Review: Volition by Shawn Kirsten Maravel

Volition
(Volition, #1)
By: Shawn Kirsten Maravel
Publisher: Self-published
Published: June 28, 2011
Genre: YA
Rating:

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Charlotte Rush would be the first to admit that her life is no rollercoaster ride. Her days are laced with ordinary and at times boring monotony. But with a heart that finds itself frequently broken she’s happy to say that she’s content.

When her friends convince her to spend the night out at a club to let loose and maybe even find a guy, she finally admits that her life might be missing something.

No sooner does she let go of her inhibitions does she find herself waking up in a dark hotel room in the presence of Joel, a man who carries mystery in his eyes and familiarity in his smile. Against reason Charlotte decides to trust him based solely on one thing. Somehow, she is sure that she knows him.

In a race against time to find answers and to solve the crime committed against her Charlotte finds herself falling for him. However, with nothing but mystery surrounding him she can’t even be sure that he’s the hero at all. While knowing all of the right things to say he still manages to tell her nothing. As a battle is waged over the innocence of her cryptic stranger, Charlotte discovers that much greater danger awaits her. And the mysteries behind who and what Joel is will lead Charlotte to discover that heaven and earth are not so far apart.

First, let me start off this review by saying that I am not a huge religious person. There is a lot of talk about God, higher beings and how everything happens for a reason. I was a little nervous when I realized this since I’m not a fan of these types of books. However, I am happy to say that I enjoyed this book and found the story to be engaging regardless.

Without giving too much away, I will say that I liked Joel’s character. Charlotte meets Joel the night that a bartender spikes her water with the date rape drug. Joel sees the bartender putting something in her drink and is there to save her from a potential raping. In her efforts to get her bearings, she enlists the help of Joel and they meet up to talk about that night. It doesn’t take long for these two to become friends. I must say that I liked the struggle that Joel dealt with when it came to his attraction to Charlotte, it made him more human in my eyes. He doesn’t quite understand his attraction to her but with every moment they spend together, he finds himself falling more in love with her.

The trial that ensues from the whole club incident, takes up the length of the book. Joel is convinced that something bad is going to happen to Charlotte and he remains by her side throughout the trial. The connection between these two characters didn’t feel rushed or forced. Although I did find a lot of the trial part to be a bit lengthy and not overly necessary.

I will say that this book could use a good editing. There were a lot of grammar issues. There were words that were missing in a sentence and words that were misspelled. I found at least two mistakes in every chapter. There was also a lot of inner dialect and parts that weren’t overly important to the story that could have been cut out. Not that the story was bad, but those errors did take away from the book.

Regardless, I am still looking forward to reading the second book in the story. I can’t wait to see what happens next with Joel and Charlotte. Not to mention the ending. It totally surprised me and I’m always happy when a book can do that.

*The copy that I was given by the author was an unedited ARC of the re-released addition. So the errors that I found have been fixed.

This may seem like a strange quote but considering my place of employment where I deal with hundreds of people a day from all over the world. I really thought this was funny.

“Are you implying that I don’t make each and every customer’s day by smiling?”