A solid 5 star read, I throughly enjoyed this book. From the cover to the content, it works. I managed to get things all out of order, but I'm fixing that ASAP. El and Josh are a good couple and the war between good and evil is awesome. It has some twists, and I really enjoy that. Now, I am off to read the first book and catch up!

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

Eliyana Ember is about to be crowned queen. Everything is perfect. Her mother is married, happy, (alive), and pregnant. Joshua is totally in love with her and waiting for her to be ready for marriage. Only Ky is missing. Then a disaster happens and everything goes haywire. The Callings are disappearing, and Eliyana's enemies are yet again on the move.

Unraveling is the second book in the Unblemished series, and it is pretty epic! I loved the first book so much, because of the Kiss of Infinity (aka. true love), all the talk about Real love, the contrast between light and darkness, and the imaginative story and characters. Unraveling didn't show up the first book, but it was just as awesome. I can see a potential, too, of the third book blasting the first two out of the eater. We shall see.

True love, good, and evil are definitely strong themes. Eliyana is the "human incarnation" of the goodness good, called the Verity. And the two men who shared Kisses of Infinity with her (yes, two, talk about a love triangle) are also the incarnations of the evilest evil, called the Void. It's does mean that Eliyana is perfect or that the guys are evil, only that they have a stronger impulse to go one way or the other, and the only way to moderate it is to love each other unconditionally. Or so I am led to believe. The themes are so amazing to me, so like the real Christianity (though they aren't quite perfect).

And that love triangle! It's so hurtful. Just, how are they going to work things out, especially now that the two guys who love her also have a tendency toward evil? Yikes.

Truly, I loved Unraveling, and I'm dying to read Unbreakable. May 1, 2018 is so far away! Eight or nine months!

As you can see, I highly recommend this book, to everyone and fantasy-lovers.

I received copy from NetGalley ... and then I bought a copy because it was so good. All opinions are definitely my own.

After reading Unblemished, I was super excited to get into this book. I liked the fresh story world and the spunky voice of Eliyana and all the musical references. All those great things continue in this second book. I loved the way some of the characters evolved-- Ebony, especially-- and enjoyed seeing Eliyana gain some confidence and independence of her own.

On the guy side... You know, in the first book, I was really rooting for Joshua and El to be together. I wasn't a huge fan of Ky's cockiness and attitude, and I liked Joshua's self-sacrifice and commitment to do what was right no matter the personal cost to him. In this book, I found myself struggling to like either guy. I felt like they both had agendas, and while the story vilified one guy for his, I didn't feel like I bought into the idea that the other guy should get off the hook because his motives were supposedly so pure.

I didn't mind the lack of Christian worldview, but I felt like Unraveling confused some Christian concepts and warped them into a lot of gray morality. Everything seemed to come down to human strength. The good guys fight the Void and the bad guys simply aren't strong enough to do so or flat out choose the darkness. I don't know. It felt empty, I guess, and kind of arbitrary, if that makes any sense.

Despite my reservations about the characters, I definitely bought into the romance and want these guys to figure out some way to be happy. All of them. Some of Eliyana's moments of comparison between how she feels about Joshua versus Ky made a lot of sense to me in terms of growing up and learning about love.

If you liked Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series, you might like the world-jumping, star-crossed love elements of Unraveling. Definitely start the series with Unblemished, as it introduces a lot of characters gradually, and Unblemished kind of throws you right into the middle of a huge group of them without a lot of preamble.

I didn't realize this was part of a series when I requested it and as I haven't read the other books I'm the series I don't think it would be fair for me to review it. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Really enjoyed reading this book!! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Unraveling started slowly but the pace quickly improved and kept me moving through the story. The plot is full of adventure, twists and turns, and I really loved where the story went,
It still has that fairytale feel but I definitely felt that this sequel was more action packed than book 1. We see El develop and grow into her new role, but we also see her doubts and struggles.
I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives of this book as it really opened my eyes to the events surrounding other characters.
The world is expanded in this book and I can't wait to see where they go in book 3.
4/5 stars.

