Branded: Fall of Angels

While this books wasn't about vampires, zombies or witches it seemed like a good book to read for Halloween as it definitely has an interesting premise of a girl who tries to stay awake for as long as possible as she's unable to sleep about dreaming about being judged. Except the scenes she's seeing are not from her eyes but through the eyes of other people. At first she believed it was nothing more then very vivid dreams until she happened to look in the paper one day and saw one of these people's names in the obituary section. What she has been seeing is real and she's seeing whether people end up with blue eyes or black eyes. Those with blue presumably go up to heaven while the ones with black are condemned to a whole other fate. These dreams she's been having and the scar she has on her back has made life for her quite awful at times. Due to her strange sleeping habits she has become a recluse and makes her money by taking care of a house and doing shopping for the woman who lives next door. Sal her next door neighbor has become a recluse for another reason, from the years of abuse she suffered, but perhaps it's that shared loneliness that she's become friends of a sort to the woman next door.Jessica keeps awake with her drug of choice Dr. Pepper which as I love Dr. Pepper I liked that touch. And Valentine's Day and Christmas makes her incredibly anxious as there are angels all over the place. She's been a recluse, but starts to come out of her shell a little bit when she gets to know Alex, the new owner of the house that she's been hired to keep an eye on. She finds herself attracted to Alex, but is afraid to sleep when he's around as she usually wakes up screaming. Surely that screaming will end up leading to a lot of questions that she's not sure if she can trust anyone with. But Sal seems to like Alex as she even agrees to come over for supper one evening. While she doesn't stay long, it still is a big deal for her to have done so. Her growing friendship with Alex also inspires Jessica to venture out a bit more as well and she ends up taking up yoga. She ends up making friends with a young woman who seems to know something about the markings on her back as well as the dreams she has every night. She doesn't have the dreams anymore but frustratingly keeps mum about how she made those dreams go away. And she also gets to know the man who moves into the house on the other side of Sal and he shows an interest in her as well. In the meantime she's been reaching out to her dad for about a year. While her mother never understood the dreams she has anytime she sleeps, her father seemed to understand. In fact things got so bad with her mother that she moved away from home at the age of sixteen. A move that happened after she overheard her mother making plans to have her committed to an institution. She moved another time after a boyfriend broke up with her after he finally got tired of her sleeping habits and other things. So has she possibly found what could have eluded her from either Alex or Colin and what happens with her reaching out to her father?This book was definitely different, but it did feel right with it being Halloween and to me it was pretty well written. If you feel like reading a different point of view on angels or like reading fantasy this is a book that might be intriguing as it definitely had an interesting concept. As I don't read a lot of fantasy I really can't compare it to much, but the fact I was rooting for the main character is a good sign. I will definitely keep the other books in the series in mind anytime I'm in the mood for reading something a bit different.

