Review: Amazing
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 20, 2012
AwakenedAwakened has a theme of simplicity and beauty about it. Not every novel that is attention grabbing and exciting needs to be tremendously complex or overpoweringly twisting. There is a simple kind of beauty to this novel, since Sandra Ross writes well. In fact, her descriptions of the characters truly made the entire story come alive before my eyes- I could almost see scenario after scenario unfold before me like on a movie screen. This is what I enjoy so much about Sandra Ross's books in general, however- she never under does the descriptions, which is always a plus in any kind of good piece of literature. After all, the goal of a book is to tell a story with as much realistic factoring as possible, meaning it should describe to the reader in the best possible way what exactly transpired and convince him or her to believe the tale no matter how wild or crazy it may actually seem.However, besides being so descriptive and realistic, Sandra Ross also captured, as already mentioned, the artistic simplicity of a clear, meaningful story that is not overwhelmed by unrelated complicating factors that do little to ease the reader's confusion in following through the tale and understanding it better. What is the point of reading something, any piece of writing, in fact, if all it does is bring you more head straining probabilities and occurrences that are difficult to keep track of? Personally, I believe that a novel should never overwhelm the reader's mind. On the opposite hand, it should inspire him or her to ponder what more there could be to the story while still keeping fresh on what is going on and what kind of events are in the near or distant future according to clever foreshadowing. Because Awakened is a romantic tale, there is not always an endless amount of possibilities to consider, but life can take on many different directions and courses at nearly any moment in reality and thus the story twists and turns accordingly as well. This very realistic factor makes sure that the reader is kept steadily on his or her toes all throughout the read and never begins to feel as though his or her mind is starting to wander off or slip away. It is always best to keep the reader on track of what the story is suggesting and very aware of the things that can transpire at any moment. This realization and understanding is what makes Sandra Ross such a great author- she truly has figured out what it is that a reader typically tends to seek out within a romantic thriller. The incorporation of vampires was a nice modern touch as well.