2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Yvonne Heidt - The Awakening

The Awakening: Book One of the Sisters of the Spirits Trilogy by Yvonne Heidt
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (January 8, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602827729
ISBN-13: 978-1602827721
Amazon: The Awakening: Book One of the Sisters of the Spirits Trilogy
Amazon Kindle: The Awakening: Book One of the Sisters of the Spirits Trilogy

Sunny Skye, a psychic medium, is the head investigator and founder of Sisters of Spirits, a paranormal society dedicated to helping others understand what they can’t see. She is excellent at finding ghosts but finds it difficult to cope in the real world. When she meets Jordan, she is instantly attracted and completely unnerved by the personal demons she carries around with her.

Street tough Jordan Lawson molded herself into what she thinks an excellent cop should be. She trusts only two things: facts and herself. She believes only in the evil that mankind commits and she certainly doesn’t believe in ghosts, even when confronted by one.

When spiritualism and jaded skepticism collide, who backs down first?

The Fight Within (The Good Fight) by Andrew Grey

I was almost used to an Andrew Grey’s novel, setting in a pretty small town or in an old fashioned ranch, that this new series caught me by surprise. The Fight Within is almost entirely developed in a Native American reservation, and this alone gained major points from me since I have always been interested in those reservations and the today life. You have a lot of historic essays and even some novels, but current life is often overlooked in favor of old notions.

Bryce is a recent widower (actually his partner died days before their marriage but the ceremony was only something formal to make it legal what they already consider a status quo); even if still mourning, Bryce knows that his late partner wouldn’t have wanted for him to do that forever, and so when Bryce meets Paytah, he knows it’s time to look ahead to another future. The trouble is that Paytah is coming out from an abusive past and he is scared to love again (or better to love for the first time, since what he went through before is as much as far from love you can imagine).

Another difference I noticed from previous experiences with the same author is that the sex part of the novel is not so much on center stage; sure, the two main characters will arrive to share also the physical aspect of their relationship, but maybe due to the sensitive matter the novel is dealing with (child abuse), the author decided to let it being late into the novel and not so explicit. I quite appreciate this soft touch, it was right for the context.

I liked that here the strength of the men lied not in their physical body, but more in their upbringing and self-consciousness: while Bryce is hurting, he comes from a supporting family and circle of friends, and so he is strong enough to overcome his loss; on the other side, while Paytah is apparently the stronger man, big and sturdy, he is actually the one who needs help because his hurting is deep and still bleeding inside.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3640

Amazon: The Fight Within
Amazon Kindle: The Fight Within
Paperback: 206 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (March 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1623804000
ISBN-13: 978-1623804008

Series: The Good Fight
1) The Good Fight: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3755233.html
2) The Fight Within

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain