Essence ~ Review

Title: Essence

Author: A.L. Waddington

Publication Date: January 15, 2014 (first published in 2011)

Pages: 308

Genre: Young Adult,  Science Fiction

Rating: 4 stars

Summary: Jocelyn Timmons does not believe she is anything special — just an ordinary high school senior, living an ordinary life full of school-work, volleyball and friends. She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

Jackson Chandler moved in to the house across the street. His dark wavy hair, green eyes and charismatic personality draws everyone to him. Everyone, but Jocelyn. 

Whenever Jackson gets near Jocelyn she feels ill and dizzy. When he touches her, she blacks out and has visions of another life, in another time. As the odd hallucinations evolve and become clearer, she feels a strong pull towards the people she sees there. Frightened, she watches her once stable life begin to crumble around her and she begins to question her own sanity.
Could it be possible that these episodes are actually her own memories of a life she is living somehow, somewhere, some-when? Maybe this is time-travel or some other paranormal mysticism? Our minds often wander, but can our souls?

Reincarnation is one of my favorite philosophy theories ever. I'm always interested in other's stories and beliefs on how far reincarnation can go. It's too bad that this is not what I got with this book. All my theories on Essence were completely off the mark, (especially my theory that an immortal was stalking his doppelgänger love throughout the centuries. Wayyy too much Vampire Diaries.) 

But I still enjoyed this novel! The actual "thing" that was going on with Jocelyn blew my mind. No spoilers for you :p But I am highly anticipating what this revelation means for our MCs in the next installments. 

I do feel like the weird chemistry between Jocelyn and Jackson took way too long to overcome. Almost like in Angelini's Starcrossed. There's only so much posturing I can stand between any two people. Have you ever seen a fight take place, and the two combatants are just circling each other? Just circling, and circling, some more circling, and more, and more. And then the audience just SNAPS. That was me, for like three-quarters of this book. From there, events pretty much started to snowball. 

There are a lot of secondary characters that I grew to love in this, namely Jocelyn's brother. Keep an eye out for him, lovelies.

The ending though, is what really gets me. When Jocelyn becomes aware of what's happening, when Jackson and her finally seem to come to terms, and then right out of left field, THE CLIFFHANGER!! My arch-nemesis of so many series... Have at thee! Alas, I've been defeated once again, but I keep going. Because I am a book soldier, fiercely slaying trilogies and stand-alones by the hundreds. 

I might have taken that too far.

Well, if you can't tell, Essence has riled me up. I want to thank the author for allowing me to read her precious baby. Book 2 of the EVE series came out in April, so while I am seriously losing the battle, I say the war is not yet over and Enlightened will be mine!