Summary:In Branded by Keary Taylor, Jessica is forced to stand trial for those that have died while she sleeps. In most cases, their fate is eternal damnation and Jessica is branded with the sign of the condemned. Her family and friends believe she is crazy, and eventually, she leaves everyone she knows and loves for a life of solitude. She avoids her dreams at all costs. She avoids people at all costs. But fate has something different in mind; love.Alex is the grandson of the home she caretakes and he and Jessica quickly fall in love. Jessica trusts and loves him even more after she divulges the truth about her nightmares and the scars on her body and he accepts and believes her. But just as it seems that Jessica has found her perfect match, a new guy moves into town. He's suave, unearthly handsome and very persuasive. What's more, Jessica feels very strange around him - a sense of trust encases her when he's near, but there's something else that she doesn't quite seem to understand. She believes that she loves Alex, but she can't seem to understand her feelings for the new neighbor. To make matters more confusing, her dreams are changing. She still faces condemnation, but a shift has occurred and it has Jessica frightened and uncertain about what it all means. Will Jessica sort out her feelings before it's too late? What will come of the changes in her dreams? Her own judgment is coming and she has to solve the mystery before it's too late.My Review:To be honest, I think I really flubbed this review the first time around. I really did like this book and I think I must have been having a really bad day or maybe was focusing too much on the negative or something along those lines and it really wasn't fair to the author or the book. I extend my sincerest apologies and am humbling myself to the author in hopes that there aren't any hard feelings.Now, back to the review....Branded is highly original. I loved the premise of the book and have never read anything quite like it. It was definitely unique. I absolutely adored Alex...who couldn't? He has got to be just the sweetest character in existence! I could also really empathize with Jessica and the struggles she goes through in the book. Parts of her character really resounded with me, particularly the lack of connection with her family. Highly likable characters (well, those that you're supposed to like anyway, lol.)The pace of the book, overall, was very pleasant. Not too fast and not too slow. There were a few distractions in the book, but most of them were rather minor. The biggest for me, I think, was the fact that I struggled with Jessica's lack of insight in who the bad guy was. I kept wondering why she let him in her life, but then again, it may have been something that only the reader was supposed to see and not the character.I really loved other parts of the book, like the meeting towards the end of the book...I won't say anything more though because I don't want to spoil it for anyone else. The ending made me cry too. And honestly, I'm really excited to see where the author takes the next book. I've already ordered it but haven't had a chance to read it.

Really intriguing premise that is executed fairly well although there are some discrepancies and issues. As so often seems to be the case with me and young adult novels, this would be a better read if most of the sappy romance was removed. The underlying plot ideas are really interesting and could easily have been expanded in place of a rather obvious love triangle. I'd have liked to read more about the trials and about the personalities within the trials, instead you get two wish fulfilment guys who are obviously both drop dead gorgeous.That said, I did enjoy reading this and it kept my attention throughout. It's a relatively easy read and was certainly a quick read, with decent pacing and an engaging style. Romance admittedly isn't my bag, so perhaps that is the source of some of my issues, however the 'perfect man' trope does little for me... nor indeed does obsessive love from nowhere or darkly mysterious. I also saw the twist coming chapters before it was 'revealed', so wasn't surprised at all.So an interesting premise that's carried out reasonably well, but could still be improved.

Jessica is a woman who has cut herself off from other people. SInce childhood, she has been tormented whenever she sleeps. Tormented by angels who judge the sins of people who have died, Jessica stands that judgement in their place. When she wakes she is scarred and in pain, proving how real these dreams are.When Alex arrives in the house she looks after, telling her the owners, his Grandparents, have died her life turns upside down as she has to decide whether to let someone into her life. Then a new neighbour, Cole, also wants to get to know her and is always available just when she needs somebody.Jessica is a strong independent woman. She’s been alone for a long time thanks to this affliction and has had to learn to look after herself. Seeing her learn to lean on other people is lovely, we all know we need others in our lives and that it makes us stronger, not weaker so it’s great to see Jessica realising this.Alex is the sweetest kindest most selfless man you’ll meet. This made me very suspicious of him. After all, who can be that perfect? But it’s clear he cares deeply for Jessica, I’m just not sure Jessica is emotionally available to those kinds of feelings.Cole radiates bad boy, I could feel the vibrations coming off of the page and I loved it. I really loved his domineering actions and how he wanted to control every situation. He knows what he wants and he’s determined to take it. I love that he’s not holding back and that he’s doing all he can to persuade Jessica to see him. He’s strong, he’s attractive, and I’m fairly sure he could blow the windows out with how hot he is.I did work out a lot of the things that happened towards the end, except the one big final twist, THAT I did not see coming and I can only imagine what is going to happen in the next book which I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into! This is a great twist on not only the paranormal romance genre but also novels with angels in.