DNFing at 40%

"Sometimes there is no solution. Sometimes there's simply an end."

As a reviewer, I try my darnedest to get through a book, even if I'm not its biggest fan, so I may give it an honest review. Some books, I can hunker down and wait patiently, and am actually satisfied by the result that I did. With others, I get lost in a whirlwind of disinterest and disengagement, and cannot go further.

So, for the record, I really tried, and wanted to like this book!

Despite my overall appreciate of Unblemished (you can see my review here) I could not make heads or tales of what was happening in this plot. Amidst the massive info dumps featuring confusing and intertwined verbiage and metaphor, I found myself working far too hard to understand what was happening here. More than one character ends up being related to another, finds out they have some crazy familial past, an even-more awkward love-triangle unfolds, and so on and so forth.

The author uses references and descriptive terms that are, for lack of better term, cheesy, and awkward.

For example:

...and my stomach does the Macarena.

My most recent meal tumbles in my gut, banging around like a sneaker in the dryer.

...I pop a squat on the floor, criss-cross applesauce my legs,...

His coat collar is turned up, touching his car-door ears. (What does that even mean!?)

...To highlight a few.

I thought it may be a first book fluke (because they were present there as well.) These little additions turned out to be the way the author attempts at creating visuals for the reader. Unfortunately, they result in giving a more distracting, and perplexing image. Not to mention, made me feel like I was back in 3rd grade.

An unrelated point that resulted in a similar reaction were the "song" lyrics that Eilyana would sing during different scenes while using her gift.

Like in Unblemished, I had a difficult time following the action scenes, as well as when the characters transitioned from one reflection to the next. There is so much to this world, or, versions of the worlds that require more detailed explanation to make them clear to the reader.

I really liked, and appreciate the idea that the author had while tackling this series---the battle between the Verity and the Void (good vs. evil) with several underlying themes. After reading Unblemished, I was ready to LOVE this book. But because of it's overall lack of clarity, info-dumping, multiple character point of views, and so forth, I couldn't continue.

Vulgarity: None. HOWEVER, the characters say phrases like: "thank the Verity," or "scared the Void out of me" which is basically replacing "heaven" and "hell," leading the character to actually swear...so...I didn't care for that much.
Sexual content: Kissing only.
Violence: Minimal.

1.5 stars.

A big thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

https://laurinboyle.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/unblemished-unraveling-by-sara-ella/

A lot of series, in my opinion, are defined by the second book. The series can rise, fall, or become dependent on the third or final book to know how you feel about the transition that takes place in the second. Some people, even authors, won't read second books...

This book is not like that. This book makes the series. I love the new El (or Em). I think she is finally putting roots down and developing relationships now that she doesn't have the birthmark on her face to hold her back. She has a family, and its not just her mom anymore. I did not love the ending, but I did. It was beautiful!

I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you like pirates, adventure, sisterhood, romance, a good guy turning evil, a villain becoming the hero.. this book is for you!

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson--Fiction for the opportunity to read and review Unraveling by Sara Ella. The story continues on from Unblemished as El struggles with her role as Queen and her relationships with others. Her insecurities still hamper her ambitions and self-esteem, while many of the relationships she thought she understood keep changing. Her life and surroundings are unraveling. It ends as though there will be more to come. The story has many twists and the characters have many layers and more secrets continue to be revealed. This did get a bit tiring because I never knew what the characters were fully dealing with and could not get a grasp on what was going on, but I suppose that's why the title is Unraveling. Interesting and complex characters and creative world building earn a 4 star rating.

Story continues in Unbreakable, scheduled for release May 2018.

Here is what I was waiting for! This is one of the few times I think the sequel surpasses the original. It had everything I was wanting, from some pretty extensive world buildilng to some real character development. I wasn't left feeling like something was missing with this one (which could totally be because the first book was kind of just exposition, which actually was kind of nice). Really great! Can't wait for the next one!

