Tag Archives: Lorena Angell

Angell, Lorena (co-authored by Joshua Angell): The Diamond of Freedom (The Unaltered III) (2013)

2013-04-21 humanitysdarkerside 4 Comments

Great cover. You will find each item in the novel.

Thanks again to Lorena Angell for providing me with a reviewer’s copy. Does receiving a copy influence the review I write? I would hope not, but knowing human nature it probably does to some extent. I try to be aware of this possibility. Hopefully that does not make me harder on the author than I need to be.

A Diamond in my Heart is my favorite of the three novels. Brand is probably part of the reason. I like him a lot more than Chris.

Chris is difficult to get a handle on. I’m sure that is Angell’s intention. Is he for Mathea’s work or is he against? How does he tackle the whole situation with Calli? It is obvious he at least lusts for her and he has previously seemed to love her (according to surface thoughts). But loving a person does not necessarily mean that we look out for their best interests.

Calli is even more confounded by Chris’ behavior than I am. It must be weird having a person change their behavior toward you almost from day to day. Realising the seriousness of having a shard of diamond lodged in her heart is a process. Coming to accept that protecting her heart also means keeping a distance between herself and Chris would also be difficult.

Freedom craves having Calli’s shard in his possession. He will go to any length to get it. Killing her is only part of it.

Brand’s ability to repeat comes in quite handy in The Diamond of Freedom. Life would be a whole lot more difficult without him.

There was plenty of action in The Diamond of Freedom. At the beginning of the novel Chris and Calli are on the run after Brand saved their lives. They are trying to stay off-radar but are finding that a challenge. From there on we go from one adventure to the other. Some of it is kind of funny (like the biker gang) and Chris’ uncle was adorable (yes I mean that). Kind of cute in his own way.

We are told a bit more about the world of Mathea and meet some of the other Diamond-bearers. I’m left wondering what sort of person I would be after 5000 years. How would it be possible to keep up her motivation for keeping the world in balance for all that time? Is it even possible to retain all of the flighty emotions we short-lived people have? Thankfully I will never find out.

How do I know Lorena Angell (and her son Joshua) have created a well-written fantasy novel? I am left wondering and pondering the characters and their future. That really is the sign of a good series/serial. The author has to keep her readers interested in the story-line and characters that live in it. Good job Lorena. I certainly want to read the next addition to The Unaltered series.

My reviews of books no. 1 (A Diamond in my Pocket) and 2 (A Diamond in my Heart).

Fantasy, Romance, Thriller, Young Adult

Angell, Lorena: A Diamond in my Heart (The Unaltered II) (2012)

2013-04-19 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

First of all, I would like to thank Lorena Angell for sending me a review copy of A Diamond in my Heart.

While each novel is a stand-alone, they are part of a series and as such are best read in order.

Now we’re talking. A Diamond in my Heart is a much tighter book than A Diamond in my Pocket. Angell has cracked the code to the flow. Flowing demands a lot of an author and is probably not always a fun process. As with A Diamond in my Pocket I like the cover of A Diamond in my Heart. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the print in my copy was a little strange at times. It would change type and parts of it was highlighted.

Calli still has the shard of diamond lodged in her heart. That shard enables her to do things like read minds when she concentrates, read emotions, heal, run fast and hunt. For her abilities to blossom completely Calli will need to have the whole diamond lodged in her heart. I found that Callie had grown as a person. There is less angst and more acceptance of life as it is.

Calli’s side-kick is Brand. Brand is a horny senior whose main goal in life seems to be to have sex with every girl on the planet – at least every girl he encounters. He is the quarterback so that should help. But you would think not all girls would fall for whatever lines he uses. Strangely enough they do and the other guys at school are not happy with. Calli doesn’t get it and when she doesn’t fall for Brand’s lines they end up becoming friends. For some bizarre reason I loved him. I hope he turns up in the next novel as well.

Calli’s mentor is Mathea (from A Diamond in my Pocket). Mathea helps Calli understand the responsibilities that come with being a diamond bearer. Turns out they are supposed to keep the world in balance. We get some background information on Mathea. She sure is one strange cookie.

Calli’s enemy is Freedom. Freedom is a previous follower of Mathea who is now out to get Calli’s diamond for himself. He is a diamond bearer but no longer a follower of Mathea’s circle of diamond bearers. This is one seriously messed up dude. His sociopathic traits are fairly strong.

This time I thought the novel was too short. Angell kept me reading and her twists and take on her world was interesting. I like the fact that she has little or no previous experience with fantasy before writing these two novels. It doesn’t show, but then fantasy is about so much more than the flashy stuff. For those of you who worry about anything explicit be it violence or sex you can safely read these two novels.

Fantasy, Romance, Thriller, Young Adult

Angell, Lorena: A Diamond in my Pocket (The Unaltered I) (2012)

2013-02-06 humanitysdarkerside 4 Comments

A Diamond in my Pocket is book one of The Unaltered Series.

What would you do if you one day discovered you had an unexpected ability? Like running fast, really fast. Fast enough to break the world record. It would be a great ability to have if you had to run away from trouble (or maybe to).

Callie Courtnae suddenly discovers this ability and is asked to join a school in Montana that specialises in youth with record-breaking abilities. She goes and discovers that the people at her school are extraordinarily beautiful and a lot quicker than she herself is. Hmmm, I smell a rat.

The premise for A Diamond in my Pocket is pretty good. It is difficult to come up with something new in the world of fantasy. But Angell manages to put a couple of twists in that I don’t think I’ve read before. However, however, however. The characters needed a bit more work and the novel tightening. I wish A Diamond in my Pocket could have fulfilled its potential, because it did have plenty of that.