Review: Transcendence by C.J. Omolol

When a visit to the Tower of London triggers an overwhelmingly real vision of a beheading that occurred centuries before, Cole Ryan fears she is losing her mind. A mysterious boy, Griffon Hall, comes to her aid, but the intensity of their immediate connection seems to open the floodgate of memories even wider. As their feelings grow, Griffon reveals their common bond as members of the Akhet-an elite group of people who can remember past lives and use their collected wisdom for the good of the world. But not all Akhet are altruistic, and a rogue is after Cole to avenge their shared past. Now in extreme danger, Cole must piece together clues from many lifetimes. What she finds could ruin her chance at a future with Griffon, but risking his love may be the only way to save them both.

I've seen plenty around about Transcendence but never really looked into it enough to know whether I wanted to read it, which is why when it turned up in my post I wasn't all that excited to check it out. I'm kind of glad that I did anyway, it wasn't good enough to blow me away but it was good enough to keep me interested to read Intuition, the second book. 

I really enjoyed how original the idea of the Akhet, people that can remember their past lives, though I was a little confused by all of the flashes to Cole's past lives and which ones matched which. I guess it was done that way to put us in Cole's shoes and make us feel her confusion. I did feel that Cole believed Griffon way too quickly, but I guess if you're having recollections of things that happened centuries ago the Akhet explanation definitely makes sense, so i'll let that slide. 

One thing that did kind of put me off this book was the fact that even though Griffon is only seventeen or whatever, Griffon's essence is centuries old, he's mature and can remember hundreds f lives with kids and wives and being an old man... the whole romance with Cole seemed kind of creepy in the same way that I get creeped out at vampire romances and stuff like that... and Griffon is waaaaay older than Edward Cullen. I did like Cole and Griffon as a couple, it just took me a while to get past the whole almost a thousand year old guy thing.

Omololu's writing didn't really impress me as it was pretty average for YA books, that doesn't mean it was bad, it just means that the writing style was similar to most of the YA paranormal books out there so the voice isn't distinct or memorable, still it was easy to read and a well plotted out storyline with a good pace and flow, so  can't really fault her. 

Overall, Transcendence wasn't the most amazing book out there, but I enjoyed it enough to be eager to check out the sequel and I look forward to reading more about Cole's past lives. The romance was a bit icky at times, but the plot was original and it was developed well. I'd recommend it to people looking for a paranormal romance about something original.

Book released 6th June 2013 by Bloomsbury UK

Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.