Wednesday, April 17, 2013

My Review of Gilded Destiny by Nola Sarina.



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.
Nola is represented by the wonderful agent Michelle Johnson of Inklings Literary Agency

Now to why we are really here… Gilded Destiny:  A Vesper Novella by Nola Sarina

A woman's memory returns when she falls in love with the monster who took it from her.
 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: