The Awakening

By: Lisa M. Lilly

Narrated by: Jewel Greenberg

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tara Spencer's mysterious pregnancy causes her family and fiance to turn against her, and sidetracks her plans for medical school. Only a stranger, Cyril Woods, believes her claim that she's still a virgin. The religious order that Cyril belongs to thinks Tara's child may be a new messiah. But when prenatal testing raises troubling questions the order becomes Tara's enemy, convinced she will trigger the first stage of the Apocalypse. Tara fights for her life, seeking a safe place to give birth and the answer to whether she and her child are meant to save the world or destroy it.

©2011 Lisa M. Lilly (P)2015 Lisa M. Lilly

A thrilling read.

Any additional comments?

Tara's life is changed forever the day she finds out she is pregnant. It's an impossibility because Tara is a virgin! She has never had sex, not even with her fiance, so how can she be pregnant? That's something she has to find out, but with her parents thinking she is loosing it, her fiance breaking it off because he thinks she cheated on him, strangers trying to kill her and everyone calling her a liar, it's harder than you think to get answers. That is until Cyril comes into her life. He has a crazy theory that she is either carrying the next Messiah or the next anti-Christ. From then on Tara's life is one fraught with danger, deception, betrayal and heartache. She needs to find answers before it's too late.

There is a lot to like about this book. It's fast paced, intense and an engaging read, but one thing that brought it from a 4 star down to a 3 star, for me anyway, was Cyril. I really enjoyed the way the story was going for the 2 of them until Cyril takes an about face and completely changes his personality in one night!! It was unreal and in my opinion, unnecessary. They were so good together and for him to treat Tara like that was horrible, and really soured my taste of him. I think I know why the author did what she did, but I still didn't like it!!

Anyway, with that being said, I still enjoyed this. It had a Da Vinci Code feel to it, in that it had so many conspiracies and beliefs in it. It's chock full of intrigue, mystery, suspense and twists. You can tell that the author did a lot of research and put a lot of effort into the idea of the book, because it shows. It's a well thought out and executed plot and will keep you turning the pages.

The characters aswell were well written. Poor Tara has so much to deal with, yet she stays true to herself and is firm about her virginity, despite so many people telling her differently. They tell her that it's impossible and she must of had sex, but she knows the truth and is adamant. I liked her strength of character, though thought she was a little naive at times, especially when it came to trusting.

In all this was a really good listen and I can't wait to see what happens next. The ending felt a little rushed and leaves us with a lot if unanswered questions but since book 2 is out already, I'm ok with that!! Lol.

Jewel Greenberg did a good job with the narration. She did great with Tara but didn't have enough of a different tone with some of the other characters. I also wanted her to be a little more intense with some scenes. It felt like she read the story great but didn't give much of a performance. She needed to give a little more.

*I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good book

BOOK REVIEW.....
A good story. I liked this book. I think the author did a good job developing the characters and creating an interesting story

AUDIO REVIEW......
I found the narrator to be very good at reading the book as well as giving the characters life and voice.

L. .

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Full of surprises

What did you love best about The Awakening?

I had no idea what was coming... Every new chapter saw the story grow in ways that I didn't expect.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All of them.

What does Jewel Greenberg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The characterisation she presents creates the scenarios.

Any additional comments?

This was an interesting book intertwining thoughts about women, religion, and psychology around the premise of immaculate conception. I would rank this as a thriller and found that it did keep me interested. It didn't preach any of its own beliefs but did present an interesting scenario which wasn't predictable at all. Definitely worth checking out.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Awakening

Any additional comments?

THE AWAKENING is a thriller with a huge concept. It turns on the concept of whether a virgin birth will herald in a new dawn for humankind or Armageddon. The plotting is fast-paced, with edge-of-your seat scenes and unsuspected twists and turns that are the hallmarks of well-done thrillers.. It is a provocative and literate thriller that will give you hours of reading pleasure and make you think.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

will try book 2

started slow and I almost gave up, but will try next book. Really 31 1/2 stars

Decent and Entertaining, but buy book 2 in print..