The second installment in the Unblemished trilogy is a great read that will leave you aching for more.

Eliyana Ember has always wanted her world to be a fairy tale. After a defeating her grandfather and saving the second Reflection, El starts to only trust what she can see and touch. The Kiss of Infinity she once shared is nothing but a memory and now that she is becoming queen she doesn’t know if she is prepared to deal with any of it. The Verity is cast within her soul and therefore leaves Joshua by her side ready to rule her birth land. Even with all she has, she feels something is missing. The Callings, she and others have had as magical powers, begin to fail and El wonders if her connection to Ky Rhyen is somehow involved. Light and dark cannot coexist and El needs to find the answers before the Callings disappear altogether.

This book is outstanding, as long as you have read the first. If you come into this having as a standalone or don’t have Unblemished fresh in your mind, you will likely have difficulties. There is so much that is set up in the first book that is relevant to Unraveling in order for everything to make sense that it is very important to have the first firmly in your mind when starting this one. The characters develop much more fully here along with the world. This is very different from our own, but also similar in many, many ways. I enjoyed the introduction of new characters and the interaction they had with already established characters. One of the best aspects is it is a very clean book without losing the intensity of the story, a very rare trait to be found today. Other than making sure you have read the first book, I can’t think of anything negative to say about this book. I can’t wait to see what the third installment has in store.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

Book Review: Unraveling by Sara Ella

My love for fantasy YA novels knows no bounds, as my Harry Potter addiction can attest, so when I received the opportunity to review a fantasy YA novel with a female protagonist, I jumped on it. A few things that you should know about Unraveling from the onset:
It’s book two of the Unblemished trilogy
The premise is that there are 7 different worlds that are linked and are variant echos of each other (Reflections) which are governed by two major power sources: the Verity, a source of light, and the Void, a source of darkness
The relative size of each Reflection is roughly the same size of the NYC area (boroughs and all)
Each world includes people with magical abilities, or Callings, but they are only open about their abilities within a few of these Reflections
There are 7 Callings: Amulet, Scribe, Shield, Mask, Mirror, Ever, Magnet
You should definitely read book one, Unblemished first — it would be quite confusing otherwise
Unraveling begins approximately two months after the ending of Unblemished. The lead character, Eliyana, is facing difficulties with her new leadership responsibilities and has conflicting feelings about the guy she’s pined for during the past few years and a guy she’s only recently met. However, the largest obstacle in her newfound role is the frightening changes occurring to people’s Callings, and those plotting to use this to their advantage.
As Eliyana, or El, as she prefers to be named, works to solve why the Callings are disappearing, one by one, we see her revert back to the self-doubt she exhibited in the first book. She has always been a loner and when she feels other’s expectations, she wants to avoid disappointing them. Her journey towards regaining self-confidence is tied to her and people’s diminishing powers but it is also a vehicle for the reader to examine the issues faced by women in leadership positions. El is only one of the leaders that we see in this series and is the leader who has most recently come into power. It is interesting that her male peers have either been trained to lead their whole lives or have taken on responsibility over time so that leadership is familiar to them. Yet, El is constantly comparing herself to their abilities and often doubts whether she has what it takes to fix a problem that she feels is her fault.
El’s plight is a great example of the Imposter syndrome that researchers have explored, especially when it comes to young women who are flexing skills that they are unfamiliar with. Fortunately, her instincts — to go to the library and learn as much as she can directly from experts, even if they are people she has been at odds with in the past, are exactly what’s needed. In fact, it is when El disregards her instincts, especially when she sees red flags, that she or someone she loves ends up in peril. Unraveling does a great job of depicting women’s leadership by showing us women in power in addition to El, in the form of the story’s primary antagonist, the Fairy Queen.
The author’s foreshadowing in the first book, Unblemished, comes into play in this book. These come in the form of the origin of the Verity and the Void, the parentage of one of Eliyana’s love interests, and a few tertiary characters having more to them than meets the eye.
While the author excels in crafting a well-organized plot led by characters’ motivations, I would be remiss if I did not bring up a few issues that I have with the portrayals of people of color in this series. Namely, that one of the few identifiable people of color in the series so far meets their untimely demise pretty early, another character could easily be coded as a ‘Mammy’ stereotype, and one event near the end feels eerily reminiscent of Rue’s death in Hunger Games.
Despite these issues, I look forward to reading the conclusion of the series and learning the answers to the still unravelled threads to this story. What do we still have left to learn about these worlds? Who will Eliyana choose? Will she come to recognize her true powers on her own? Will we finally meet the dragons that keep being hinted?
Perhaps there is truly more than meets the eye when it comes to the story arcs of the people of color in this series and how the author answers the questions above and more. I anticipate this in the final book of the series, Unbreakable, which is scheduled for release in 2018.

