Thursday, October 1, 2015

Review: The Assassin by Pamela DuMond with Giveaway





THE ASSASSIN
Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance Book 2
by Pamela DuMond
YA Time Travel
256 pages




“I was a Messenger: I kept the memory of all our encounters, our lives, like a locket that brushes the skin and bones covering my heart. But Samuel was a Healer: he didn’t time travel. His kind lived, died, re-incarnated, and he didn’t retain memories from his past lives. Every year I landed in required starting our relationship over: from ashes, from scrap… Every place I journeyed had beauty as well as darkness; all my time-travels were bittersweet.” ~ Madeline.
Madeline’s a Messenger: time traveling across lifetimes and delivering messages that could change one life or many. When she discovers that her true love, Samuel, is alive in present day, but doesn’t remember her from their past, she journeys to a deadly royal conflict in medieval Portugal hoping to rekindle his memory. Mortal assassins as well as dark-souled time travelers seek to kill her. Will Madeline and Samuel be together again in life—or only in death?
THE SEEKER (Mortal Beloved, Book Three) publishes Winter 2015/2016.





MY TIDBITS


Although the blurb made me believe this story is more of a romance (which it also is, to be sure), there is so much more to the story than true love. Madeline is simply a wonderful character. Messengers, hunters, time travel - there's so many fantasy elements but sixteen-year-old Madeline holds a modern day personality to the bitter end. She's not your average heroine and like a sensible person, isn't convinced that being a Messenger is all it's cracked up to be. But she does what she has to do. . .mostly because it's right (she has a fantastic moral compass). And she's chasing true love, but with all the adventures she runs up against, she's fighting more for her survival than anything else.

I really enjoyed the world shifts in this story. Each time and place was well described, giving just enough detail to make the story come to life without feeling bogged down. When Madeline lands in a time of kings, gypsies and knights, it was easy to fall right into the time with her. The dialogue didn't always fit this time frame, but that dash of modern day speech did spice it up and made the characters easier to relate to.

There's a lot going on in this story--assassinations, revenge, evil plots, manhunts. . .and all at different levels and coming from various directions. It's not clear exactly what Madeline's 'message' is or who it's to be delivered to. And all the action thrown in around this intrigue, keeps the plot alive.

Even the romance isn't always crystal clear, and I found myself rooting for different sides depending on how the story twisted and turned. I'm not sure I was even happy with the outcome, and secretly hoped love might find a different direction. But it's exactly these type of uncertainties which made this book so interesting.  Just like Madeline's time jumping isn't exactly planned out, the plot itself twists and turns in all sorts of various directions making it hard to guess what is really going on or what will happen next.

I can recommend this story to anyone who loves historical settings mixed with a dash of fun from modern times and a touching romance on the side. And I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on book 2.



The Buzz. . .


“All the excitement of Outlander if it was a YA series.”
THE ASSASSIN IS the anticipated sequel to the YA Time Travel romantic thriller — THE MESSENGER.
The Messenger has been optioned for Film/TV.
The Assassin will be featured in Glamour UK Magazine September 2015 edition.











Book 1 - THE MESSENGER

Available on:











And here she is. . .
PAMELA DUMOND!!!






Pamela DuMond is the author who discovered Erin Brockovich’s life story, thought it would make a great movie and pitched it to ‘Hollywood’.

She writes romantic comedic mysteries, romantic YA time travel and New Adult romance.

Her book The Story of You and Me was a Quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakout Novel Award (ABNA) 2014 in Romance.

Cupcakes, Pies, and Hot Guys was a Quarterfinalist in ABNA 2013 in Mystery .

She’s addicted to TV shows — The Voice and Reign. The movies Love Actually and The Bourne trilogy (with Matt Damon — not that other actor guy,) make her cry ever time she watches them. (Like — a thousand.)

When she’s not writing Pamela’s also a chiropractor and cat wrangler. She loves reading, the beach, working out, movies, TV, animals, her family and friends. She lives in Venice, California with her fur-babies.

She likes her coffee strong, her cabernet hearty, her chocolate dark, her foods non-GMO and she lives for a good giggle.

Author links:




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3 comments:

Giselle said...

Great review! This sounds like a very complex read and an addictive one at that! I like how character driven it sounds overall as well! Glad you liked it! :)

Judy Thomas said...

Love the cover.Thank you for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

Review I like which made up my mind to read it, oh awesome book cover too. Good luck, Darlene Cruz