I was delighted to recently receive a
message from author Nola Sarina asking me to review her new novella Gilded
Destiny. I cannot say how excited I was, I'm sure if she had her window open
she'd have heard my scream of delight all the way from Ireland. I suppose many
might say this is one of the best parts of being a writer, getting to meet
like-minded people who value your opinion - so who am I to argue?
So let’s meet the author, Nola Sarina.
Nola lives in Southern Alberta, Canada with
her husband and three children. Born in Minnesota and raised to appreciate
reading and writing of all types from an early age, she found her favorite
titles within the genres of Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror.
Nola began writing fiction as soon as she
learned to read and spent her teenage years writing articles for newsletters
and magazines. She frequently attends writer’s meetings and workshops, and
participated in the 2012 When Words Collide in Calgary. She is a member of the
Writer’s Guild of Alberta and routinely communicates and critiques with other
young, dedicated authors to hone her craft and help others do the same.
Now to why we are really here… Gilded
Destiny: A Vesper Novella by Nola Sarina
tattoos her skin to fill the holes in her
memory, thanks to an accident that left her mind damaged and empty. But a nasty
encounter with a fired employee leaves her in the arms of her unlikely savior:
Nycholas, a predatory, serpentine Vesper on the run from his brutal master.
Nycholas’ clandestine world holds the
secrets to mankind’s origin and survival… but he only wants one thing before
his time is up: a few colorful nights with Calli, the fragile, tattooed, human
woman he pursued and saved.
The more Calli learns about Nycholas, the
more her own darkened memories return to her. Despite her haunted past, she
loses herself to passion and desire with her immortal captor.
Now, Calli must overcome the demons of her
past, or allow Nycholas to kiss her memories away and spare her the trauma of
loving a doomed immortal. But each choice comes with dire consequences – some
that endanger not only herself, but her family as well.
My thoughts on Gilded Destiny.
From the first line until the last, I found
this impossible to put down. The characters that Nola has created left an
impression that will be hard to beat. Her style of writing, adds huge depth,
which leaves you feeling real emotion for the characters that are introduced to
us throughout this story.
Calli, a young tattoo artist is the main
character and the story is told from her point of view. Her memory loss is portrayed
well, which left us questioning, could it all be real?
Nycholas is a doomed immortal cursed by the
serpent guardian of the apple tree in the story of Original Sin. Nycholas
almost has a childlike innocence about him, which Nola has interwoven with the
demon he actually is, very well. We
learn more of his kind throughout the story, and of his eternal sufferings.
After meeting Nycholas, Calli often refers
to him like silk. As she awakes one night she asks, “Where’s that Silk?”
I know the answer to Calli’s question –
Nola has finely threaded it through the words of this story. I found Gilded
Destiny so easy to read, it is as if the pages slipped by as I got pulled more
and more into Calli’s world.
I will leave you with a quote that is often brought up in the writing world -
“Hard writing makes easy
reading.” by William Zinsser,
I think Nola Sarina has achieved this by the
bucket load in this first Novella in a series of three - Keep an eye out for this writer, she is going places.
You find out more about Gilded Destiny on
goodreads:
And more about Nola Sarina on both her
Facebook page and Twitter:
