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

Tara's Baby

I loved the idea of the story. Didn’t really like the execution. It seemed a bit disjointed as it jumped around a bit to areas I wasn’t expecting. The whole Jerry Springer style talk show was weird and uncomfortable and I didn’t think it fit the overall tone of the story. I knew this wasn’t going to be a great religious conspiracy style story like The Da Vinci Code, but I went back and forth on was this a serious story or just some ideas on religious issues that someone strung together. It takes you down some neat roads and then would go all sideways and take you down unbelievable paths only to drop you off in a different place. I didn’t like how chapters would sometimes jump forward in the story and I wasn’t sure where or how we got to this place.

Cyril, I dubbed Cereal, was annoying. I didn’t like his back and forth on who he was and what he believed. I hated him as a character from the beginning and hated him much more as the story was told. Tara’s like for him made me start to dislike her as even she said she wasn’t a good judge of people. Her lack of restraint with people and poor decision making made me not care what happened to her. She was that person in a horror movie you are just hoping to get killed. The only people I cared about were her siblings. Her sister and her story was the only one that actually moved me. I just felt no connection to the characters as the story went on.

Even though this was like watching a bad B movie, my guilty pleasure, where my wife would tell me to change the channel, I have to say I’m hooked. Wasn’t happy with how it got there but in the end it got to where I wanted the story to be. The ending was quite crazy and since there is no resolution I need to know what happens. So given all my complaining I will say that the story itself was different and something I completely plan on continuing on with.

I liked the narrator. I think her voice was excellent for Tara. I liked her other character voices as well but she really nailed Tara. I see that she doesn't continue on with the next book and that is disappointing.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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

Good read.

Interesting story with twists you didn't see coming. I received this audio book for free at my request and voluntarily reviewed

Whoa!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
I had a hard time putting this book down!
The story gets your attention from the beginning in a very awesome "Dan Brown" way. Tara not only has to face her pregnancy when she never had sex in her life. Everyone she knew and trusted don't believe her, and now there's is people trying to kill her... Can she really trust the ones who claim that can help her? She's been let down before, and that, had serious consequences...
Narration was good not great, but good.

A rush of a read

You definitely need to be open minded to read this book hopefully huge religious fanatics won’t rate this negativity. Tara is an average college student that finds out she’s pregnant even without having sex. She goes through people trying to take her life, not believing her, backstabbing, and more because her baby could be the future messiah. The action in this book is definitely intense and Tara is a very strong character considering all she deals with. Really awesome read.

Worth the listen

I went through a couple different phases of feelings about this book. There were a few times when I wasn't sure I liked it, a couple times when I was hanging on every word, and then a couple times when I was happy to have it on in the background.
I had an issue with some of the narration though. When there would be a change in the story, there wouldn't always be a pause in narration. I would have to stop and rewind thinking I had missed something. Other than needing pauses in between topic/character/time line changes, the narration was good.
With the story, I at some times felt as though it was a familiar story to me with a bit of a twist, but at other times felt like it was completely different. I enjoyed it overall and think its worth a listen.
*I was given this book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

will try book 2

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

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