Book Review - Taken By Storm & Unbroken Connection

Taken by Storm
By Angela Morrison



Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 304
Release Date:  February 2010
Content: Nothing offensive


Description: 

Leesie Hunt's Unbreakable Rules:

No Kissing (at least not of the French variety) . . . No Sex (hah! not even close to happening anyway) . . . No Dating Outside the Mormon Faith (what would be the point?) . . . ABSOLUTELY No Falling in Love with the Wrong Boy (would ruin everything)

Leesie thinks she has her whole life planned out: get into the school of her dreams, write her poems, meet the perfect guy, and settle down. Then she meets Michael--a boy whose parents were killed in a diving accident during a terrible storm.

Michael is drowning in tragedy. And all Lessie wants is to save him. With each day, her heart hurts more. Could it be perfect Lessie is falling from grace? Or is she just falling in love?  But if Leesie gives in to temptation, who is going to save her?

My Review:

My first impression was one of confusion. When I opened the book and saw how it was written, I had to thumb through and see if it was that way throughout. It was. It's in first person through the two main characters' point of view. That's no big deal, right? Well, when it's Michael's turn to speak, it's written in his dive log. I thought it strange at first, but then I loved it. So, so creative. And for Leesie, she writes all her thoughts in poems. That took me some time to get used to, but then I loved it too. In between the dive log entries and the poems, you'll find Leesie and Michael and other characters typing back and forth in a chat room online. I know this sounds confusing, and to be honest, I thought it would be. But because it was so unique and different from what I was used to reading, I found it very refreshing.

Angela Morrison did an awesome job creating these main characters. Michael's gut wrenching sorrow at the loss of his parents was so real and heart breaking. And Leesie's compassion for his loss and her struggle to keep herself morally clean seemed genuine. I've read so many books about Mormon's that are preachy and seem forced, but this one was far from it. Emotions flowed from every page.

I was even more thrilled with the second book,

Unbroken Connection


Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 320
Release Date:  August 2010
Content: Nothing offensive

Description:

Michael is in Thailand diving his dream. Leesie is at BYU living hers. And they just can't leave each other alone. Their romance rekindles, deeper than before. They grow desperate to see one another again. To hold one another again. Michael decides there is only one direction their relationship can go and asks Leesie the ultimate question. Her answer challenges everything Michael is and wants to be. Can she change for him? Can he change for her? Enough? 

My Review Continues:

Written in the same unique format, this book is even more intense than the first. Both Michael and Leesie are thrust into unfamiliar worlds where they face new temptations, testing the love they have for one another. They'd both agreed to break it off and just be friends, but that's just not happening. They are in love and want to be together. That is until some wild story hits the internet about Michael and another girl. And Leesie comes face to face with a return missionary she had a crush on. Talk about intense.

I'm not giving away anymore of the story. You'll just have to run out and get both books and read them for yourselves. The best part? Book three in the trilogy, Cayman Summer, will be out in 2011 and we'll all get another dose of these wonderful characters.

To find out more about Angela go HERE.   Or order her books below.