Series: Volition #1
Publisher: Self-Published
First published: February 26th, 2011
Source: Received from author
Format: .pdf
Pages: 324
Goodreads Summary:
Charlotte Rush would be the first to admit that her life is no rollercoaster ride. Her days are laced with ordinary and at times boring monotony. But with a heart that finds itself frequently broken she's happy to say that she's content.
When her friends convince her to spend the night out at a club to let loose and maybe even find a guy, she finally admits that her life might be missing something.
No sooner does she let go of her inhibitions does she find herself waking up in a dark hotel room in the presence of Joel, a man who carries mystery in his eyes and familiarity in his smile. Against reason Charlotte decides to trust him based solely on one thing. Somehow, she is sure that she knows him.
In a race against time to find answers and to solve the crime committed against her Charlotte finds herself falling for him. However, with nothing but mystery surrounding him she can't even be sure that he's the hero at all. While knowing all of the right things to say he still manages to tell her nothing. As a battle is waged over the innocence of her cryptic stranger, Charlotte discovers that much greater danger awaits her. And the mysteries behind who and what Joel is will lead Charlotte to discover that heaven and earth are not so far apart.
My Rating: 4.0 / 5
First thoughts:
I was positively surprised by Volition and I'm definitely looking forward to start its sequel soon, especially since the ending broke my heart a little bit. Its exciting plot and Shawn's beautiful style of writing turned this into a fast and easy read and made me wish to find out more about Charlotte and Joel soon.
More detailed:
Volition turned out to be a complete surprise for me. Even though I had read reviews about it a while ago, I somehow believed it to be a contemporary story. You can imagine my surprise, when I detected the first hints for a paranormal story and my happiness when these paranormal hints turned out to be true.
Charlotte is a quite intriguing character. One night changes her life completely and forces her to question herself and her decisions. I loved witnessing the story from her point of view, although at some points I grew a little bit tired of her mood swings: it seemed as though she couldn't really make up her mind what to feel/think. But at the same time she has a pleasant voice and this makes following her story very easy.
Joel, Charlotte's saviour, is the big mystery of Volition. Despite various hints being thrown in the reader's direction, it takes about 80% of the novel until we definitely find out more about his secret. At that point it was no longer a surprise and I wished that it had been unveiled earlier. But he's definitely a very crush-worthy male fictional character, especially since it's nice to have a "nice guy" to swoon over. There are many things I'd like to know about him and I'm looking forward to see his relationship to Charlotte develop.
Shawn Kirsten Maravel's writing style is absolutely gorgeous and I fell in love with it even before I started to crush on Joel. It's beautiful and detailed, but it doesn't overwhelm you with unnecessary information. All in all, I really enjoyed Volition and can definitely recommend this for others who are looking for a beautifully written, paranormal novel which doesn't rely on the bad-boy-cliché.
Note: I would recommend this novel for an older audience (16+) since the topic of rape is mentioned at some points.
Next novel in the series:
2. Severance
Have you read Volition? What did you think about it?
Do you plan to read it?
Carina
