Review: From Destruction to Phoenix…Masterfully Written...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2014
Finding your true home is a hell of a lot more complicated that you think it is.  Mostly because the home you think you’ve found in your childhood is often radically different from your adult years.  Also, finding home is a two way street.  You not only have to claim your home, but it has to claim you in return.  And until that claiming happens, it can be torture to try to find some level of comfort in your own skin.  Watching the world go by with the distinct feeling of being incomplete, astray and untethered.We pick up with Noelle Winters essentially where we left her in Obsession – she is grieving, profoundly broken and floating from one day to the next in a murky haze of panic attacks and pain.  As the nightmares continue to increase in frequency and severity, Jax is left with no choice but to seek alternative methods for bringing Noelle back from the precipice.We are introduced to Masters Cal Henley and Blue at The Manor.  When Noelle is able to bring her radically shifted world into focus it’s clear that she has been irrevocably changed and must once again alter her life course to compensate.  Cal and Blue set up a tag team approach of mind and body to assist her in this goal.It’s a complicated thing to be brought a thoroughly damaged woman and try to assist her in once again not only gaining control of her life, but her identity.  Cal has extraordinary powers of observation and intuition, which he is able to use to help Noelle refocus her attention from self-judgment to rebirth.  Blue is able to break down her flawed concept of self and replace it with a vision much closer to those who love her as the strong, independent, smart, creative and sassy woman she is at her core.Ivory Quinn has, again, crafted a brilliant story, perhaps even more so in Redemption than Obsession for the incredible depth and breadth covered.  She takes readers into the innermost recesses of Noelle’s transformation from destruction to Mistress Red.  We get front row seats as Noelle rises from the deepest pit of ashes to full blown, gorgeous phoenix and the transformation is not only glorious to watch but humbling.  To watch this woman take hold of her life and make it her own once again is a privilege.Between the intense heat, beautifully spun story, spectacular characters and masterfully measured flow and arc, Quinn has gained me as a reader for life.