ever known.”

“What I’m asking has nothing to do with Sinclair. He put himself between us. That’s his problem. He knew I wanted you back the entire time,” Jason says, taking money out and putting it on the table for lunch. “I’m asking you to let yourself be happy. Let yourself believe in me again because I sure as hell know you want to.”

I stand up from the table and start walking. I don’t stop until I get to my car, but as usual Jason is there one step before me, blocking my door.

“You’re making every single day of this nightmare even harder,” I say.

“I think the exact same thing about you. Going home to that house every night.” The cruelty of today continues as Jason leans into me and places his lips on mine and some internal sob caves my chest in and steals my breath. He puts his hands above my head, leaning on the Volvo behind me, and separates my lips with his tongue. And I let him. I let him in, in every way. My blood courses through me and throbs everywhere as I give in to what my hands and my mouth and lips have wanted for months. I wrap my arms around his neck and he pulls me to him.

I pull his hair and my tongue takes over my thoughts.

I pull away from him. His eyes are ravenous. He will take me right here in this parking lot if I let him.

“It doesn’t change a thing,” I croak out. “You knew all of that before my body told you.”

“I did, but now you know it, too,” he says, and takes the keys from me to drive us home.

Home…

The ride is long and silent. Betrayal sits between us and contemplates how many lives Jason and Charlotte can ruin, their own apparently not enough for them. I lean my head on the cool window and focus on the sky as the almost full moon rises. It’s not even four o’clock yet. The supermoon will be here in a few days. What lunacy will it bestow upon us?

“I love you, Annie,” Jason says, and I never take my eyes off the moon. I never turn to him or acknowledge he spoke. Through with the talking, done with the truth. Let him know everything. Now I want to know nothing.

© 2015 Eliza Freed. From Save Me by Eliza Freed, published by Forever Yours.
All rights reserved.

Dear Charlotte, 
Please, please, please don't break Noble's heart because he doesn't deserve that. He deserves to be happy and so do you, I hope you both can find a way to be happy with each other. Jason Leer doesn't deserve any inch of you!
Love, Me!

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About the Author

Website Twitter Facebook

Eliza Freed graduated from Rutgers University and returned to her hometown in rural South Jersey. Her mother encouraged her to take some time and find herself. After three months of searching, she began to bounce checks and her neighbors began to talk; her mother told her to find a job. 

She settled into Corporate America, learning systems and practices and the bureaucracy that slows them. Eliza quickly discovered her creativity and gift for story telling as a corporate trainer and spent years perfecting her presentation skills and studying diversity. It’s during this time she became an avid observer of the characters we meet and the heartaches we endure. Her years of study have taught her laughter is the key to survival, even when it’s completely inappropriate.

She currently lives in New Jersey with her family and a misbehaving beagle named Odin. An avid swimmer, if Eliza is not with her family and friends, she’d rather be underwater. While she enjoys many genres, she has always been a sucker for a love story...the more screwed up the better.

Please stop by and visit her on her Goodreads page and don't forget to fan her as well!

EARLY BOOK REVIEW: TUMBLE & FALL BY ALEXANDRA COUTTS

Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts

Published: September 17, 2013

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR)

Age Demographic: YA Sci-Fi Contemp

Pages: 384

A novel about the end of days full of surprising beginnings...

The world is living in the shadow of oncoming disaster. An asteroid is set to strike the earth in just one week’s time; catastrophe is unavoidable. The question isn’t how to save the world—the question is, what to do with the time that's left? Against this stark backdrop, three island teens wrestle with intertwining stories of love, friendship and family—all with the ultimate stakes at hand.

Alexandra Coutts's TUMBLE & FALL is a powerful story of courage, love, and hope at the end of the world.

To Purchase Tumble & Fall by

 Alexandra Coutts: Amazon

Tumble & Fall is a new post-apocalyptic young adult novel that you will either enjoy or not. More intellectual than emotional, Alexandra Coutts has created a world that will leave you with some thought provoking scenarios as the novel draws itself to a close. It's a beautiful coming of age story where love, friendship, family, and hope play an important key role at the end of the world. The characters voices shine through the pages, as their courage and bravery takes them further in life. Although, the dual point of views can leave things a bit confusing at times, I still found it to be an inspirational story of hope, faith, love, and beauty.

Coutts did a wonderful job of showcasing the journey that each of the three main characters took throughout the course of this novel. There is an emotional connection that I was able to share with each of them, however, I did feel as if the intellectual aspect was more prominent throughout. That only made the novel that more entertaining and compelling, in my opinion. This is a heart breaking and inspiring story, of finding the courage to discover who you are, love to the tips of your fingers and beyond the telling, of learning to go back home and simply say goodbye to the family that you have only discovered you love. There is so much beautiful potential wrapped up in each of the characters storylines, that you can't help but feel something for them.

Coutts has written a very thoughtful, emotional, and intellectual contemporary post-apocalyptic novel that will stay with readers in many ways, whether it's good or bad. It's incredibly realistic in the sense that these characters have known what was going to happen all along and are resigned to their fate. No one is going to be spared and they all have the same end result to look forward to. If you are a fan of contemporary novels that deal with self-discovery, love, and life altering decisions, but you're not crazy about post-apocalyptic or dystopian novels then this is the book that I would suggest to you. I actually found myself enjoying it quite a bit more than I realized I would. While it still had a few drawbacks and things that I felt held further potential, all in all I think it was a pretty good read.

