Summary

Allie was never really normal. For some reason, everyone seemed to recoil at her touch. Her parent’s job has caused her to move constantly. They finally settle in Ohio where Allie meets friends who immediately take her in and don’t recoil at her touch. On her 16th birthday, she finds out way. Allie is immortal. She awakens into her power and a world she never knew existed. Her friends and their family take her into their protection and guidance to teach Allie a life she was not ready for. Allie’s power is very strong in an immortal so young. She finds Aidan has an equal in the measurement of power. Their equal power attracts them to each other. This attraction will either strengthen or ruin their relationship. Allie learns about the about the Immortal’s history through stories of her friend’s parents. In these lessons, she is told about a group called the Coalition. The Coalition is a group of mortals and Immortals who use the most advanced technology to obtain their goal. Their main goal was to eradicate the Immortals, but now they want to use them. Since Allie’s gift is so strong, she is told that they will come for her at some point. She must know learn how to defend herself through various weapon and self defense training. Allie must now learn how to balance an immortal life and a normal 16-year-old life.

Feedback

Emerge: The Awakening by Melissa A. Craven definitely has a unique story. The beginning of the story starts off with Allie being told that her family is moving again. We get to see a little bit of the recoil Allie experiences by other people. Once she arrives in Ohio she immediately finds people who connect with her. Finally, her 16th birthday arrives and she experiences her awakening. After her awakening, her life is now full of history lessons of the Immortals and self-defense training. During her training she learns a lot about each parent and how long they’ve truly lived. While her life is dramatically changing she is trying to keep some sort of normalcy. She dates a mortal while trying to control her closeness to Aidan. There were interesting aspects of this book, however, I felt like the pacing was too sporadic. While I know Allie feels an immediate connections to the others, I had a hard time with the beginning because of how fast everything moved. We learn that she always had a hard time connecting with other people but she doesn’t really question why these relationships were easy. Even tough learning about each Immortal is interesting, I found this part to be slower. I had a hard time getting through the middle, especially because the pacing was so fast during the beginning. Once the ending of the book is reached, the story has the perfect pace. I thoroughly enjoyed the end of this book and found myself wanting more at the end.

Emerge: The Awakening consists of multiple personalities. Allie is a fiery redhead who uses sarcasm as a cover. While I really enjoyed Allie, there were times I couldn’t really relate to her. I felt like my main issue with Allie was her unwillingness to accept the Immortal life at first. While I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I were her instead, I do think there would be more acceptance. At first she doesn’t really take her new life seriously. Towards the end of the book she does start accepting who she is and that this is now her life. She does try to keep her life as normal as possible causing some conflict with Aidan. Aidan puts on a “mask” of a cocky jock as a means of being accepted. After meeting Allie, Aidan finally feels like he can be himself with someone who is his equal. You really learn a lot about Aidan with his actions towards Allie and I felt like Allie should have accepted him more. She continually tries to reject certain aspects of Aidan that should have been embraced instead. All of the other characters were really easy to understand and interpret their importance. I feel like the biggest struggle was Allie and Aidan’s relationship.

Final Thoughts

Emerge: The Awakening by Melissa A. Craven is an interesting read. I really enjoyed the twist on being an immortal that was created While I found the pacing in this book difficult to follow, the content did hold my interest. The stories of each Immortal really did bring an understanding of their lives. I also loved the ending of this book. I was a little worried because I really wanted to like this book but was having a hard time in the beginning and middle. Once I reached the end, I could not put the story down. I am anticipating to continue this story after reading finishing the first book. I recommend this book to those who love mixing history with fantasy. If you find the pacing of the book to be difficult to follow as I did, I highly recommend continuing as the ending is amazing.