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Bittersweet
Phaedra Thorne's goals in life are simple. Make it to eighteen so she can legally adopt her sister and hope she never becomes like her deranged mother who secretly lives in the attic. They're not the normal hopes and dreams of a kid her age, but then again, Phaedra is anything but typical. Schizophrenia and psychokinesis go hand in hand in her genes. With things always upending or blowing up around her, she’s already halfway there and horrified one of these days she'll be the next to go insane. Five years have passed since Phaedra has seen her older, estranged brother. She’s hesitant about his return and even more so when he comes bearing a cure for their mother. However, this so-called antidote, having sex with an incubus, comes with a catch that's larger than the statutory rape implications. The incubus who's willing to help the Thornes has unwittingly been followed by beings who call themselves hags. They want to drain the demon dry of his power and don’t care if they threaten Phaedra's desire to have a normal family. She’ll do whatever it takes to protect her loved ones, even if that means trusting her uncontrollable powers won’t kill everyone in the process.
- GenresYoung Adult
232 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2011
1 person is currently reading
303 people want to read
About the author
Marcia Colette
18 books223 followersParanormal author Marcia Colette is always hard at work on her next novel...assuming her day job doesn't get in the way.
Ever since her first book HALF BREED opened to fantastic reviews and became a Fictionwise Bestseller, she hasn't looked back. She can't write a story unless there are paranormal aspects or a certain level of creepiness involved. When not crafting novels with twisted plots and supernatural thrills, she's either diving into her massive DVD collection or working out on her elliptical. Marcia is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Paranormal Mystery Writers, and Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors.
The best place to find her is on her blog where she loves connecting with readers and other writers. Conferences/conventions where sci-fi, fantasy, and horror reign supreme are a good bet, too, along with the occasional romance conference.
For more information, check out her website at www.marciacolette.com"
Ever since her first book HALF BREED opened to fantastic reviews and became a Fictionwise Bestseller, she hasn't looked back. She can't write a story unless there are paranormal aspects or a certain level of creepiness involved. When not crafting novels with twisted plots and supernatural thrills, she's either diving into her massive DVD collection or working out on her elliptical. Marcia is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Paranormal Mystery Writers, and Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors.
The best place to find her is on her blog where she loves connecting with readers and other writers. Conferences/conventions where sci-fi, fantasy, and horror reign supreme are a good bet, too, along with the occasional romance conference.
For more information, check out her website at www.marciacolette.com"
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 22, 2011
It can’t be said that Bittersweet lacks originality—because it certainly does not. With concepts like demon-like hags, demon-demons, psychokinetic powered-schizophrenics, voodoo priestesses and all number of other supernatural things, the book has its own flavor, for sure. A lot of the familiar, overly-covered stuff are just peripherals in this book on the most part. Vampires and werewolves are mere mentions. This book focuses on a whole new crowd of big bad.
Phaedra is a teenaged girl burdened with the responsibility of being the parent in her household, which is a difficult weight to bear on its own. She takes care of her little sister and her mother. However the challenges don’t end there. For this unfortunate girl, her mother is a crazed schizophrenic with psychokinetic powers who must be locked in the attic because consumed by her madness; she is bent on harming her children. In her brief moments of lucidity, she works with Phaedra to help arrange for finances and planning but leaves everything mostly up to her daughter. Phaedra too shares the same powers which she can barely control. She fears her future holds little more than succumbing to same madness as her mother and dismisses any hope for herself, moving forward only for the sake of her little sister.
The only thing that brings normality to the household and gives Phaedra a break are the Bittersweet leaves that she obtains from a magical healer. They bring her mother respite from her madness only temporarily, but Phaedra and her little sister can enjoy a brief taste of what life could be like were they normal. Abandoned by the eldest son and the father, the three women manage to scrape by on their own. This is largely due to Phaedra’s efforts to construct a façade of normality. They avoid raising too many eyebrows or attracting attention from the real world. But everything is tenuous at best.
But things get a lot worse when Phaedra’s brother reappears. He claims to know a cure for their mother’s illness and brings Phaedra a promise of a future she is to incredulous to hope for. Phaedra discovers that Kurt’s promises of positive change come with a price; for at his heels; an army of trouble and danger have followed in his wake threatening to destroy everything and everyone.
One thing I can say outright is that Miss Colette is an excellent writer. She is by far a better writer than Amanda Hocking or Lauren Burd. However, she is not always consistent and that is a bit of a bummer. It took me a while to work my way through this book. It had its moments where I couldn’t put it down, and moments when I could barely keep my interest engaged and found myself skipping pages of conversations and realizing that even doing that, I was still not losing any vital information in the progression of the story; which isn’t good. But she is not the first author to make this mistake.
