As I Wake (Breaking Fate Collection Book 2) by Sarah DiCello
Genre: YA Historical Romance with a time travel twist
Publisher: Taylor Street Books
Number of pages: 200
Word Count: 60,000
Cover Artist: Heather Moreland
Synopsis
Readers entranced by As I Close My Eyes will
once again be thrust into the enchanting life of Danielle Grayson in As I Wake, the second
book in the Breaking Fate collection.
A secret of Dani’s past is revealed and she must
find the answers before it’s too late. Can she change the fate of
her one true love or will he suffer the same destiny for all of time?
As Dani rekindles her relationship
with Ben she finds herself torn between her present day life in Sugar
Hill, Georgia and a new past she has yet to discover. But something in her past makes her question the journey she
has chosen. Time is running out and she is the only one who can understand
the path that must be taken. But will it be enough? Has the story of
Dani and Ben been written in stone never to be undone?
Book 2 Excerpt
Something is digging into my spine. A pebble? No. A piece of glass? Maybe, but it’s round and dull. And I’m wet. Just underneath my head, although I can feel water slowly making its way down my neck and into my back, saturating every fiber of fabric. Shadows move in between rays of fading evening sun from a window just above my head. Someone is talking. It’s a man. Again, a voice I recognize. I must have passed out and can feel Ben’s hands on my shoulders gently shaking me. As soon as I hear his name in my head I’m relaxed and the cold, wetness beneath me no longer matters. Nor does the object piercing my lower back. I’m lying on a wood floor moving the tips of my fingers in and out of the deep grooves in the planks. My ring finger stops on a nail sticking out of one of the floorboards. The head of the nail is round like the object making an indent in my skin.“Elizabeth. Can you hear me?” Shouts a dark figure hovering over me.I find myself in the same precarious situation in this black hole of time travel. I can’t speak, though I know in a few moments I will be able to sit up and assess the situation. I assume that I went deeply into Cape May again, but oddly don’t remember a bit of it. Is it me they are calling? It can't be. I'm Caroline, not Elizabeth.Everything looks different as I blink my eyes open and catch glimpses of the scenery around me. It’s dark and smoke has filled the air. I can faintly make out faces in front of me and feel brushes of clothing against my cheeks as people try to get closer.These faces aren’t familiar. Where is Rebecca? Where’s Grace? Who has Grace? I can feel my heart beat faster and faster, sending me into a shutter of anxiety. I keep my eyes open for a few more seconds, longer than I’ve been able to so far. Everything looks strange.When am I?
As I Wake, Book 2 by Sarah DiCello
My rating: 4 of 5 starsBackground: As I Wake picks up where the story left off in As I Close My Eyes, Dani is still having her dreams, only now she is living a different past. We have left Cape May and are now in 1920's New Orleans. Dani is trying to figure out why she continues to have these dreams and what they are trying to tell her.
Review: There may be some spoilers to book one, so please be aware as you continue reading. I found book 2 a little better than book 1 in this series, I was used to the instant love thing already which made it an easier read than the first. Danielle is starting to figure out what her dreams mean and why she is having them and I like the explanation rather than just the dreams like in book 1. I enjoyed the growing relationship between Dani and Eric as well as Dani finding out more about her father and brother through herself. I think the character development in As I Wake was stronger than in book 1.
I again had a few dislikes, mostly with common sense issues of the characters, like ...yes it is fine to take a parents car and tell them you are going an hour away and then take an 8 hour trip, and yes lighting candles in a dusty bookstore is a GREAT idea (can you hear the sarcasm as I type?). I would love to see how the story ends, it seems like as the story progresses the author does a better job of fixing some of these issues little by little, but we will see.
This read does have some steamy bits and is more of a romance than anything. I think that a lot of people will enjoy the book regardless of these issues, it was a quick and easy read and I was able to fly through it
.
As I Close My Eyes(Breaking Fate Collection Book 1)
Genre: historical YA with a time
travel twist
Synopsis
You know you
are alive, but what if you are dead?
Danielle Grayson is a beautiful, intelligent young woman in present-day Georgia, but when she closes her eyes, she becomes someone else in a different time, one hundred years earlier in fact.
Danielle's other life is as entrancing and romantic as her current one, and the contrast between the lifestyles is intriguing and enlightening (they didn't have iPods in 19th century USA, apparently), but what starts out as being dreamlike soon becomes real and strangely familiar.
Worse, whatever happens to her as Danielle seems to change the past, if it is a true past.
And when she finds she is not alone in being able to flip between the two worlds, life, love and death become really disturbing.
Danielle Grayson is a beautiful, intelligent young woman in present-day Georgia, but when she closes her eyes, she becomes someone else in a different time, one hundred years earlier in fact.
Danielle's other life is as entrancing and romantic as her current one, and the contrast between the lifestyles is intriguing and enlightening (they didn't have iPods in 19th century USA, apparently), but what starts out as being dreamlike soon becomes real and strangely familiar.
Worse, whatever happens to her as Danielle seems to change the past, if it is a true past.
And when she finds she is not alone in being able to flip between the two worlds, life, love and death become really disturbing.
Book 1 Trailer
As I Close My Eyes, Book 1 by Sarah DiCello
My rating: 3 of 5 starsBackground: Danielle is an 18 year old girl who is living a normal life in Georgia, attending college and hanging out with the same group of friends she has had since she was young. On the first day of summer she has a nasty fall and gives herself a concussion and then begins having very weird realistic dreams about people in another time period. A few weeks later, on a weekend trip with her best friend, she sees a man that looks oddly familiar but she cannot place him, until she realizes that he is from her weird dreams.
Review: I have some likes and some dislikes with this book and I am a little torn about it. So I liked the plot it was interesting, I have read a few really bad time travel books and this one is interesting because it is more a dream state than time travel, so it was very cool to witness the occurrences taking place.
I disliked the romance, and there is a lot of romance. I found it very teenage 'OMG I AM SOOOOOO IN LOVE WITH YOU!' And it is supposed to be an 18 year old and a 26 year old. The age difference was fine, whatever, but the instant love was weird, I can understand a physical attraction but not an immediate feeling that you know everything about someone and you met them a week ago (I have been with my husband for years and we still learn things about one another...)So that was a downfall for this one.
I think Danielle is naive and has an issue with confidence which is kind of annoying but she does gain some composure through the story. Ben is very passionate and romantic and I have a feeling more female readers will swoon over him. Danielle's friends are a little annoying and stereotypical, you have the beautiful oblivious bestie, her arrogant boyfriend, and another guy friend who as we all know is friend-zoned for life.
I kept reading to hear more about the other time period and find some resolution as to why Danielle is experiencing this strange ability...sadly no explanation was available in book one...so I am reading on. I will let you know how that goes.
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Sarah DiCello is new to Taylor Street. She writes fantasy / romance. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. She graduated from Shippensburg University with a degree in Communications/Journalism.
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