DAC #4 Ashes & Ice [Review]

Debut Author Challenge #4

Title: Ashes & Ice

Author: Rochelle Maya Callen

Format Acquired: ARC provided by author for honest review

Publication Date: February 4, 2013

Publishing House: C&C Legacy Publishing

ISBN: 9780988204218

Summary:

She is desperate to remember.
He is aching to forget.
Together, they are not broken.
But together, one may not survive.

​Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands. 

Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough. 

LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice.

Review:

I finished this book within a few hours and it left me feeling... in awe. This story took me for a whirlwind and just didn't let me go. I started reading this book with a bit of skepticism because of the writing style. At first, I wasn't sure that I was going to like it because the writing reminded me of poetry. It was very whimsical and descriptive, and I wasn't sure if I liked it, but I kept reading despite this. I am really glad that I did! What I stumbled upon was a young adult book like no other that I have read in my life. This book was unique, and not just in the plot line. The emotion that spilled out of the pages captured my heart. Connor felt real sorrow, and I felt it with him. He was such an ordinary character that I found myself falling in love with him more than the typical macho guys we see in young adult books today.

Jade was another character all together. I kept reading solely to find out just what she was, I was intrigued throughout the book, and found myself frustrated when I didn't exactly understand who or what she was. The author presented her story in a way unlike anything I have read before. I guess I was just caught off guard in Jade's storyline, and I just didn't know what to think. At times I found myself thinking that maybe she was just mental, but what I found out in the end threw me for a whirl.

In the end, I found myself loving this book just because of it's uniqueness and deep emotions portrayed throughout the book. When I finished it, I just didn't know how to feel... and that's normally how I know when I have read a truly extraordinary book. Congratulations Rochelle, you definitely took me off guard on this one. This is a stunning debut that I would recommend to anyone looking for something unique in the young adult world.

Overall:

I will be participating in the release day blitz for this book on February 4th, so look out for this if you're interested in reading Ashes & Ice.

|Goodreads|

About the Author:

Well, the short of it is: I grew up with a book under my arm. I frequently read until dawn by flashlight so that no one could see I was up by the light under my door. I scribbled stories in the corners of notebooks and was convinced I would be a novelist one day. And then *BAM* twelve years later it happened!

Hmmm, what happened in that twelve years? I entered high school at thirteen and promptly abandoned my stories and dreams of being a novelist for a path of study that I hoped would make me suitable for political office and would eventually land me in a big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. My fervent passion for social & political justice fueled my studies and I did not read a single fiction book (unless my study required) until two years after I graduated college. I worked up to four jobs at a time. Only one stuck: behavioral therapy. I have been a behavioral therapist for the past 8 years and have focused on cases of severe mental illness and autism.