It’s a lesson all indie authors should learn: scenes are deleted for a reason. Sometimes authors get too hung up on interactions between characters; they work too hard on the smoldering attractions, the exchange of witty banter or whatnot and they lose track of the story and often numb the reader’s brain and lose their interest. Authors who write for themselves rather than their readers often make this blunder. Edit yourselves! Read and cut out what isn’t immediately relevant to your story, cut out what has already been established, cut out the conversations and interactions that add nothing to the character’s personalities, story or the whole. If the story can live without it, and the characters lose nothing if it’s taken away, then it probably shouldn’t be here. That’s my advice.
In this book there are some editing issues, however they are fairly minor. Some misused words, some missing words; a couple sentences that look like chunks of them were accidentally cut out. But all in all, as packages go; this one is professional and the writing is quite high-quality. There’s a gritty quality to it that brings it down to the real world. Phaedra’s motives are believable, and the characters are who the author says they are and remain so throughout the book.
Don’t get me wrong, Bittersweet is not a bad book by any means, it just wasn’t a knock-your-socks-off excellent OMG I can’t believe this is an indie-book. But what I think does stand out is the author’s skill with language and description. I’m confident that the author’s future endeavors will only get better and better. I give this book 4 medallions.
Phaedra is a teenaged girl burdened with the responsibility of being the parent in her household, which is a difficult weight to bear on its own. She takes care of her little sister and her mother. However the challenges don’t end there. For this unfortunate girl, her mother is a crazed schizophrenic with psychokinetic powers who must be locked in the attic because consumed by her madness; she is bent on harming her children. In her brief moments of lucidity, she works with Phaedra to help arrange for finances and planning but leaves everything mostly up to her daughter. Phaedra too shares the same powers which she can barely control. She fears her future holds little more than succumbing to same madness as her mother and dismisses any hope for herself, moving forward only for the sake of her little sister.
The only thing that brings normality to the household and gives Phaedra a break are the Bittersweet leaves that she obtains from a magical healer. They bring her mother respite from her madness only temporarily, but Phaedra and her little sister can enjoy a brief taste of what life could be like were they normal. Abandoned by the eldest son and the father, the three women manage to scrape by on their own. This is largely due to Phaedra’s efforts to construct a façade of normality. They avoid raising too many eyebrows or attracting attention from the real world. But everything is tenuous at best.
But things get a lot worse when Phaedra’s brother reappears. He claims to know a cure for their mother’s illness and brings Phaedra a promise of a future she is to incredulous to hope for. Phaedra discovers that Kurt’s promises of positive change come with a price; for at his heels; an army of trouble and danger have followed in his wake threatening to destroy everything and everyone.
One thing I can say outright is that Miss Colette is an excellent writer. She is by far a better writer than Amanda Hocking or Lauren Burd. However, she is not always consistent and that is a bit of a bummer. It took me a while to work my way through this book. It had its moments where I couldn’t put it down, and moments when I could barely keep my interest engaged and found myself skipping pages of conversations and realizing that even doing that, I was still not losing any vital information in the progression of the story; which isn’t good. But she is not the first author to make this mistake.
It’s a lesson all indie authors should learn: scenes are deleted for a reason. Sometimes authors get too hung up on interactions between characters; they work too hard on the smoldering attractions, the exchange of witty banter or whatnot and they lose track of the story and often numb the reader’s brain and lose their interest. Authors who write for themselves rather than their readers often make this blunder. Edit yourselves! Read and cut out what isn’t immediately relevant to your story, cut out what has already been established, cut out the conversations and interactions that add nothing to the character’s personalities, story or the whole. If the story can live without it, and the characters lose nothing if it’s taken away, then it probably shouldn’t be here. That’s my advice.
In this book there are some editing issues, however they are fairly minor. Some misused words, some missing words; a couple sentences that look like chunks of them were accidentally cut out. But all in all, as packages go; this one is professional and the writing is quite high-quality. There’s a gritty quality to it that brings it down to the real world. Phaedra’s motives are believable, and the characters are who the author says they are and remain so throughout the book.
Don’t get me wrong, Bittersweet is not a bad book by any means, it just wasn’t a knock-your-socks-off excellent OMG I can’t believe this is an indie-book. But what I think does stand out is the author’s skill with language and description. I’m confident that the author’s future endeavors will only get better and better. I give this book 4 medallions.
March 26, 2011
It's tough enough to be a teen, but Phaedra also has to contend with a deranged mother, a father who split when times got bad, a brother who did the same, leaving her to care for her young sister. Not only that, she already knows she's inherited her mother's crazy gene and the psychic powers that make her mother so dangerous. When her brother finally comes home, they're in a desperate situation, with social services close to finding out about the mom in the attic and whisking away her little sister. Too bad her brother's idea of help brings more trouble.
