Redemption

Redemption #1

by Kellie Thacker

“The dark held new meaning for me now. There was a whole other world out there that I was just beginning to discover... A world that had once been only farce was now very real". Enduring the death of her parents was the greatest struggle of Abby's Life. Forced to make a difficult choice, she moves from Kentucky to Maine to live with her grandmother–the only family she has left. Life after the death of her parents was very difficult. She faced depression, fell out of touch with her friends, and lost any faith she had in life and God. She wanted nothing more to do with either. She made the decision to start college in Bangor. Attending the university in her home town of Louisville had always been a dream of hers–just another result of her 360 life turn around. With the start of classes, it isn’t long before Abby discovers a darkness she thought only existed in the world of fiction and his name is Caleb. Picking up his own shattered pieces of the malevolent life he’s trying to leave behind, Caleb finds himself drawing dangerously close to Abby despite the potential consequences. He too, has given up on anything remotely related to faith. He knows he’s lost his soul and has been sentenced to certain damnation. purposely throwing himself in the middle of a college campus was his way of enduring punishment for the terrible transgressions he committed against the human race. Abby immediately finds Caleb interesting. They are drawn together by more than mere attraction and Abby discovers there may be more to their meeting than simple coincidence. Like a larger force is drawing them together. Even though there is a huge barrier between them, they need each other. She finds a refuge in Caleb for protection and in Abby, Caleb finds his soul. Their faith in each other becomes tested when Caleb’s nemesis comes to town and Abby finds herself teetering on the edge of life and death. Believing that she is going to die, Abby grasps the faith that Caleb has brought back to her and holds it until the end. Both struggling to sustain a life with some sort of meaning, they realize they are each others only Redemption.**Available at Amazon in paperback and digital download.**Follow Kellie on Facebook at www.facebook.com/InspiredKTBooks

452 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2013

About the author

Kellie is a dreamer, constantly walking around with another story in her head, jotting down notes for future use. She found her love for writing as a teenager in high school.

She is the proud author of the YA Redemption trilogy and her best selling children's book, Little Gideon. Her work also includes His Name is Moonlight and Broken Road.

Kellie did not intend to write Christian fiction in the beginning, but every day she's glad she did. She is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is he rock and her savior. He has blessed her family more times than she can count and her faith in him will never falter. Without his love she would truly be a lost cause.

"I hope you take the time to check out my books. All are available through amazon.com. And you can follow me at www.facebook.com/InspiredKTBooks God Bless."

--Kellie Thacker

Reviews

[Sara Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, the characters are so well developed that I feel like I know Abby and Caleb and her descriptive scenes place me right there with them.

[Melissa Veracruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

**I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.**

Ok, first off, quick overview of Redemption by Kellie Thacker. New human (Abigail/Abby) in town sees and falls for the humane vampire (Caleb). She's recently lost her parents and she's living with her grandmother. They fall in love and ethical and life-expectancy questions arise. Of course, there are murdering vampires lurking in the background. There's also the "other" boy interested in Abby.

So with the plot set, let's look at what I thought about the book.

What kept me reading? Yes, this book was Twilight-esque. It borrowed heavily on that vampire schema. However, what I see is someone who took some of the things that irked some of us about Twilight and turned them around. 1.) Edward takes four books to get over his fear of being with Bella. Caleb takes a few months. 2.) Edward ditches Bella foooor-eeeeh-vah. Caleb can't manage being gone from Abby for two weeks and is nearby constantly. 3.) Bella refuses to let Edward buy her anything. Caleb does things for Abby and Abby is gracious.

What made me wanna stop reading? 1.) Some of the writing was too close to the Twilight book/movie dialog. 2.) There were upwards of two grammatical errors per page (their/they're/there and your/you're usage, has instead of as repeatedly, and so on). I know we can't afford professional editors. I should know. I, for one, cannot. 3.) And this is said with the utmost respect, but the element of hardcore religion in relation to vampires, though wonderful as an allegory for people who think they're too far gone, is difficult for many readers to swallow.

So, though it reads like FanFic at times, there were enough unique elements to make it a worthwhile read. Note: There is a book two, titled Sacrifice.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The descriptions and characters were so real that it really came to life for me. The dialogue was real and at times humorous.

I found the story line to be unique because you don't hear of religious references in a book about vampires and it was a nice change. I think if I were a vampire, I would wonder about my soul so it's a very realistic concept.

I look forward to finding out what happens with Caleb and Abby and their relationship.

[Waffle Monarch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry but I couldn't finish. I tried hard but the beginning of the book completely buried me. I found myself skipping entire paragraphs in an attempt to get to something of consequence in the story.

Never ever should you have a situation where 7% of the book has been read but nothing of significance has happened yet. The beginning of the book is like a huge info dump, but that info sucks. Its a teen girl's bland interpretation of the bland world around her.

Its a vampire book. Chapter one shouldn't be "my parents died so I'm going to live with my grandma in maine and let me describe everything to you and how I feel about it in excruciating detail while also filling you in on every mundane nuance of my surroundings." It should be "HOLY SHIT, VAMPIRES!"

I know that the goal here is to mimic Twilight. In that book, the extremely dense female protagonist took entirely too long figuring out there was something off about her would-be boy toy, and excessive page space was dedicated to how she hated where she was now living and boo hoo whatever.

Its a horrid thing to aspire to. I know Stephanie got mega rich off that series of books but she also did it as well as it could possibly have been done. Further, if you don't do it as well as she did it becomes as bland as sawdust.

The author fails to make the character interesting and fails to invest the reader in the story by the 7% mark. Its a critical flaw that I can't get past.

Also, the author seems to have some trouble maintaining tense. One sentence will be first person present and the next will be first person past. Its jarring, and should be edited.