Emerge: Immortals of Indriell (Book 1)

Emerge by Melissa A. Craven is the first book in her series Immortals of Indriell and is a fast-paced adventure I couldn’t put down! Allie Carmichael’s life is about to change forever when her parents move across the globe in the middle of the night. Arriving in a small town in Ohio, Allie never expects to find people who understand her even when she doesn’t understand herself. Emerge follows Allie’s transformation from mortal to immortal and will leave you begging for more.

What I Enjoyed
I love the cast of characters! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book with so many different characters. While Allie is the main character, there is an entire family of characters waiting for her in Ohio. Each one has his/her own quality that helps you keep them straight, but I’ll admit it took me well over half the book before I was able to do so without flipping back pages. My favorite character (aside from our two main) is Liam. He shows up midway through so I won’t spoil anything, just know that I love him.

Allie is a force to be reckoned with! She’s more than a little lost when we first meet her. Upset about their move and feeling like an outsider, she keeps to herself, or tries too. Allie is fiery, but also fiercely loyal to those she considers friends, something she’s never really been able to say she has. Now that she does, she has to learn to adapt. But that isn’t the only thing she has to adapt too. She has the strange new power lurking inside, ready to burst out, and when it does, Allie’s friends will be the ones with all the answers.

Then there is Aiden. I adore this boy! He is the first person Allie meets in Ohio, and he is also the first person to not flinch when she touches them. Allie finds herself drawn to him, and he seems to be just as fascinated with her. Aiden is a complex character, portraying himself as the classic playboy/jock at school, but showing a softer side to Allie and his real friends. Like Allie, I was drawn to Aiden and found myself falling for the shy guy he truly is.

What Left Me Wanting More
While I love the immersive nature of the story, I needed more. More details, more descriptors, more words, just more. There is little transition between scenes, which led to confusion on my part. Multiple times I thought I’d skipped a page when in reality the story shifted to the next scene without a transition. This made for a choppy read at times, especially in the beginning of the book. As the story progresses and the pace picks up speed, the transitions become seamless.

Another aspect that distracted from the story for me is the narration. It is told in a limited 3rd person, mostly focusing the story on Allie and her experiences. However I really struggled following the narrator in the beginning. Some of this is due to the transitions I mentioned earlier, but mostly this is related to a “tell” rather than “show” method. There may be a technical term for this, but I don’t know it so let me explain. For example, instead of showing through the characters’ interactions that Aiden and Allie are drawn to one another, the narrator tells us Allie feels a connection to him. This is a personal preference for me as I tend to read mostly first person narration. Once I got used to the writing style though, I flew through the book.

Final Thoughts
Overall I really enjoyed Emerge. Craven has created a unique world with her Immortals, and I cannot wait to read more! True to the title, the story follows Allie as she awakens as an Immortal. I loved learning about this new world with her. The awe-inspiring abilities that come with her immortality leads me to believe that as the series progresses we are in for a real adventure. Emerge encompasses everything I love about urban fantasy and combines it with a hint of romance and a dash of action. I highly recommend it for anyone that enjoys the genres.

Summary

Allie was never really normal. For some reason, everyone seemed to recoil at her touch. Her parent’s job has caused her to move constantly. They finally settle in Ohio where Allie meets friends who immediately take her in and don’t recoil at her touch. On her 16th birthday, she finds out way. Allie is immortal. She awakens into her power and a world she never knew existed. Her friends and their family take her into their protection and guidance to teach Allie a life she was not ready for. Allie’s power is very strong in an immortal so young. She finds Aidan has an equal in the measurement of power. Their equal power attracts them to each other. This attraction will either strengthen or ruin their relationship. Allie learns about the about the Immortal’s history through stories of her friend’s parents. In these lessons, she is told about a group called the Coalition. The Coalition is a group of mortals and Immortals who use the most advanced technology to obtain their goal. Their main goal was to eradicate the Immortals, but now they want to use them. Since Allie’s gift is so strong, she is told that they will come for her at some point. She must know learn how to defend herself through various weapon and self defense training. Allie must now learn how to balance an immortal life and a normal 16-year-old life.


Feedback

Emerge: The Awakening by Melissa A. Craven definitely has a unique story. The beginning of the story starts off with Allie being told that her family is moving again. We get to see a little bit of the recoil Allie experiences by other people. Once she arrives in Ohio she immediately finds people who connect with her. Finally, her 16th birthday arrives and she experiences her awakening. After her awakening, her life is now full of history lessons of the Immortals and self-defense training. During her training she learns a lot about each parent and how long they’ve truly lived. While her life is dramatically changing she is trying to keep some sort of normalcy. She dates a mortal while trying to control her closeness to Aidan. There were interesting aspects of this book, however, I felt like the pacing was too sporadic. While I know Allie feels an immediate connections to the others, I had a hard time with the beginning because of how fast everything moved. We learn that she always had a hard time connecting with other people but she doesn’t really question why these relationships were easy. Even tough learning about each Immortal is interesting, I found this part to be slower. I had a hard time getting through the middle, especially because the pacing was so fast during the beginning. Once the ending of the book is reached, the story has the perfect pace. I thoroughly enjoyed the end of this book and found myself wanting more at the end.

Emerge: The Awakening consists of multiple personalities. Allie is a fiery redhead who uses sarcasm as a cover. While I really enjoyed Allie, there were times I couldn’t really relate to her. I felt like my main issue with Allie was her unwillingness to accept the Immortal life at first. While I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I were her instead, I do think there would be more acceptance. At first she doesn’t really take her new life seriously. Towards the end of the book she does start accepting who she is and that this is now her life. She does try to keep her life as normal as possible causing some conflict with Aidan. Aidan puts on a “mask” of a cocky jock as a means of being accepted. After meeting Allie, Aidan finally feels like he can be himself with someone who is his equal. You really learn a lot about Aidan with his actions towards Allie and I felt like Allie should have accepted him more. She continually tries to reject certain aspects of Aidan that should have been embraced instead. All of the other characters were really easy to understand and interpret their importance. I feel like the biggest struggle was Allie and Aidan’s relationship.


Final Thoughts

Emerge: The Awakening by Melissa A. Craven is an interesting read. I really enjoyed the twist on being an immortal that was created While I found the pacing in this book difficult to follow, the content did hold my interest. The stories of each Immortal really did bring an understanding of their lives. I also loved the ending of this book. I was a little worried because I really wanted to like this book but was having a hard time in the beginning and middle. Once I reached the end, I could not put the story down. I am anticipating to continue this story after reading finishing the first book. I recommend this book to those who love mixing history with fantasy. If you find the pacing of the book to be difficult to follow as I did, I highly recommend continuing as the ending is amazing.

Emerge: The Awakening is an impressive story by Melissa A. Craven and I can't wait to read the second book. The entire premise is intriguing. The concept of immortals, their origins, and what happens when they live amongst mortal humans had me hooked from the start.

I love Allie. She is a strong female lead who isn't perfect. Even though she lives in a world where fantasy and reality is blurred, she is a realistic character. Super strong some moments, unsure and vulnerable the next.

Melissa A. Craven is fantastic at world building and creating strong origin stories for her characters. While at times it did slow the pace of the action, I liked learning more about where the characters came from and what helped shaped the way they are now. I can't help but feel that somehow this stories will connect to an even bigger picture. It also helped vary the pacing of the novel. There are some plot twists and the story moves quickly, the origin stories within the story helped me slow down and fully understand the world Allie finds herself in.

This is one Indie book that should be on every YA shelf. Pick it up and pick up the second book as soon as you can. It is a fun read and it won't disappoint.