First Line: I'm not ready for this.

Summary: Eliyana is now queen of the Third Reflection. She is with the man she has loved for many years but she is also in love with another. Who does she choose and how does she run a country? When the Callngs begin to fail she soon learns that something she has done is causing it. She must travel to the Fourth Reflection to find Ky and fix her kingdom.

Highlights: I love the cover. So pretty. The idea and plot are promising. I liked the first one.

Lowlights: The problems I had with the first only intensified in this book. I was so lost with all the different pieces and names. The references to pop culture items was too much and too often. Plus the love triangle was overdone and talked out. It didn't seem to fit.

FYI: Confusing.

Unraveling picks up shortly after Unblemished (book #1) leaves off. El is the vessel of the Verity and she is about to become queen, Ky has left her without a word, and Joshua is by her side and wants to be with her. Everything seems perfect, but we quickly find out that all is not well.

Much like the first book I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the stuff going on and it took my a while to figure out what was going on. The book jumps around alot from El and Joshua's perspective, and we even get a few chapters of Ky's perspective. Everyone is researching the Verity and the Void, and it jumps from El speaking, to El thinking, to El reading, and it was sometimes hard to keep track of who voice we were truly hearing. I really appreciated getting more backstory on the Verity and the Void. I felt pretty confused at the end of book 1, but I really feel like the Void and Verity concept was developed alot more in book 2. I like where it is heading and feel much more comfortable with the concept and where that part of the plot is going. With El being the Verity's vessel, and the Void being split between both Ky and Joshua, El is on a mission to destroy the Void and free both boys she cares about and save the the Callings and the Thresholds from disappearing. As they learn more and more about the history of the Verity and the Void, the Fairy Queen becomes more and more important to the story.

I really liked the relationship development between Ebony and El, I wasn't sure where that was headed but I like where it went. I'd like to see that same type of development with their other sister Khloe. The love triangle, but there are hints that it might actually be a square, comes on really strong. El is still pretty love sick for Joshua in the second installment, and she is still pretty unsure of herself. Many of her actions are driven by Joshua's influence or her memories of Joshua. I thought that she had finally broken through the "I'm worthless because of my birthmark" thing at the end of book one, but that theme emerges again in book 2 and she still feels those same emotions of worthlessness. I do like that the story make a play to build her up and work with her abilities to make her strong on her own. Her journey of self discovery is still centered around the boys, but she kind of figured out how to break away from them and find her way on her own.

I'm anxious to see where book 3 takes us. If Josh/Joshua can fight the Void and if the Void can truly be destroyed. I really enjoyed book 2 and liked where things ended and feel like things ended in a good place.

I read this ARC in June. Right after I read Unblemished. For me, picking up Unblemished was not too exciting, for I picked it up at the wrong time. It's a good book, just not for me at the moment. Same with this one. I did look forward to certain scenes, but I ended up just skimming through it. I do recommend it because it is totally appropriate for all ages.