The twists and turns and surprises in this book kept me whipping through it. The characters had great depth, and I felt Phaedra's pain and anger. I wanted everything to be right for her and her family. A wonderful read! This comes highly recommended.
The twists and turns and surprises in this book kept me whipping through it. The characters had great depth, and I felt Phaedra's pain and anger. I wanted everything to be right for her and her family. A wonderful read! This comes highly recommended.
May 14, 2011
Being a teenager sucks but it sucks twice as hard when your mom is bat-crap crazy and has to be locked in the attic for everyone’s safety! So begins Phaedra’s story in Marcia Colette’s young adult novel Bittersweet. Any book which starts out with this kind of description is going to grab my attention.
The first half of Bittersweet outlines the life young Phaedra is forced to live as a result of her mother’s unique abilities. In a nutshell: Phaedra attends high school (BLECK); cares for her spunky younger sister Nadia; ventures into the attic on a regular basis to care for mom; and tries to keep her emotions in check so that her own abilities don’t bring death, despair, and destruction to those around her. Add to all of this: the regular trips to the ER to repair the bodily harm caused by mom; the constant fear that Child Services will show up; and the sudden and unexpected return of the prodigal brother, Kurt. And you thought your teenage years sucked - WIMP! Phaedra must deal constantly with her worry over her mother’s condition, the knowledge that the condition is genetic and already manifesting in Phaedra, as well as her anger at her brother Kurt for abandoning the family and then returning as if nothing happened. The first half of the book is good and there is plenty of low-level action but I found myself always feeling as if something big was coming and it never did. As a reader, I found this very frustrating.
The second half of Bittersweet was much more intense and fast-paced as Colette finally begins to unravel what she was leading up too in the first half of the book – something big, finally happens. And there are hags - HAGS! I must say, the use of hags is something that doesn’t appear in paranormal novels very often and I was quite glad to read something new. Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some vampires and werewolves but a girl cannot live on vampire and werewolf porn alone. Colette completely devotes the last half of the book to the solving of problems: Kurt has brought a not-so-ideal “cure” back with him that can help the entire family; Phaedra is admitted to the Hub – a school which specializes in the training and teaching of people like her; and the hags, who have caused a great deal of trouble for the family are dealt with handily. It is in this half of the book that we see Phaedra get over herself and start truly fighting for her future. Phaedra unleashes her abilities in order to save her family. Phaedra becomes more than an angsty teenager: she becomes a strong lead character that will play well in future novels.
Bittersweet is a typical first-in-a-series novel. That is, the author has a lot of ground to cover in terms of establishing characters, creating an interesting plot, and setting the reader up for the future of the series. This is a tall order and one that Colette fills reasonably well. While I was frustrated by the first half of the book I found the second half to be quite satisfying. By novel’s end there is a sense of resolution but also the knowledge that the series is going to continue. Bottom line: this series has potential but only if Colette allows her characters and plot to evolve. As long as there is evolution I will continue to read this series as it becomes available but I don’t see it as a series topping my must-read list.
The first half of Bittersweet outlines the life young Phaedra is forced to live as a result of her mother’s unique abilities. In a nutshell: Phaedra attends high school (BLECK); cares for her spunky younger sister Nadia; ventures into the attic on a regular basis to care for mom; and tries to keep her emotions in check so that her own abilities don’t bring death, despair, and destruction to those around her. Add to all of this: the regular trips to the ER to repair the bodily harm caused by mom; the constant fear that Child Services will show up; and the sudden and unexpected return of the prodigal brother, Kurt. And you thought your teenage years sucked - WIMP! Phaedra must deal constantly with her worry over her mother’s condition, the knowledge that the condition is genetic and already manifesting in Phaedra, as well as her anger at her brother Kurt for abandoning the family and then returning as if nothing happened. The first half of the book is good and there is plenty of low-level action but I found myself always feeling as if something big was coming and it never did. As a reader, I found this very frustrating.
The second half of Bittersweet was much more intense and fast-paced as Colette finally begins to unravel what she was leading up too in the first half of the book – something big, finally happens. And there are hags - HAGS! I must say, the use of hags is something that doesn’t appear in paranormal novels very often and I was quite glad to read something new. Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some vampires and werewolves but a girl cannot live on vampire and werewolf porn alone. Colette completely devotes the last half of the book to the solving of problems: Kurt has brought a not-so-ideal “cure” back with him that can help the entire family; Phaedra is admitted to the Hub – a school which specializes in the training and teaching of people like her; and the hags, who have caused a great deal of trouble for the family are dealt with handily. It is in this half of the book that we see Phaedra get over herself and start truly fighting for her future. Phaedra unleashes her abilities in order to save her family. Phaedra becomes more than an angsty teenager: she becomes a strong lead character that will play well in future novels.
