Unblemished
Author: Sara Ella
Series: Unblemished, #1
Publication Date: October 11th, 2016
Publisher: Thomas Nelson/Harper Collins
Synopsis: 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?
My Review
Unblemished by Sara Ella has a lot of world building that really made me enjoy reading the book. The way that the areas are described, especially the new world that Ella finds herself in. It’s incredible, the amount of detail that is put on the setting of this novel, as well as the characters and the plot. The way things are described is the perfect amount of in-depth – not too much, which makes the story seem long, drawn out, and boring, and not too little, where you feel like you don’t really know any of the characters in the book or what the setting is really like. The author has a great balance here, and it worked well.
I did have a difficult time getting into this book…it seemed like we are thrust right into the midst of the action where Joshua is taking over as Eliyana’s legal guardian. I guess I wished there would have been a little more background and build up before that happened, because it just seemed so sudden, and I had a difficult time really appreciating that until I got further into the book.
This really takes a great dip into the fantasy world, after starting out as what you would think was a normal contemporary. I enjoyed how the two seemed to get mashed together and come up with something completely original and out of the ordinary.
Overall, this was an interesting read for sure. I look forward to the next book.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the Book Look Bloggers Program in exchange for an honest review.
