Faelorehn - Book One of the Otherworld Trilogy by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

Read: June  7-10, 2012

read in  about 4 days

pages: 228

For starters, I have to say I really enjoyed this novel! I'm so glad I contacted Ms. Johnson about reading and reviewing her novel. I was intrigued with the description and I was not disappointed at all. I was only disappointed when I had to put the novel down so I could sleep last night!! Needless to say, I am looking forward to book two in the trilogy. This was a great set up for a series because there are still so many unanswered questions that leave he next books room to explore and discover. I'm hooked and will be continuing for sure!

Meghan Elam is a 17 year old outcast and former orphan who was very lucky to be adopted into a loving family. She struggled with visions, hearing voices and recurring dreams that she never really escaped. Plus her ever changing eye color is just icing on the cake. Despite countless treatments, nothing ever seemed to help. After having been labeled crazy by her classmates, she realizes she is better off keeping the strange happenings to herself. She has a great group of friends with whom she has bonded with given the fact that the five of them are all outsiders. They reminded me of a modern day Breakfast Club, but the twist is they are all real friends rather than friends for a day. So the beginning of the novel does a great job setting up Meghan's life with her friends and her attempt at some kind of normalcy that she tries to maintain even after the craziness begins when Cade comes into her life and offers her an explanation to those voices and visions. She is Faelorehn. A fact that will begin to shine some light on who she is as things begin to unfold.

Meghan is a strong female character which I loved! I would much rather read a story with a strong female than a weak one who becomes complete mush when confronted with an attractive boy. Ok sure she is human and does swoon over the boy, but she is capable of carrying on with her life as well which makes her a much more compelling character than say Bella in Twilight. Yay for having a backbone! I really enjoyed Cade as well. We don't see him too much with this novel. We really only get snippets of him but I'm hoping we see much more of him in the future. Cade is a mystery and I look forward to learning more about him.

The Celtic myths and lore are intriguing because with the market so saturated with Vampire and Werewolves THIS novel offers something completely different. I enjoyed learning about the myths along with Meghan rather than feeling I needed to do some research to find out just what the heck all of this is. Learning along with her helped me connect with the character more. I enjoyed learning about the legends and making the connections with Meghan to the world she was learning existed alongside her own.

I admit the pacing of this is gradual and for some people it may be too slow, but for me this worked very well. I liked the fact that everything didn't completely culminate at the end and get wrapped up in a neat little bow. As I said there are some unanswered questions lingering that have me wondering just where things are going to go.

One of my favorite quotes:

"If I were an ordinary high school girl and if her were an ordinary high school boy, I would be hoping for some romantic liaison on his part right then. But neither of us was ordinary and he was definitely not a high school boy." 

If I were to be so bold as to make any comparisons, when honestly I don't think there can be this story is a one of a kind, there are elements that reminded me of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series just with the fact that Meghan never knew of this world and she now has to learn how to become a part of it. I loved the Mortal Instruments and I find that I am just as hooked on this series as I was with Clare's novel.

For your reading pleasure an excerpt from Faelorehn:

-One-

Memories

The only reason I knew that I was awake was because of the pale green glow of neon stars staring back at me from my ceiling. I lay in my bed for a few moments, taking deep, steadying breaths and letting my eyes adjust to the darkness of my room. The remnants of a dream still danced in my mind, but as the approaching dawn light chased away the dark, it tried to slip away. Unfortunately, this particular dream was familiar to me, and it would take a lot more than my return to the conscious world to eject it from my mind.

I turned my head on my pillow and blinked my eyes several times at my alarm clock. Groaning at the early hour, I rolled over onto my stomach and buried my head into the pillow. I guess the darkness had some claim on the subconscious world, because instead of dispelling the dream, my actions only made it come racing back.

Huffing in frustration, I kicked off the covers and leaned over the side of my bed, scrabbling around stray pairs of shoes and forgotten socks as I searched out my current journal. Years ago the therapist I had been seeing thought it would be a good idea to keep track of these strange recurring dreams. Anytime I dreamt of anything that reminded me of my past before entering the foster system, I was supposed to write it down. That and anything strange that I saw or heard while I was awake. I hate to say it, but the visions happened more often than I would like to admit.

Although my collection of diaries held other frivolous information alongside the crazy stuff, at least once a year, on the same date, the exact same dream was described in near perfect detail.

I dusted off the cover of my latest journal, grabbed a pen from my bedside table, clicked on the lamp and opened up a brand new page. The dream was starting to slip away once again, but it wasn't as if I wouldn't be able to remember the details. I had written about this exact dream so many times before I could probably recite it in front of a crowded gymnasium without glancing at the page it was written on. Not that I would ever have the gumption to speak in front of a crowd. Nevertheless, I began writing:

I had the dream again; the one that always comes to me this time of year. The fog wasn’t as thick as usual in my dreamscape, but I could feel the grit and cold of the blacktop beneath my bare feet. I looked down. Of course I was naked, but at least I was a toddler in the dream.

I paused and thought about that. I had decided a long time ago that the dream was merely a subconscious illustration of the saga that was my beginning. According to my adoptive parents, I was found when I was two years old, wandering the dark streets of Los Angeles (on Halloween night of all times), completely nude and babbling some nonsense that no one could decipher. I know most toddlers babble nonsense, but according to the woman at the adoption agency, what I babbled was nothing like what normal human babies produced when trying to communicate with others. Oh well. Like the bizarre dream, I can’t explain that either. I was lucky, they told my parents, because the part of L.A. they found me in was notorious for gang wars.

Somehow, I survived that nocturnal stroll only to be reminded of that night exactly fifteen times, once a year for every year since I was found. And after fifteen years, I still don't understand why this dream won't leave me alone. I sighed and got back to my writing.

The dreamscape shifted and I noticed that my right hand was pressed up against a warm, solid shape, my fingers clinging to a wad of something rough and coarse. I could just see what it was out of the corner of my eye: a huge white dog, its bedraggled fur acting as an anchor for my small hand. The dog was massive, even from my child’s perspective. I wanted to turn and get a better look at it but something kept my eyes trained forward, as if some crazy hypnotist was twirling a black and white spiral wheel in front of me.

The city lamps glowed an eerie orange, the only color in this black and gray world, and I leaned closer to the dog next to me. It padded quietly along, not making a sound; almost guiding me to some distant point of interest. I wondered what it all meant, but before I could make anything of it, I woke up.

Just as I shut my journal and replaced my pen on the table, my alarm clock started screeching and I nearly had a heart attack. I had forgotten to shut it off when the dream woke me. I tossed the sheets back and hit the snooze button, not even bothering to turn off my lamp. I wished I could sleep in all day but if I remembered correctly it was Monday. I groaned. Mondays were the worst.

If you would like to read more of Faelorehn - Book One of the Otherworld Trilogy by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson you can purchase the novel at smashwords.com, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com for $0.99. So what are you waiting for? Go read this novel!!