{ Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway!! } Aura by Rebecca Talley

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Author: Rebecca Talley
Title: Aura
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy
Publication Date: November 9,2012
Format: E-Books
Copy Provided By: Author as part of Blog Tour
Rating: ★★★

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 In the fight between good and evil, Light is your only weapon.

Crystal Scott finally feels like a normal teenager. She has a lead in the high school play, a best friend, and a gorgeous boyfriend. With prom only a few days away, Crystal's ordinary life seems perfect.

Endowed with great Light because of her virtuous choices and her inherent gifts, Crystal's aura has become visible to those with the ability to see auras. Unfortunately, her power has also attracted the attention of demons intent on destroying all Light.

When Vincent Crandall, the human host for a powerful demon, discovers that Crystal's Light is strong enough to disrupt the connection between demons and their hosts, he realizes she may be able to sever the connection altogether. Determined to stop her from interfering with his plans to rule the world, he orders operatives to neutralize her.

Crystal is thrust into battle against a demon army she didn't even know existed. With the help of a mysterious young man and his mother, Crystal must learn to use the power within her before the demons kill her parents and Vincent harnesses her Light for himself.

 



Review:

Have you ever heard the term Clean Read? If you haven't, it basically means the book is appropriate for "conservative" readers to enjoy. The book has very light violence, usually no swearing, and definitely no sex. In movie terms it would be given a G-rating, wholesome for the whole family to enjoy type of deal. Can a book be to clean though? Oh yeah. Aura suffers with that exact problem and here is why:

The main protagonist of the story Crystal is a force for the greater good. Her "Aura" is blindingly bright which means A. Demons are attracted to her. and B. She can fight off said demons using her light to dispel them. However, Crystal is ridiculously good. So much so that she wasn't believable. Not only that but she was naive to the point of maybe being simple in the head. I felt some serious projecting by the Author into the character of how she wanted teenagers to act vs. how they actually do. I don't mean Crystal needed to have sex, lie, cheat or steal. However, teenagers swear, they have impure thoughts and they make mistakes I could go on and on. I'm just going to leave it at Crystal being a bit to brainwashed for my tastes if you get my drift.

Another problem I had was the Demons themselves. I wanted them to be darker. When I read a book about demons I want violence, gore, mischief and mayhem. Instead these demons were like cute fluffy bunny versions who made their host do really naughty things and by naughty I mean Lifetime movie of the week vs. The Exorcist or any other demon film where they are you know actually scary. I definitely didn't get the Evil vibe from these guys, it was very disappointing.

My last big problem with this book was the pacing. It started out great, petered off in the middle and then rushed through the ending. It felt disjointed and made it hard to stay glued to the narrative.

I know I sound harsh in my criticism but it wouldn't be a proper review if I sugar coated things. So now that I've gotten my main problems out of the way, I want to share some positives:

I really enjoyed the character Alec/Joshua. He was cool, smart, had great character development and was swoonworthy. A total Win in my book. I definitely felt the Author had a much easier time developing the male characters over the female ones.

I also liked how humans were hosts for the shadowy demons. It was possession which has been done a million times over but the way its done in the book feels fresh and unique. I liked it.

Lastly, I enjoyed the ending even though it was rushed. I think if it hadn't ended the way it did this would of definitely been a much more negative review. So kudos to the Author for keeping me entertained at least partly.

Overall I enjoyed Aura it was a pleasant read. However..... even though I am rating Aura 3 stars, I don't feel I could confidently recommend it. Aura isn't bad and maybe that's the problem. Considering its a book chronicling the battle between Good and Evil it felt to squeaky clean for my tastes. Will I read the next book in the series? Possibly. I enjoyed the ending enough where I'm sort of curious to see where it heads. If I do, I really hope I enjoy Crystal more on the next go round.


Author Rebecca Lynn Talley

Rebecca Lynn Talley grew up in the gorgeous seaside city of Santa Barbara, CA. She met, and married, her husband, Del, while attending Brigham Young University. She graduated from BYU with a degree in Communications. She currently lives in rural Colorado on a small ranch with a dog, too many cats to count, and a herd of goats. She and Del are the proud parents of ten wildly-creative, multi-talented children.

Rebecca is the author of a children's picture book, Grasshopper Pie (WindRiver 2003), a children's chapter book, Gabby's Secret (DuBon Publishing 2011), four novels, Heaven Scent (CFI 2008), Altared Plans (CFI 2009), The Upside of Down (CFI 2011), and Aura (DuBon Publishing 2012). She has also authored numerous children's stories and articles for both print and online magazines.

When she isn’t writing, Rebecca loves to date her husband, play with her kids, swim in the ocean, and dance to disco music while she cleans the house. She has folded at least one million loads of laundry, baked hundreds of batches of chocolate chip cookies, and eaten 5,478 gallons of ice cream.




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$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 3.21.13

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*Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.



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