I downloaded all three books without reading the first book because the plot sounded awesome. Well that was a mistake. I found that the main plot was pushed to the side a bit and the side plots took over.Jessica has dreams were she stands trails for things she hasn't done, then she gets judged She either goes "up" or "down" then she gets branded and darkness comes over her then she wakes up screaming. She writes down the names she has stood trial for and researchers them (which is a waste of time because they are dead and have been judged) Jessica is a caregiver to a 35 year old woman Sally. Sal is a bit of a hoarder and Jessica gets her shopping or whatever Sal needs. Jessica sees Sal everyday making sure she is ok because Sal has a little brain damage.Jessica lives in the basement apartment in a house and takes care of the house. When 1 night Alex comes to the house. He is the grandson of the couple that own the house that have now died and he is now the owner.Jessica after time Jessica tells Alex about the the nightmare trials she has every night. He takes it in his stride.Nothing really happens for a while till (spoiler alert) a new neighbour shows up who also likes Jessica.Jessica's dreams start to change a bit. The leader of the condemned is missing.It doesn't take a genius to work out the twist in the plot so it wasn't a big deal when it came to light.To me Jessica seemed to take showers, see Sal and look forward to seeing Alex. There were pages and pages of unimportant information that was annoying and another annoying point is Alex knows what Jessica goes through when she sleeps, but doesn't ask questions. Even if he thinks she might be crazy he just expected what she says. He didn't think to go and research and none of them thought to go see a priest or something to see if there were any answers. They both just went with the flow. Went about the day till Jessica was almost falling asleep and have a dream that is exactly the same but the name.The story didn't get interesting till about 2 or 3 chapters near the end.SPOILER ALERT!!!In the end when the story comes to a close Alex makes a huge life changing decision regarding the angles and trials. I felt that it wasn't as romantic as the writer might think it was because how can a man make a choice that he did when all he did was get information from Jessica and not ask questions.This book only gets 2 star, don't think I will read the others.

I liked the plot of this book, it was a really interesting way to look at Angels, although never properly explained. Though maybe the mystery of this was purposeful, the main character of the book Jessica was actually likeable as well. Jessica isn't tough and kickass, but frightened and not functioning well at all. I did feel the author could have gone further with it though, most of the time Jessica was sleep deprived to the extreme but managed to drive a car through ice and snow perfectly well.I read this book before going to sleep and it genuinely creeped me out, it's not hard core horror or anything but for wimpy people like me I found it creepy enough. However, as much as I liked 'Branded' there are a whole other heap of problems with it. The actual writing was pretty poor, there are spelling and grammar mistakes all over the place and really a good edit would go a long way to making this a much better book. Also as much as I liked Jessica I decidedly didn't like many of the other characters, Alex the love interest was flat and too good to be true. Cole the villain, was a bit strange and put me on edge but in the end he got a hard deal, we learned nothing about him except that he's evil and he just became the typical bad guy. Sal, Jessica's neighbour was very strange with assumed mental health issues, we learn no more about her either and while I thought she was good character more things could have been done with her. There was a new best friend but she was a bit flat too because already I have forgotten her name!Good value with it being a free book but to be honest I wouldn't have paid for 'Branded'. Interesting idea's and quite original but needed to be worked on before being unleashed on the general public. :( Read for yourself, it's not bad for being free.

I don't really know how to sum this book up. It was sooo different to anything else I've read before. I enjoyed it but I also found the tone of it a bit depressing. Not surprising really given the circumstances surrounding Jessica's life.This not your typical angel book. In this story the angels are to be feared. Whenever Jessica goes to sleep she has to face them. They Judge her for actions committed by others and ultimately brand her and send her to hell. She wakes up with the scar on the back of her neck throbbing and always puts off going to sleep for days at a time.This thought terrified me! And I couldn't see how this was ever going to change for Jessica as she had lived like this for so long.However Jessica finally finds light at the end of the tunnel when she meets glorious Alex and finally feels she can confide in someone who doesn't think she's crazy or try lock her up like her mother did.I really enjoyed reading about Jessica and Alex's relationship. It was so sweet and grew gradually and at a pace which was really believable.And although I worked out quite early on just who Jessica's mysterious new neighbour Cole would turn out to be, that did not make it any more shocking when Jessica worked it out for herself. And I thoroughly enjoyed the twist at the end, it was very satisfying.This really is a great story and Im really looking forward to reading the next one in the series.