I would suggest that you either pick up a copy for yourself, borrow it from a friend or the library, and find out for yourself whether or not it's going to be a book for you.

Website  Twitter & Goodreads

Alexandra Bullen Coutts has been a playwright, waitress, barista, gardener, script reader, yoga instructor and personal assistant. She grew up in Massachusetts, went to college in New York City, and lives most of the year full time on Martha’s Vineyard.

BOOK REVIEW: EYES EVER TO THE SKY BY KATIE FRENCH

Eyes Ever to the Sky by Katie French

Published: April 9, 2013

Publisher: Self-Published

Age Demographic: YA Sci-Fi Fantasy

Pages: 192

When Hugh wakes up in a smoldering crater—no memory, no clothes—a single thought echoes in his head…trust no one. Frightened and alone, with no memory of who he is, he stumbles upon a grisly murder scene and is fatally shot. He wakes, only to find he can heal himself. He has superpowers, and he’s going to need them.

Desperate and bleeding, Hugh stumbles upon fifteen-year-old Cece, who’s got enough troubles of her own. Between caring for her bipolar mother and trying not to get evicted from her run-down trailer, Cece may be the only person struggling as much as Hugh. Drawn to Hugh, Cece finds a love she’s never known. But when the real killer—a man-hunting beast—chooses another victim, Hugh and Cece realize they must unlock the clues to their past if they have any chance at a future.

To Purchase Eyes Ever to the Sky by Katie French: Amazon

Eyes Ever to the Sky is a quick read with potential for an interesting plot and likable characters. Conceptually it was inspired in some ways, but in other's I tend to feel as if it kind of missed the mark a little bit. Katie French's writing style is one where the reader will either like or not, making it a bit hard to enjoy the book as one normally would. It isn't uninspired by any means necessarily, but it is or was actually harder for me to really connect with the characters on an emotional level, in the way that I normally love to while reading. They just seemed to need a bit more tweaking, a little more development, and backstory to balance things out.

Novels, such as Eyes Ever to the Sky, are ones that I typically fall for and it was a bit of a let down when this one didn't live up to my expectations. I don't know, maybe I had set them a little too high, but this book just didn't seem to pull me in as much as I hoped it would have. The characters were slightly interesting, but there wasn't enough development there for me to really easily connect with them in the way that I would have normally liked to. I found the sci-fi elements of this novel to be a bit lacking as well, or well, I don't know if that's the right word to use or not. I wanted more of an explanation regarding Hugh, more of an understanding regarding him and his people.

The whirlwind romance that seemed to form rather quickly between Cece and Hugh, was another thing that seemed to put me off as far as this novel is concerned. I can't say that I'm a big fan of insta-love, in any capacity, which is another reason that I gave this book a lower rating than I normally would have. I have a feeling that if French would have just slowed down the quick romance and focused more on developing the characters, introducing background knowledge, and building the potential even higher for the premise of this novel that it would have been a lot more enjoyable than I personally found it to be.

On the whole, the beginning of this novel, started out as a promising and intriguing read. Soon after that, though, it started to tumble down hill for me. However, with that being said, I have to point to some obvious goodness that did come out of this book, like the beautiful prose that lent itself to some pretty imagery. French definitely has a way with words and they helped to paint a chillingly dark and scary atmosphere that evoked some intense feels from me while reading certain parts of the novel. I did enjoy, that while amidst the bleak and dreary atmosphere, there was also some wonderfully beautiful and intensely poetic vivid details brought to light that may have otherwise been missed.

Eyes Ever to the Sky was an enjoyable book, it just wasn't the novel that I was expecting to blow me away, when I read the promising synopsis. Again, perhaps, I expected too much out of this novel. The thing is, I really wanted to be blown away, I wanted it to be better than it was. The dark and dreary paranormal aspect, the sci-fi elements, those were all filled with so much potential that I feel just wasn't tapped as much as it should have been. Perhaps, Katie French, will continue this story and the sophomore novel will be better, maybe Eyes Ever to the Sky will turn out to be like City of Bones or The Vampire Academy and will function as the book that sets up the premise to what could potentially be a fantastic new young adult paranormal sci-fi trilogy. In any case, this is what I am hoping, and I will definitely be sticking around for the second book in the trilogy, to see if the background and development that I was so craving in this novel shows up in the next one. I don't want to give up on what could turn out to be a really intriguing series.

For those who enjoy quick, fast paced paranormal romance, I would say to go ahead and give this book a chance, and then decide for yourself what you make of it.

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Katie French imagined herself an author when her poem caught the eye of her second grade teacher. In middle school she spent her free time locked in her room, writing her first young adult novel. Though her social life suffered, her love for literature thrived. She studied English at Eastern Michigan University, where she veered from writing and earned an education degree. She spent nine years teaching high school English. Currently she is a school counselor, doing a job that is both one of the hardest things she's ever done and the most rewarding. In her free time she writes, reads great books and takes care of her two beautiful and crazy children. She is a contributor and co-creator of Underground Book Reviews, a website dedicated to erasing the boundaries between traditional and non-traditional publishing. She lives in Michigan with her husband and two children.