Bittersweet is a typical first-in-a-series novel. That is, the author has a lot of ground to cover in terms of establishing characters, creating an interesting plot, and setting the reader up for the future of the series. This is a tall order and one that Colette fills reasonably well. While I was frustrated by the first half of the book I found the second half to be quite satisfying. By novel’s end there is a sense of resolution but also the knowledge that the series is going to continue. Bottom line: this series has potential but only if Colette allows her characters and plot to evolve. As long as there is evolution I will continue to read this series as it becomes available but I don’t see it as a series topping my must-read list.
May 23, 2011
Bittersweet by Marcia Colette is not an ebook I would usually pick out and read, but I met the author at a book-signing and was very impressed by her. So I decided to read one of her books. I am so glad I did. Now here are my views on Bittersweet.
Phaedra is a teenage girl with the burden of running a household. She cares for her little sister, Nadia, and her mother, who is a schizophrenic with powers that must be locked in the attic because of her madness. When her mother consumes bittersweet leaves which last only a lilttle while, Phaedra has a break from all the madness. Phaedra shares the same powers as her mother and as she gets older can succumb to the same madness as her mother and must decide what to do before the madness happens to her and her little sister.
Abandoned by her father and her brother, she must keep outsiders from finding out about their unusual problems, especially the Child Services and the nozy neighbors and not attract attention to their plight. Phaedra desires to have a normal family life and will do anything to protect her family.
Phaedra's brother, Kurt, returns promising that he has a cure for their illnesses, but he comes with danger that threatens to destroy everything. Some parts of the storyline are believable but others I am unsure about, which makes this a very thought-provoking book.
Marcia is an amazing writer with an intense and fast paced storyline with a strong lead character, Phaedra. I was drawn into the characters plights and will be reading more of Marcia Colette's books.
Phaedra is a teenage girl with the burden of running a household. She cares for her little sister, Nadia, and her mother, who is a schizophrenic with powers that must be locked in the attic because of her madness. When her mother consumes bittersweet leaves which last only a lilttle while, Phaedra has a break from all the madness. Phaedra shares the same powers as her mother and as she gets older can succumb to the same madness as her mother and must decide what to do before the madness happens to her and her little sister.
Abandoned by her father and her brother, she must keep outsiders from finding out about their unusual problems, especially the Child Services and the nozy neighbors and not attract attention to their plight. Phaedra desires to have a normal family life and will do anything to protect her family.
Phaedra's brother, Kurt, returns promising that he has a cure for their illnesses, but he comes with danger that threatens to destroy everything. Some parts of the storyline are believable but others I am unsure about, which makes this a very thought-provoking book.
Marcia is an amazing writer with an intense and fast paced storyline with a strong lead character, Phaedra. I was drawn into the characters plights and will be reading more of Marcia Colette's books.
May 17, 2011
My favorite thing about this book was definitely Phaedra, she's heavy on the sarcasm and stubborn as a mule. Her sharp tongue and quick wit made her easy for me to love. Though she has enough vulnerability to keep her from being obnoxious. Her powers are unpredictable and not easily controlled which makes her dangerous to be around. She was also forced to grow up before her time, with her Mom incoherent most of the time she's left to run the house and take care of her little sister Nadia. So outside of family she doesn't have any close relationships, and even those are strained.
Downsides? Bittersweet was a little confusing at first. You could tell the plot was working it's way up to something, i just couldn't figure out what. Then all kinds of craziness was let loose. It reminded me of one of those movies where you have a bunch of seemingly random events all intertwine throughout the plot then come together seamlessly in then end. So what you think was random and made no sense totally did. I was also really hoping for a little more blossoming romance between Phaedra and Logan. I love love and I wish there was a little more of it.
All together I liked reading from Phaedra's perspective and the story overall was really different from any other paranormals I've read. Bittersweet gets 3 out of 5.
Downsides? Bittersweet was a little confusing at first. You could tell the plot was working it's way up to something, i just couldn't figure out what. Then all kinds of craziness was let loose. It reminded me of one of those movies where you have a bunch of seemingly random events all intertwine throughout the plot then come together seamlessly in then end. So what you think was random and made no sense totally did. I was also really hoping for a little more blossoming romance between Phaedra and Logan. I love love and I wish there was a little more of it.
All together I liked reading from Phaedra's perspective and the story overall was really different from any other paranormals I've read. Bittersweet gets 3 out of 5.
September 16, 2011
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review. The story was actually really good and original, but the editing was horrible! Lots of grammatical mistakes distracted the reader from the story. Phaedra is a teenager who takes care of her little sister and the household after their father and brother leave them and their deranged mother who lives in the attic. She is faced with a similar fate as her mother as her psychic powers come into being. Her bother decides to show up just as everything seems to be falling apart and child services are about to intervene. He's there to help, but unknowingly brings trouble with him! Great story, but get a better editor!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews