“Transcend” and “Epoch” – review
“I think a part of you will be mine to love in every life.”
Nathaniel
Warning: the synopsis and review may contain spoilers!
Synopsis
Transcend is a duet series, written by Jewel Ann and contains the Transcend and Epoch books.
In the first book of Jewel Ann’s duet, Transcend, we meet our three main characters: Swayze, a 21-year-old girl, her boyfriend Griffin and professor Nate, who is Swayze’s employer. Swayze and Griffin are in a relationship for a short time, but they are madly in love. Nathaniel is a widower and Morgan’s father, a one-month-old baby. He hires Swayze to be Morgan’s nanny, and from this point, things begin to complicate.
Swayze has familiar, vivid memories of Nate’s childhood. She knows personal things about him which she cannot explain, considering the fact that they have never met before. Nathaniel realizes that Swayze knows things which only Daisy, his childhood best friend and girlfriend knew, but Daisy died many years ago.
Transcend challenges beliefs, leaving the readers wondering: is there life after death? Can love transcend time? Is Daisy’s soul living inside Swayze? and if it is, can the relationship between Griffin and Swayze compete with the transcendental love of Nate and Daisy/Swayze? Epoch, the second book of the Transcend duet will answear all your questions.
“Griffin resides in my heart and the forefront of my mind. My desire to spend the rest of my life with him is indisputable. What I fear is Nate. What if he lives in my soul? Even worse … what if she lives in my soul?”
Swayze
Transcend and Epoch by Jewel Ann- books Review
Writing a review of Transcend is difficult, because I feel like I can’t find enough words to express how much this book impressed me. Epoch, the second book, is even better than the first and it surprised me, because after reading the first book, I got the impression that it can’t get better than that. But it did…
If the first book is narrated by Nate and Swayze, in the second book we also read Griffin’s point of view… and let me tell you that the angst and emotion are heartbreaking. Reading about his love for Swayze was soul shattering:
“I woke up early that morning before the sun. And I watched you sleep. All I wanted was to scoop you up in my arms and take you with me. I wanted to chase darkness where we could hide beneath the shadows of a million sunsets. If you could transcend time, why couldn’t we stop it? Why couldn’t our love be immortal?”
Griffin
I was torn between Griffin and Nathaniel. I couldn’t choose between one of them to the detriment of the other. Even though I loved Griffin, I craved for Nathaniel to have a happy ending, because he has been through so much by losing both greatest loves of his life. His love for Swayze is pure and selfless, and totally different from Griffin’s love.
“Swayze, you’re everything. The stars and the earth. The sun of a million lifetimes. You’re the girl I fell in love with. You’re the woman I want to love. You’re Morgan’s every smile. You’re my peace of mind. My salvation. You’re beautiful beyond words. Smart. Sexy. Just … everything. Except … mine.”
Nate
I got invested in the male characters, but I empathized the most with Swayze. It was difficult to read about her struggle and to see how she was ripped apart between Griffin and Nate. The process of coming to terms with her own identity was long and painful.
“Who am I?
Swayze
A ghost?
An unfinished life?
A fractured soul?”
If I had some small dissatisfaction with the way things went towards the end, the epilogue solved them. I was delighted with the way things ended; the epilogue was so perfect and unexpected!
Transcend – Book Review – Favourite Book Series
Jewel Ann is one of my favourite writers. I loved all her books that I have managed to read so far, but the Transcend duet is my favourite. Actually, the first time I discovered this author was by reading Transcend and I was so impressed and in love with this duet, that I continued to read almost all her books.
The ironic thing is that, at first, I avoided reading this book, because I saw on goodreads that it was tagged as paranormal novel and I had some prejudices about combining romance with fantasy. But I was sorely mistaken… After finishing this duet, I learned about what a book hangover truly means. I spoke so much about this duet and I read and reread quotes from it until I learned them by heart. The storyline of this duet was raw and heartbreaking, but seeing how things turned out at the end brought me so much satisfaction.
If you read this duet, I would really like to know what was your opinion about it. Who was your favourite character? Where you pleased with the ending? What was your favourite quote?