This new series from Sara Ella is awesome. For fans of Harry Potter, Divergent and maybe Twilight this might be the next great read for you! This is a book filled with multiple layers, both in characters and in the worlds they live in. One could write research papers on all the different angles that are skimmed over.

I really wanted the main character to be a little stronger, but the book really works because you get to witness the struggle El goes through and the character development that happens.

And although El is in love with Joshua, I feel like he is a jerk... Team Ky!


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 Unblemished by Sara Ella. There's a mystery surrounding El, her recently deceased mother and their pasts. El has a crimson birthmark on one side of her face and this has made her insecure, along with all the taunts and rudeness she has received from others throughout her lifetime. Her mother passed guardian responsibilities to Joshua, a young man El has known about three years. She's almost eighteen and Joshua is only a few years older, so she finds this arrangement ridiculous. The world she knows is only a small part of the world she learns about and is thrown into. Alternate worlds or Reflections surround El and her true history. I enjoyed the book and movie references throughout the story and the humor brought with them. The worlds consist of many intertwined characters and their relationships as well as their skills. The author keeps the reader on top of everything and keeps it organized by having the main character, El, review as she learns, smart and helpful. Deep characters and a fantastic world rates 5 stars. The story continues in the sequel, Unraveling.

Oh, where do I begin? No, really, I have no idea how to review this overcomplicated, way too many storylines to keep tract of, way too many relationships between the characters to keep track of (he's her lover, no, brother, no, half brother, no step brother, no, cousin once removed!) novel. There is no way to tell you much without giving away some of the ("gasp! did NOT see THAT coming!" but, yeah, I really did.) plot twists.

Here is a brief recap: 17 year old girl has birthmark on her face, only one girlfriend (who is snarky and mean to her) and a luscious tutor (male, about 22) that she has a crush on. Her Mom dies. Tutor shows her that she's really special (because of the birthmark, natch) and takes her to the Second Reflection to find her Mom (they are currently in the Third Reflection, aka New York, New York. There are Four Reflections altogether.) There they meet a bunch of other people, some good, some bad, who all have 'callings' that give them a special power, like invisibility, turning into an animal, or paralyzing someone with a look. None of them have a birthmark. Their callings seem to be random and don't lock in until they turn 18. Oh wait, yeah they DO actually have some callings attributes before that, but they are 'muted'. There is a Verity, that lives in a Vessel. It is Good. There is a Void, somewhere. Not sure where. It used to be imprisoned but was set free. It is Evil. Girl might be an Amulet. Whole 'nother story. Also might be the Vessel for Verity. Not sure. May be the prison for the Void. Possible, don't know yet. Could be someone else. Girl finds sinister man following her. Might be her Father. Might be her Uncle. Finds another sinister man, might be her Grandfather, might be her Father. Finds another grouchy old man, might be her Grandfather, might just be a friend of the family. Do you see where I'm going here?

There wasn't so much a plot line, as a bunch of Surprise! Another plot twist!'s strung together. And, and of course the usual teen angst: does he love me? Do I love him? Oooo, that guy is kinda cute, does HE love me? Do I love HIM? Gah. A little confusion is fine and lends credibility, a LOT is just annoying.

I finished the book, but it was a mighty struggle. And the cliff-hangar ending just wasn't enough to entice me to slog through a sequel, 'cause as far as these characters and this storyline are concerned, frankly my dear, I don't give a...

I was drawn to this enchanting story by the beautifully illustrated book cover. The author, Sara Ella, obviously took her time creating the various realms in this book and filling them with fascinating characters. The plot kept me guessing because some of the characters had the ability to make things appear to be quite different than what they were, and it wasn’t always easy to understand at first whose side they were on; only as more information was forthcoming could I know if they were part of the shadows or the light. The author added all the extra touches that led me to get to know the people in this book through their actions and words.

Moreover, Sara Ella does such a good job of describing the scenery that I can picture it in my mind. The differences between the evil characters and the good ones, is even shown through the lands they live in and how different everything looks including things like trees. changes.

I loved this book, and I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

This book was pretty solid. It had all of the right elements to it, but I felt like I was just a little bit behind the whole time. Which is probably because it's just the first book. 4 stars

Unblemished, by Sara Ella, is the first in a series by the same name. Now first off I want to say that this cover is so gorgeous. I had to read this book because of the cover. Let me repeat myself here. THIS COVER IS GORGEOUS!

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into this book. I was rather surprised because I’d read such glowing reviews and I was so hyped up and thinking this book was going to be awesome-sauce. In fact, once I started struggling to finish—I had to go back to GoodReads to see if anyone else felt the same. I just didn’t anticipate not liking this book. I did find a few that seemed to have the same issues that I had so I guess I feel validated in my reasoning. I guess I mention this because I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading this book. It seems you’ll either love or hate it and there is no in between.

I want to give just a few examples of the problems that I had with this book.

“Click. Creak.”
“We’re moving again. Whine. Snap.”
“Fizz. A match strikes. Hiss.”

These are all included within just a few paragraphs. The whole book reads this way!

“Click-clack, click-clack.”
“Chip. Crack. Shatter.”
“Thud,rattle,bang! Bellow,yell,holler!”
“Splash,slosh,splash.
“Drip,drip,drip.”
“Flip. Flap. Flit.
“Flip. Scan. Turn.”
“Shuffle. Creak.”

I do mean THE WHOLE BOOK is like this. First off, I’ve never read a book that needed to include sound effects. And can you even call some of these sound effects?

Then, I’ll be honest, the enumeration is a personal pet peeve of mine. Stating that a character counted under her breath is perfectly fine. I don’t need to hear the character count out the numbers. This book saw the character counting on numerous occasions and I felt a bit like I was in preschool and getting math lessons.

Sound effects and enumeration aside, El wasn’t likable—well, I mean some people might like her but I didn’t. She was so entitled, spoiled, childish and reckless. I mean, you know, I’ve absolutely nothing against vegetarians but this chick finds herself in an alterate universe with people trying to kill her. There’s a small group of people trying to save her behind and not even a simple, “thank you.” Nope, she just wants to go on and on about not being able to eat their food because it’d been alive. I can tell you right now, if I had rescued this girl I’d have given her a bowl and told her to go gather some berries. Alone. In the woods full of people trying to kill her. I mean, she was bent on doing the most reckless things anyway anyway. And grateful she was not.

Everything was all about Eliyana and whatever she was feeling in the moment. One minute she was completely obsessed and in love with Joshua and the next minute she’s all googly feeling for Kai even though she’d only known him for less than three weeks. Oh yeah, and he kidnapped her. Sorry, I don’t care the whys. If some man abducts me—he’s going to lose boyfriend/husband status forever.

Then as some other reviewers mentioned—El was in the new alternate universe for less than three weeks and she’s already using words and phrases like, “Thank the verity” which seems a little soon.

Last but not least—the whole “tattoos to signify your gifts thing” has been done already—Divergent. Which speaking of—is basically what a “mirror” is. A gift that is all the gifts in one. El is practically Divergent.

I could go on and on. Plot holes, weird effects, odd behavior from El—like talking to her mom in her head. I don’t even mean telepathically. I mean more like— this girl is just straight up cray-cray. And the never-ending pop culture references drove me crazy.

This book just wasn’t for me and I don’t think that I’ll finish the series.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided by Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. All opinions are my own.

*I received a complimentary copy by NetGalley*

I'm going to start by saying that the plot was interesting, full of adventures and surprises. Had it been well written, it would've been a solid 4.5 stars. But the sentences went like this: She want shopping. She went out. She returned home. Basically,it reminded me of those mandatory class essays, which no one was inspired to do. I do have to say that thankfully, this writing was not present in the whole book. :)

Aside from that, it's an entertaining YA that I would have enjoyed immensely if had I gotten my hands on it when I was 13.

I found the main character, Eliyana, to be too helpless and annoying. She made the dumbest decisions that made me just roll my eyes. I couldn't even finish this book.

Description from the back of the book:
Eliyana has always recoiled from her own reflection in the mirror. But what if that were only one Reflection—one world? What if another world existed where her blemish could become her strength?Eliyana is used to the shadows. With a hideous birthmark covering half her face, she just hopes to graduate high school unscathed. That is, until Joshua hops a fence and changes her perspective. No one, aside from her mother, has ever treated her as normal. Maybe even beautiful. Because of Joshua, Eliyana finally begins to believe she could be loved.But one night her mother doesn’t come home, and that’s when everything gets weird.Now Joshua is her new, and rather reluctant, legal Guardian. Add a hooded stalker and a Central Park battle to the mix and you’ve gone from weird to otherworldly.Eliyana soon finds herself in a world much larger and more complicated than she’s ever known. A world enslaved by a powerful and vile man. And Eliyana holds the answer to defeating him. How can an ordinary girl, a blemished girl, become a savior when she can’t even save herself?


I really wanted to love this book. I thought I would. Fantasy? Check. Adventure. Check. Female heroine? Check. I read the reviews and even I recommended it to my tween and let her read it. Before I read it. Probably not a good idea. She liked it quite a bit though. I had a hard time getting through the middle of the book. Is it possible to not really love a book but want to know what happens to one of the characters in the upcoming book? Because that is where I'm at.

I'm glad that my tween/teen got to read this book also and agreed to review it. We had different opinions on it, but we also both liked the book. She can't wait until the next book Unravelling is available. I am curious to know what happens next also.
I liked that this book has a new "world", really just more realms of this one. Interesting characters with cool and different abilities. I also liked that there was adventure and twists throughout the story until the very end. The ending really makes you want to keep reading. In that sense this book was a fun read.
Here's why I didn't love this book or had a hard time reading it:
It was hard to follow at times because there was SO much stuffed into one book, not enough pages to truly develop each character and ability so that the reader could feel invested. I don't even remember half of it unless I reference back.
Pop culture references all over the place. I felt like there were almost too many. Some of this is okay for me, it's humorous, helps get a point across. But too much and I feel it's overdone and compensating for what might be lacking in the original story. The story is a good one, the world, the abilities, the characters.
El's constant thoughts about boys and if they like her. I get it, you're a teenager but really? Every time one of the boys touches you it has to be heart pounding I wonder if he loves me or notices? Even in the midst of a dangerous situation are we really thinking about how good a boy smells? Umm no, everyone is just trying to stay alive. I don't know why this bugged me so much. I read romance novels. It usually doesn't bother me, but for the most part in those novels other people's lives aren't at stake. This could be an age thing? Maybe I'm too far removed, but as a 17/18 year old thing woman, I felt it was young for her character.
I felt El was very often thinking of herself and her love interests, so much so that the author several times brings us back to what her focus truly is... by putting in a little side note "mom is what matters now, rescuing mom is all that matters". Really? Well then let us focus on that then in the writing instead of reminding us after the fact.
Is this how teens think? Late teens, El is 17-18. Not a young teen. Maybe it just wasn't relate-able to me, like I mentioned above. Perhaps that's what it is. The ending was interesting and I so want to know what happens to Ky the only character I really liked. I do want to check out the next book in this series. At that point I might re read this book, and who knows I might feel different later. Get a better grasp on the nuances of the world and the characters.
I tagged this as a "clean read" because technically it is. There's just kissing, some violence but not graphic.


My tween's thoughts on this book:
"Unblemished is a great action, adventure, and fantasy novel by Sara Ella. The characters were well developed and there were several twists I didn't see coming. My favorite part was the magical concept. I love reading about mythology, and this book had a fresh take on a lot of universal ideas, such as portals and shape-shifting, among other things. I also enjoyed how Sara explained the way the magic worked, and gave background stories as the novel progressed, weaving a web of interconnected pasts.
Would I read it again? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? Yes
What about to teens? Yes."



I received this book from NetGalley. I was under no obligation to give a positive review. All opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Honestly, I wasn't too into the story. I picked up the book because the writer is Christian and I wanted to support her work. And I do. I praise it for a very appropriate development. Having said that, I couldn't get too into it. Mostly wrong timing. I stil recommend it as an appropriate read for all ages. 😊