Yet another YA/NA book with a female main character who makes poor choices. I spent a good part of the book wondering at Tara's lack of common sense. With that said if you don't take the book too seriously it's enjoyable enough, and I was surprised by the ending.

If you do like this book enough to buy book two, I recommend you buy BOOK 2 in print instead of audio OR you download the audio sample first. The reader of book two is different and I found her voice so irritating that I returned the audiobook.

The Awakening bk 1

Any additional comments?

Tara,a college student,finds herself pregnant.Since she is a virgin,this is impossible...or is it?Everyone thinks she is lying.She is followed by people telling her she is carrying the savior,and others wanting to kill her.We follow her through the mire of religious dogma from a few different forms of Christainity and her own belief that god doesn't exist.Narrated by Jewell Greenberg I thought the characters voices were ok,not great,but passable.
"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com."

PREGNANT, yet a VIRGIN!!

This is the first story I've listened to by author Lisa M. Lilly and it was well written. She put forth alot of research into the religious beliefs that were centuries old. I'm positive that the author put forth alot of time doing the research to learn and find details to put into the writing of this story. Although I did like the story it did take me several chapters before finding myself connected to this story. Lisa wrote a story that was intriguing and unique. I wouldn't know what to do if I was in Tara's place, becoming pregnant, yet never having had sex before. I would definitely be scared, cry, and even run as Tara did. When she meets Cyril I found him to be unbelievable with saying her child was special, her being a messiah. Then towards the end, when I think Tara gave her virginity to Cyril, it seemed for a virgin she let it go too quickly. But, I was outraged at Cyril's behavior towards her band I wanted to choke the life from him. I thought to myself, how could he?Then the ending just wasn't what I expected it to be. I felt the author rushed the ending, leaving more questions than answers. This is why I only give it 4 stars.

Narrator, Jewel Greenberg did a fantastic job in her narration of this story. She brought this story to life and I felt the pain that Tara was feeling. The narrator did a wonderful job with distinguishing the accents of each character. I will definitely be looking for other stories Jewel has narrated. Overall, I enjoyed the story and I hope to see the second story, The Unbelievers on Audible soon. I received this audio in exchange for an honest review.

Thriller that challenges the patriarchal religions

I found it fascinating to see how a story of immaculate conception might play out in todays society. There was a lot of research done into different religions, but the book is not preachy. It is an exciting thriller that challenges the patriarchal religions.

I liked and related to the main character. This is the first book in the series, so it left me with lots of questions and a desire to find out what happens next.

I listened to the audiobook edition which I received free in exchange for an honest review. The narrator spoke clearly and at a good pace. She performed great characterisations and accents. Jewel didn't pronounce the "g" on the end of any "ing" words, which bugged me a little, but didn't take away from the story. She used her voice well to enhance emotion and build tension and suspense.

the Awakening review

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it's entertaining and enjoyable. Interesting writing and characters.

What other book might you compare The Awakening to and why?

None. I really can't compare this to any other book.

Which character – as performed by Jewel Greenberg – was your favorite?

The main character Tara.

Any additional comments?

I liked this.

OKAY

Dragged on a bit and became sick of the heroine being a good two shoes :-(

Breakneck Unknown Pregnancy Thriller

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, though I'd have to pick the friend carefully cause I don't know how many of them like thrillers.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the pacing, it went incredibly fast and never left much time for action to slow down.

What about Jewel Greenberg’s performance did you like?

I enjoyed the fact that despite being someone with a higher pitched voice she used different tones and gave a good effort at giving each character even the men a voice that wasn't cartoony and did them justice.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Kind of, it just made me think more than anything because I'm in a situation where a pregnancy like that would really change things, and it made me think in that way. Beyond that point when the thriller part started to take over I didn't have so much of those thoughts.

Any additional comments?

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review and enjoyed the story quite a bit even though it went outside my normal realms for entertainment.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful