All seventeen-year-old composer Ien Montgomery desires is an escape from his family’s rigid expectations for his life; someone to inspire his music. When he meets a beautiful violin-prodigy, Kiera McDougal, his life music takes on new life. With her, he imagines a future outside of his parents’ control. That is, until a horrible accident tears them apart.
Sent to die in a sanatorium, Ien’s obsession for Kiera grows unbearable. Tortured by thoughts he can’t escape and the truth of his monstrous disfigurement, he flees, desperate to exact revenge on the people that ruined his life – his parents. But, vengeance is empty. Betrayed by those closest to him, Ien discovers that the price for his happiness may be his sanity.
Set amidst the landscape of New York’s Gilded Age, and inspired by Phantom of the Opera, TRANSCEND exposes the fine line between love and madness.Dark. Mesmerizing. Raw. Powerful. Riveting. This book is all of those things! Man, Chistine Fonseca really outdid herself with Transcend. I totally loved it, in a creepy dark and disturbing way. This book is written in a kind of stream of conscious way. You kind of get completely immersed in Ien’s head and the whole book is very much from his point of view. It totally rocked! I liked it even more than The Phantom of the Opera.Ien is such a compelling character. It was hard for me to be mad at him. I mean he does some pretty crazy stuff and through it all I was still rooting for him. Ien’s mind is so chaotic. It is a very intense book, but so well done.The writing is incredible. Stream of conscious is such a hard writing style to do. It is confusing and can be really frustrating, unless it is well done. I’m not sure if it even was stream of conscious but it seemed that way to me. And it was done amazingly. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the page. I love the Phantom of the Opera feel to it- it was dark and dangerous and raw. There is just this gritty feel to it. I can’t get over how much I loved it. I expected to like it a lot and maybe even love it, but Transcend truly blew me away. It is pretty different than the other books that I normally read but it was such a great choice. If you are looking for a dark book, or some wonderful and stupendous writing- you NEED to read Transcend.
5/5 gavels About Christine FonsecaSchool psychologist by day, critically acclaimed YA and nonfiction author by night, Christine Fonseca believes that writing is a great way to explore humanity. Her many titles include TRANSCEND, DIES IRAE, LACRIMOSA, MEA CULPA, and in nonfiction: 101 SUCCESS SECRETS FOR GIFTED KIDS and EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS.When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she can be sipping too many skinny vanilla lattes at her favorite coffee house or playing around on Facebook and Twitter. Catch her daily thoughts about writing and life on her blog.For more information about Christine Fonseca or the series, visit her website – http://christinefonseca.com or her bloghttp://christinefonseca.blogspot.com.
There are two giveaways that you can enter. The first is the tour wide giveaway. Here is what you can win:
Giveaway 1- 4 Special Character Themed Prize Packs featuring a YA Book, a special item related to the character, and swag. Featuring Ien, Kiera, James and Jenna character prizes.
Giveaway 2- a print copy of Transcend (US only)
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Maji Bookshelf
wow.. i love it when books are dark and just awesome!! This sounds like a book that ill really enjoy! Lovely review michelle!!
– Farah @ MajiBookshelf
Jenea Whittington
Ooh, this sounds fantastic. Ien sounds interesting.. Great review. Thank you for sharing this.
Christy @ Love of Books
Um, yeah.. sounds like I need to read this one. 😀 Great review.
Rhonda D
This sounds like an awesome book. I love it when the book draws you in and you can’t stop reading. Your review definitely has me interested. I’ve added this to my tbr list. 🙂