This book is like Alice in Wonderland meets The Mortal Instruments. Unblemished follows Eliyana or El, a girl who has lived a pretty sheltered life due to a fairly unsightly birthmark on her face and has had a rough go at it because of it. Her birthmark in one world is ugly but in another Reflection or dimension is actually a mark of something exceptional. The plot starts out with a story we've seen before, chosen one has been hidden away until her 18th birthday for her own protection, when all of a sudden crazy stuff starts happening and she has to save the world with her magic. In this story there is a ton of family drama, starting with the death of El's mom and things just kind of get more chaotic from there. Her best friend Joshua ends up being her guardian in both the legal and magical protector sense, and El is dragged quite literally into a world she never knew existed. The unique twist was on the magic system and the world building. I really enjoyed the aspect of the reflections, a kind of multi-dimensional world accessed through Thresholds, where each is kind of a mirror image of the other. I really liked the Callings, some of the people in the magical part of the world whether light or dark has an ability and there weren't too many. I thought that the Verity and Void, aka light and dark, could have been explained a little better. El's whole story is based on her being tied to the Verity and saving everyone, but I'm still a little confused about the whole Verity and Void concept as it applies to the vessels and the Kisses of Infinity. Love plays a big part in the storyline, and I was hoping that El would eventually come to love herself as she was pretty self loathing about her birthmark and the fact that Joshua wouldn't love her back for much of the book. She seemed very love sick and immature in the beginning, but eventually she kind of figured out what she needed to do. I kind of didn't like her in the beginning, she was weak and always having a tantrum, but given all she was going through I guess that was kind of acceptable. She eventually accepted her fate as the savior and grew up a bit, and I ended up liking her by the end. I liked the kind of twist at the end regarding the love triangle where both boys have equal claim, and you just don't know where either of them stand. I know who I want her to end up with and I think I know where things are heading, but I'm not sure where the story is actually going to head. I kind of like that. I'm anxious to get to the 2nd book.

This was an imperfect novel with an interesting storyline and a pretty unique way of blending fiction with reality to create an incredible backdrop for her multitude of characters. Sometimes it was a little difficult trying to keep all the characters and their place in the story straight but the author developed them fairly well so they never came off feeling like filler pieces since they all had a place to keep the story moving.

The plot leads to an interesting idea of a mirror world with a pretty cool fantasy twist. The mythology takes some digging into as she slowly reveals the rules of her world a little at a time which can be irritating when you want everything up front but it actually works out better this way to keep you engaged.

My only super irritation with this book was how it was narrated through the main character because the sentence structure used didn’t flow well and she could be hard to like which had its own problems since the story revolved around her.

Her ending is definitely the best part of this book and will make you want to check out the sequel.

This book, while has a good story, was pretty difficult to read. The story and the characters were difficult to keep track of and it made the story pretty confusing.
I like the concept and the characters weren't bad, but the writing was so hard to follow that it sort of ruined the experience for me.
This is definitely a book I will try to read again in the future to see if I enjoy it more, but I was fairly disappointed by a book I had hope for.

Loved this book! If your a fan of court of wings and roses then this is the book for you ! It's so fast paced yet the story pulls you in and doesn't let go until the very end ! You will never want to stop reading!! The author gives amazing detail that you can picture each image placed before you- and since it's based mostly in NYC a place I know very well it was very easy and fun for me to picture everything happening there! I will be telling everyone I know who loves to read about this book !

Eliyana has a very noticeable birthmark across her face, and society around her never lets her forget. And then her mother dies, and she discovers there's more to her world than she ever knew. It almost seems impossible, but the proof is irrefutable. Eliyana ushers readers through her own looking-glass.

Alas, I couldn't finish this. The way the main character narrated just wasn't my style.

My review is up in amazon, I was a netgalley reader. I enjoyed this book, fairy-tale like, whimsical in some places, thought provoking in others. Truly well written and I liked it enough took for more from this author.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but I just couldn't get into it. The idea was brilliant, and with so many positive reviews I really wanted to enjoy it, but I found the actual story confusing. Did not finish.

The beautiful cover drew me right in! 'Unblemished' is an excellent YA paranormal read, what with hidden magic, other worlds, and a young heroine trying to make sense of it all.a

2 out of 5 stars

Unblemished tells a story of a young woman, with a large birthmark upon her face, whose mother died and she is not left in the guardianship of Joshua. But, not all is at it seems. Eliyana soon finds out that she a chosen one, protected by Guardians, her mother is not dead and she is thrown into a completely different dimension of New York City. I had very high hopes for this as the description reminded me of The 10th Kingdom (which I adore!) However, it was not to be.

While Ella is an extremely gifted writer (her imagery is INCREDIBLE!) I was completely confused for most of the book. What I thought was true at the beginning turns out to be untrue at another instance. Additionally, her characters seemed a bit odd and stilled. Eliyana's fixation on her mother (while I understand it to a degree) seemed completely out of proportion and a bit unhealthy. And the love triangle - what happened? Who did she choose? Will Ky be back?

However, if you enjoy clean contemporary fantasy (i.e. Twilight) this is definitely the book for you. It was just not for me.