Pros:
~ The love triangle reaches resolution!
~ Eliyana experiences more character growth
~ The relationships of the characters evolve and grow
~ Pirates?? Seven dimensional seas?? ATLANTIS?
~ I really do like the love story
~ KY
~ There’s a particular love-triangle centric trope I HATE in here
~ BUt..... I think it works. It was built up from book 1 and felt natural
~ LOVED the inclusion of Ebony and Khloe
~ Especially the Ebony Evolution™

Cons:
~ I’m sorry... but the butterfly thing is just too cheesy even for me
~ Eliyana isn’t exactly OP in this book, but she possesses all this untapped
power, and I know she will be OP in time
~ Not sure if there needed to be multiple POVs...
~ SHUT UP JOSHUA!!!!!! NO ONE WANTS YOU AROUND!!!
~ If you looked up asshole in the dictionary there’d be a picture of Joshua
~ I’m not sure if I’m supposed to care about Joshua, and that’s why that’s
a con
HERE BE SPOILERS FOR BOOK ONE! Spoiled men tell no tales, so mateys, read at your own peril.

Unraveling resumes two months after Unblemished left off. The time jump is a little jarring, but what is most shocking is what has happened in those two months.

Ky is gone. He disappeared at the end of the first book (though we, the reader, do see his redux/epilogue) without word to Eliyana. She fully believes he’s left her forever to find his little sister, and is left to govern the Second as the new vessel of the Verity and queen, with acting-King Joshua at her side.

And Joshua’s proposed.

Right? Right. Eugh.

So the little lovebirds are engaged, but Eliyana is not fully satisfied with her current life. Everybody respects Joshua as king but not really her as queen, which I can kind of understand. How can she be queen when she literally just discovered this world existed? That’s like me finding out I’m princess of Genovia and trying to rule immediately. Then Isabeau and her unfulfilled-promise-self returns, along with traitor Gage, and they attack during the coronation. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except that because Eliyana is queen, Mirror, and Verity vessel, the Callings (their magic powers) are dying, and Isabeau’s attack succeeds.

Eliyana decides the only person who knows enough and is desperate enough to help after being imprisoned in the last book is Ebony, her ex-friend and half-sister. When they snoop in Joshua’s stuff for info Eliyana ends up discovering that Ky did leave word for her. Turns out, he knew Joshua would keep it from her, so he left a hidden note.

We end up following Eliyana on her search for Ky and the reason the Callings are failing. She travels to the Third Reflection, joins a pirate crew, discovers Atlantis, as well as the extent of her own powers.

Ky’s search for his adopted baby sister, Khloe, has taken him to the Third, which is, literally, Atlantis. We meet a lot of new characters, most especially the pirate crew Ky has commandeered, but they’re not as fleshed as they could’ve been. The real development lies in Ky and Eliyana’s relationship. Ky is there for her through everything, especially because he is in her head, and they grow together a lot because of this.

As in the first book, Eliyana herself experiences good growth. Her relationship with her mom, Makai, and her new baby brother is sweet, but I really liked how she made more female friends. She suffers a lot between Ky and Joshua. Joshua has been a dick the whole time (in my opinion since the first book) by keeping things from her, manipulating her, lying outright, and believing her to be his possession and treating her as such. And since their shared Kiss of Infinity, Eliyana has heard Ky’s voice in her head, responding to her thoughts. For a while she thinks it’s her imagination, till she realizes it’s really him.

Ky is very supportive and sweet. He is all-around better for Eliyana than Joshua, who has frankly put his douchebaggery on full display, to the point where he is completely susceptible to Void taint.

Joshua’s possessiveness and lies warp him into something villainous. I won’t spoil, but generally when one love interest is made to be crappy and mean or even evil to force the MC into choosing the other guy, I find it cheap and lazy. But Joshua’s questionable motives here… I think they work. Because he absorbed half of the Void vessel at the end of the first book (a subject which I am still admittedly hazy on, due to confusing exposition), he is highly susceptible to, well, turning evil. Plus he was sketchy from the beginning. But he is given room for potential redemption, so, in all, an interesting plot line.

Another fabulous development was Ebony! She was a total beeyotch in the first book and was not much better in the beginning of this one. But she does change and grow close with her half-sisters Khloe and Eliyana. I loved that the mean girl of the first book became a close friend and sister of the MCs!

I have to say, the characters are where this series shines. The exploration of the Third Reflection is interesting, but not as much as the Second because we really don’t get to see it all that much. And as ever, the worldbuilding is very cute, as are the Callings. Eliyana is the Mirror and the Verity vessel now, so she has access to all of the Callings. A couple are awakened in this book, including Eliyana’s shapeshifting power which is obviously going to be the cutest thing possible… look at the cover. IMHO, Eliyana is too OP. In this book alone she has a lot of powers, and since they’re not all fully tapped, it’s going to get worse.

Would I say Unraveling, in the end, is better than Unblemished? … No. I enjoyed the plot of Unblemished more than this, in spite of the gratifying relational growth. In some ways Unblemished has a stronger plot because it is contained in itself. Isabeau is an all right villain, but this feels like we’re stretching.

Overall I have to deduct points for:

1. killing off one of the few (only?) characters of color

2. the cheeeese

3. that STUPID TROPE USED AT THE END

If you’ve read Mockingjay, the Cahill Witch Chronicles, or watched any soap opera, maybe you can guess what this trope is. I’ll just say, the force of the Lethe river is strong with this one.

If you liked Unblemished, you will assuredly like its sequel. (unless you were for Joshua, which, I don’t know why you would be…) But the same problems in that book are prevalent in this one, so maybe skip this series if you can’t get into the first book.

In Unraveling, book two in Sara Ella’s Unblemished trilogy, all is not well. Despite the defeat of the evil Jasyn Crowe, something is happening to the callings of those who follow the Verity.

As El wrestles with the question of whether she is worthy of being the verity’s vessel, her people are starting to wonder the same. Was there a mistake made?

The love triangle between El, Joshua, and Ky grows more complicated and twisted as this book continues. As one man’s love for El fights the Void within him, the other’s gives it roots. Will El listen to her heart or her history?

I had a hard time getting into this story. The love triangle angle come on too strong for the first half of the book even though Ky’s input was only included as an aside. It wasn’t until El journeys out of the Second Reflection to the Third and then on to the Fourth that my interest was captured.
Another issue I had with the book was with the characterization of on particular person. How can someone I rooted for in the first book become someone I don’t like at all in the second? Don’t worry, when you read it, you’ll know exactly who I’m talking about.

Ella’s world-building is impressive as readers are taken to not one but two new Reflections. The Fourth is rooted in myth (which added a unique twist), and there’s only been a glimpse of fifth thus far. And the new relationships El develops with her sisters is heartening.

Unraveling definitely leaves readers with more of a cliff-hangar ending than the first. It’s been a year since I read Unblemished and perhaps that has a little to do with why it took me so long to become engaged in the story. I’m optimistic that book three brings readers full-circle and gives us answers to the questions posed thus far as well as happy endings for everyone who deserves them. I do recommend reading this one so we’re not all totally lost when book three comes out.

Oh, and after reading the book, this gorgeous cover becomes even more so with context!!

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books for review from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

I love this series! Unraveling, the second book in the series, started off just after the first book (Unblemished) left off. Eliyana is now getting ready to take the throne and learn to rule her people. She is feeling very "in over her head" and looking to Joshua for help. And yet, she is quite sure where she truly stands with Joshua, or what part the Kiss of Infinity truly played in their story. Eli must rise to the occasion and decide what type of leader, and woman, she is going to become.

The beautiful cover drew me right into both 'Unraveling' and its prequel. 'Unblemished' is an excellent YA paranormal read, what with hidden magic, other worlds, and a young heroine trying to make sense of it all. 'Unraveling' picks up where book 1 left off and readers are thrust back into the action. Great read!