Traci L. Slatton – Book of Jen

The Year of Loving – by Traci L. Slatton

Sarah Paige’s life is stressful. She has two daughters, and has very strained relationships with both of them. Her youngest, Alex is a high schooler who is constantly in trouble. Her oldest, Dani, is in college and seems to want absolutely nothing to do with her mother.

Sarah believes that her cantankerous, narcissistic, ex-husband, George Calhoun, is intentionally trying to turn their daughters against her. His attitude probably has something to do with Sarah’s second ex-husband, Clifton Perini, whom Sarah left George for. It feels like he wants to “make her pay” for that humiliation.

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Blood Sky – by Traci L. Slatton

Blood Sky is the fourth part of The After Series. I highly recommend that you read the first three books: Fallen, Cold Light, and Far Shore. You will get much more out of Blood Sky if you take the time to read through the earlier portions of the story first. Relationships are made, and broken, and sometimes repaired along the way.

Traci L. Slatton does a good job of reminding readers about the most significant things that happened in the previous books. This is not meant as a replacement for reading them, though. It is important that you “live through that” with the characters before jumping into the fourth book of the series. One of the things I love about Slatton’s books is that she makes the reader truly care about what happens to the characters (both major and minor).

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Book Reviews, science fiction 1

Far Shore – by Traci L. Slatton

Far Shore is the third book in the After series. I highly recommend that you read Fallen (the first book in the series) and Cold Light (the second book in the series) before diving into Far Shore.

This book picks up not too long after the second book left off. I get the feeling it might be only a few months later. The post-apocolyptic world is still plagued with deadly mists that dissolve almost everything in their path.

At first, it appears that Emma has found some stability, but this changes quickly. She has to make some tough decisions, yet again. This time, however, her choices require her to give up everything she loves (but not at the same time).

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Book Reviews, science fiction 2

Cold Light – by Traci L. Slatton

Cold Light is the second book in the After Series by Traci L. Slatton. The first book is called Fallen, and I fell in love with it immediately.

I recommend reading Fallen before reading Cold Light, in order to get the full story. That being said, I think Cold Light might stand up on its own. Some of what happened in the first book is mentioned, or at least eluded to, in the second book.

Cold Light picks up not long after Fallen ends, in a post-apocalyptic world that is in constant danger. Mists that eat metal, turn buildings to dust, and dissolve people, are still roaming the world. In addition, there is the danger that happens when desperate people, struggling to survive, see others as their enemy.

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Book Reviews, fiction 0

Broken – by Traci L. Slatton

Imagine feeling a deep and unending loneliness, one that is so strong that it compels you to leave everything you’ve ever known. This is where the main character, Alia, is at – emotionally speaking – at the start of Broken. The loss of a loved one, a person she was deeply connected to, is what started her extreme loneliness. This painful experience has caused her to question why God permits atrocities to happen. One might say she has lost her faith, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate.

Now, reread the first paragraph with the knowledge that Alia is a fallen angel. The emptiness and hopelessness she feels compel her to leave heaven in search of something that will fill her. She becomes a mortal woman and puts herself in a location, and time period, that is certain to evoke strong emotions. Alia is in France as World War II is starting.

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Book Reviews, science fiction 3

Fallen – by Traci L. Slatton

Fallen is a book that I fell in love with almost immediately. It is a story that takes place in an apocalyptic world, not too far in the future. I tend to gravitate towards these types of stories. Either I am fascinated by the differences between the world I live in and the “alternate universe” one presented in a post-apocolyptic story, or some part of me just wants to “watch the world burn”. Either way, I found Fallen to be completely captivating.

The main character is a woman named Emma, who has become the caretaker of a group of children. One of the children, Mandy, is her own. The rest are, essentially, orphans due to the mists that are plaguing the world.

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Book Reviews, fiction 0

Immortal – by Traci L. Slatton

Luca Bastardo lives on the streets of Florence, Italy, in the early 1300’s. He has no knowledge of who his parents were, or how he became lost from them. All he knows is that he is different from the other homeless boys he befriends.

His hair is blond (and a little red) and everyone else has brown hair. He is clearly smarter than the rest of the children, as well as many of the adults. Luca is strikingly beautiful, and being so brings him much grief.