Monday, October 31, 2011

Review of Pulse of Heroes by A. Jacob Sweeny




Pulse Of Heroes (The Pulse #1)

Pulse of Heroes by A. Jacob Sweeny
Paperback509 pages Kindle Edition by Thalamus Press

*This book was given to me for review. I was not compensated for my review. All opinions expressed are mine.  A Part of  Romancing Your Dark Side Book Tour.*
The Blurb:
A suspenseful, passionate, paranormal romance that sweeps through the emotions of first love and heartache as it traverses centuries and continents.
Michelle used to feel like she was behind in everything, especially school and relationships. Her great aunt from the old country says she is like a bland meal, "no salt or pepper". But in junior year, everything changes. Her father takes a position on the Town Council, a popular boy in school becomes interested in her, and most importantly, the Hekademos Learning Center, a private school for 'troubled' students, moves into her quiet neighborhood amidst the protests of the entire town.
After seeing the School Regent out with a group of young guys just before Christmas, Michelle is convinced that there is something odd about them. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she embarks upon a mission to figure out what is really going on. After an embarrassing fall over the school wall, Michelle meets Elliot and her ordinary ‘bland’ life changes its course forever.
Elliot is no ordinary human. In fact, no one at the Hekademos Learning Center is. Beautiful and fierce, they have survived throughout the millennia by weaving in and out of human events. Through them, Michelle learns that history and myths from around the world are dotted with references to their kind. Michelle falls madly in love with the ever-striking and mysterious Elliot and, as much as he tries to fight it, he develops strong feelings for her as well. Although Elliot carries numerous painful memories from his many pasts, he disregards his own better judgment and the advice of his friends, and finds himself falling for Michelle‘s offbeat personality. Their feelings grow in intensity, but when History catches up with them, the difference between their life paths threatens to destroy any future that they might have had together.
Michelle learns that there are infinite shades of gray between black and white, and has to deal with the bundle of contradictory emotions called love. After some unexpected twists during a family trip to Europe, she has to trust her intuition in order to face the danger and uncertainty of being drawn into Elliot’s wondrous world. Ultimately, it is up to Michelle to make the split-second, life-altering decision that will either tear them apart forever, or give them another chance.

My Review:
I really enjoyed reading this book. The pace is slow so you will want to make time to read this. The author builds the story with a lot of day to day things.  Normally I get impatient with that but this time it worked for me. I really got to know Michelle and how she thinks, feels and reacts. This is knowledge of her is important to the story so, if you are like me and get impatient, hang in there.  I appreciated the way the author kept me on the edge of knowing Elliot. At first I was put off by it but then I realized she was putting me in Michelle's place. I knew what Michelle knew. I felt what Michelle felt. It really made this an easy book to fall into and forget where you really are. 
Another huge plus for me was the addition of all the history. I love history. I love reading about the Gods and Goddesses. This book is rich in it. A Jacob Sweeny made it engrossing to read. Ancient history can be hard for some people to be interested in but I really think even those people would love reading this book. 
I found this to be a well written, tender, suspenseful paranormal romance that slowly builds, leaving you breathless and wanting more. I found it to be an extremely moving book. One of my all time favorite books is Mists of Avalon and I truly never thought I would read another book I would hold beside that one. Pulse of Heroes just won a place next to it in my heart.  This is quite a feat as I first read Mists of Avalon over 20 years ago and it has held its lonely space for that entire time. I highly recommend Pulse of Heroes to you.  It truly blew me away.

An angry note here:  while visiting the author's site I learned that copies of Pulse of Heroes were pirated. That is so uncool! A. Jacob put her heart and soul into writing one of the best books I have read and to have it passed around like that is beyond words. Please buy the book. Don't steal. Pirating only looks good on Johnny Depp and I seriously doubt he is stealing books!

Here is the cover for Pulse of Heroes Book 2 which is available on the author's site. As she only uses pay pal, (which I refuse to use after a bad experience with them), I am hoping it makes it out to wider markets soon. 

Of Blood and Pulse (#2 'The Pulse' series)

A Jacob Sweeny's amazing website is here: http://www.pulseofheroes.com




Comments always appreciated!

2 comments:

A. Jacob Sweeny said...

Thank you for the wonderful review- you really got what I was doing and I so appreciate that you pointed this out. And just so you know :) I just released Of Blood And Pulse publicly and you can purchase it here if you don't want to use PayPal through my website. Thank You again. A.Jacob Sweeny

https://www.createspace.com/3706891

dawnmomoffour said...

Aha! Using the web version I can post! I knew if I fiddled with it I'd figure it out LOL
What a great review and you hit the nail on the head with it. I think some people get lost in the detail, the history, and don't quite "get" the story. Nice to see another that gets it completely. I loved the book, and I loved the review!
-Dawn aka dawnmomoffour
thedoyle6@rogers.com

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