Self-Published: J. Woods (@jwoodsauthor) 30 October, 2013 (e-book version)
Official Author Websites: Site | Facebook | Twitter
Converse via: #GildedFeathers
Available Formats: E-Book (Soft-cover forthcoming)
Page Count: 341
Acquired Book By: When I was first approached through the Book Blogging Community by self-published author J. Woods to read her paranormal romance Gilded Feathers I was most esteemed! The story sparked the series which followed known as “the Gilded Feathers” and the premise is quite supernaturally enticing! I received a complimentary ARC direct from the author herself, J. Woods in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Author Biography:
J. Woods is a Toronto based writer, mother, and non-conformist. She lives between the space of her green tea and humming laptop when she isn’t chasing after her free spirited daughter. She has studied too many things to count including radio broadcasting and entrepreneurship. Grasping at sanity, she realized writing stories about her insane thoughts was easier than explaining them to a doctor. Not to mention cheaper.
Book Synopsis:
An alluring choice. A fantastical revelation. But what if it changed… everything? Familiar with the art of the nightmare, twenty-two year old university student Cole Evans can’t help but feel a deep connection to the horrifying illusions of her slumber. Irrevocably drawn to obscure fantasy, Cole faces a defiant temptation of romance and her first encounter with the mysterious Drex. Covered in tattoos, she unexpectedly finds herself attracted to his dark magnetism and emerald eyes. Before her life takes an impossible turn. Uncovering Drex’s true Guardian identity, she is forced on a terrifying journey through the stars into his world – one that brilliantly weaves together the struggle of danger and desire. And the impossible reality of gilded feathers.
My Review of Gilded Feathers:
There is an urgency to the author’s opening chapter, where you truly feel empathic towards a character you have only just encountered, without yet knowing a name to the face and feel compelled to protect them outright because they are being violently attacked without cause! Woods finds a way to pull in the audience without having a traditional entrance into the story as you’re led along seeing what the lead character sees in the moment of being cast out in the dark and cold streets where innocent souls are not meant to travel alone. And, yet the opening is just the first portal into how Collette (Cole)’s life is far more unique and layered in mystery than meets the eye!
The one bit I found truly interesting is how Woods chooses to characterise and actualise Cole’s conscience through the symbolism and expression of the devil and angel on her shoulders. To bring out of her head so to speak the thought processes of choosing one action over another and for having a moral marker as a guide-point to know when and where she might be going against her heart and soul. She wants you to understand Cole from the inside-out in order to follow her process of what is happening to her which is not altogether normal or plausible at first. Most of the first half of the book is taken up with the regular goings-on of University life (a la dorm or sorority-type escapades and of girls who are infatuated with their Professors) whilst still providing a glimpse into the mindset of Cole & Chloe and how their friendship works into their dynamic as partners in crime.
The dreams Cole experiences go from brutal physical pain to intense domestic violence by the second attack where she nearly doesn’t escape without injury to both body and spirit. I was having trouble following the story at that point on page 99 as most of what was leading up to that particular moment was her life at the University and sorting out her place within her peer group as much as falling for her Professor. I was at first thinking they might be premonitions or precognitive dreams about other people’s lives but it felt jarring to me to shift from one reality into the reality of the dreams.
I think the story would be better served in the hands of a reader who understands this type of paranormal medium of narrative. I simply could not get my footing to alight where it needed to be in order to best understand the story overall and convey my observations therein. Due to the nature of the story I do not recommend this for young adults as it is is most decidedly adult in content and nature of dialogue.
A notation about YA Paranormal & Adult Paranormal stories:
{a wrinkle or two of a ‘Fly in the Ointment’}
This book blogger has come to the conclusion that she’s a YA Paranormal reader NOT an Adult Paranormal reader, if for the sole reason of avoiding the corrosive language and intense innuendos towards vulgarity, crude humour, and gestures made in the adult side of the paranormal ledger. As I had not had previous knowledge of the main differences between the two branches, I accepted this book for review as well as a few others which are threaded through the categories and Story Vault. To be honest, my own wanderings up until this point were far, far more tame and although contained a heap of heat spun out of love, the less vulgarity of inclusion within a story is the best for me! I’m not a prude, but I’m not a girl who likes to read vulgar words and/or have insinuations that run counter-current to her personal tastes. I erred in this one regard in not realising the differences set to the standard of the two genres, as I suppose I was innocent in thinking that not every paranormal book I’d pick up could possibly have this much vulgarity inside it!
Alas, the books I gravitate towards the most are not only on the cosy side of paranormal (give me ghosts, give me undead spirits who are caught in-between life & death or even humans gifted with parapsychological gifts) but they are the stories which do not make my eyes cringe denoting ‘another’ abrasive expression or word that could quite literally make my great-grandmother question my sensibility! I’d rather read a guttingly honest story with devastatingly horrific drama than any story fitted to the max with words that I do not even use in my everyday life. Words whilst reading them silently still have the innate ability of making my eyes turn to ash as they are read.
Therefore, if I am approached to read Adult Paranormal stories I will whole-heartedly have to turn the offer down on the grounds that I have experienced enough of the genre and have politely moved on. In other words, I will seek out YA Paranormal stories for review instead and keep the few paranormal authors, book series, and stand-alone stories I have thus found to my liking as ones to carry-on forward reading. This is a classic example of ‘to live and to learn’. And, since I am on the subject, I am not even going to broach a breath of an idea at entertaining the notion of “New Adult”! I therefore from this moment onward have updated my Review Policy!
And, despite saying all of that I am still proud of this collage
I made as a surprise for J. Woods:
This book review is courtesy of the author J. Woods.
check out my upcoming bookish events and mark your calendars!
{SOURCES: Book Covers for the Gilded Feathers series, J. Woods author photograph, author biography, book synopsis, and series synopsis were provided by Ms. Woods and were used by permission. Collage of the Gilded Feathers series & of the series synopsis created by Jorie in PicMonkey. Book Review badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.
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