Natasha Preston

"A car accident causes Scarlett to start remembering pieces of an unfamiliar past. When a new guy moves into town, Scarlett feels an instant spark. But Noah knows the truth of Scarlett's past, and he's determined to shield her from it...because Scarlett grew up in a cult called Eternal Light, controlled by her biological parents. And they want her back"--

Awake

Alexa M

holy god this book was laughably bad. the writing, the plot, everything omg. 🤮

Sven Test

As mentioned in the synopsis, Scarlett doesn't remember anything before she was 4-years-old. It is all a blank in her mind and it's as if it never existed. Suddenly, she starts having "nightmares" but they are really memories from that blank state she has. She starts opening up to Noah, a new student who has arrived at her school and she's immediately drawn to him but Noah has secrets of his own that could be deadly for Scarlett.

The story had me intrigued for sure. I wanted to know the big mystery of it all but the characters were completely bland to me and it was a major struggle to like them. Nothing really stood out to me from them and there was no connection. I still pushed this aside and continued my journey with this book because I really wanted to know what would happen in the end. I was not expecting what came to be revealed and I must admit I was a tad scared since I read this in October (Halloween month) and I'm a huge scaredy cat. Everything was set for this story to be great except the characters. I think the author didn't really captivated their stories or tried engaging us with them because there wasn't much of them to really feel sympathy for. This is something huge considering Scarlett goes through a lot but I never felt anything for her. "What are you not telling me?" I repeated. Dad closed his eyes and said, "Donald and Fiona are your biological parents." The air left my lungs in a rush. "And the sacrifice was you." Scarlett's biological parents belong in a cult and they believe that Scarlett needs to be sacrificed in order for them to continue to the new life.

There was a romance between Scarlett and Noah that I wasn't completely sold on. It didn't feel like they had any real spark whatsoever. Plus, it was insta-love and I am not a fan of that at all.

The ending turned out to be fairly good and I was enjoying  it a lot and then we get a cliff-hanger. Normally, I wouldn't pick up the following book (if there is one since I haven't heard news of it) but I really want to know what's going to happen. I have hopes that the sequel will be better since we get thrown a bit of a twist at the end that I would like to explore.

Illeana

lulaa

** spoiler alert **
           Ok this was a really great book , but i feel like it had the potential to be amazing. 

Firstly just so you know this author is a England based author so some of her references and phrases are confusing if your are an American based reader. Also she is a warped author and that is also very evident in her writing at least to me it is. Like for all my former Wattpad readers we know how books can or writers can be overly dramatic and I get that from this author/writing. Or maybe it’s because of the kind of book it is. Other than that it was a pretty well written book. Also don’t let the cover fool you , if you have read her other book “The Cellar” this is NOT part two. It literally has NOTHING to do with “The Cellar” but it is advertised on the back of “The Cellar” which makes no sense to me because there is a part two to “The Cellar”. Yeah don’t make sense I know. 

Now that’s been stated let’s get into the book. It’s your typical read. Honestly the ending is pretty predictable so it’s no surprise how it ends. But I will say it had me at the edge of my seat, gave me a little anxiety about how it would end. Which; as crazy as it may sound, I am grateful for cause it made the end worth it. 




‼️SPOILER AHEAD. SPOILER AHEAD. SPOILER AHEAD‼️






Ok the only thing I wish this book had was a second part to find out if Scarlett finds Evie or not. I just want to know about Evie. Maybe it would’ve been nice if the second book was about Evie’ life. Even though we don’t know if she’s alive or not. Though they do hint at her being dead. I just want to know what happened to her. I also want to know if Scarlett and Noah stay together forever like do they get married and have a family and what not. And how does their trauma effect them later in die and their relationship. I also wish she did a prequel so we could find out how Donald and Fiona became the way the did. 

Also if I’m not mistaken there are 40 members of Eternal Light, including Noah and Scarlett. And she kept saying it would be 38 against 2 so that’s why she was so scared of trying to escaping. She thought they would be caught quickly. But when officer Adele comes to give her information she says 37 members was captured so like wtf happened to that other member or was that a typo and it’s not even addressed again Scarlett doesn’t even correct her or ask her how is there only 37 captured when there’s suppose to be 38 members. So either it’s a typo or sum. I don’t know maybe i’m looking to deep into it. 

I’m also glad nothing happened to the elderly couple that helped them. I would’ve been so mad if they died. 

Anyway that’s all i have to say if you read this book and have some theories or ideas to my thoughts/question please comment them below :))

Caroline Lewicki

I don't think I've ever read a book that I DIDN'T like so quickly. I think my motivation was writing this review...

I felt like I was reading an ARC copy of this book at times. There are so many weird spelling, grammar, and structure errors, whoever edited this book should be ashamed. But that's me being picky.

My real issues with this book had more to do with continuity, pacing, and voice. It's also just recklessly unbelievable and has little to no twist. I could see everything that was coming from a mile away. The book is riddled with clichés and it's painfully redundant. It's a sappy, fall in love in one chapter kind of book but the characters pretend like they're not in love every other paragraph, or like they're trying to stay away from each other but just couldn't possibly *swoon*. 

I feel like the concept is okay, but poorly executed.(view spoiler)[ I really didn't like that the "twist" was that Scarlett's family (and Noah in the end) are formerly members of a cult, but somehow *~* love *~* made them completely abandon a life that they wholeheartedly believed in. Anyone who knows anything about cults (true crime junkie here, hi) knows that there's so little chance that overnight, or literally in the middle of a cult ritual in this case, someone would just change their mind about everything they've been led to believe. Noah has a few moments of challenged morals but for the most part, his flip from cult believer to non-believer is instantaneous. HE MEETS A GIRL AND SUDDENLY HIS 18 YEARS OF EXISTENCE MEAN NOTHING. also the part where they decide to lose their virginity to one another is cheesy and I hated it.  (hide spoiler)]


On the whole, would not recommend wasting time on this one. It also ends on a cliffhanger that I don't think will ever get resolved, which is frustrating.

As seen on Caity Reads.

I really wanted to DNF this book, and that’s saying something. I really struggle DNFing books. I always want to give them a chance to become better. That being said, I was able to push through and finish this book. Awake follows an almost sixteen year old girl named Scarlett. Due to a traumatic event, Scarlett cannot remember anything before the age of four.

Let’s start with her memory loss. Everyone in the book, including the main character, seemed to be completely shocked by the fact that she couldn’t remember anything before the age of four. I can honestly say, I have maybe two memories from before the age of four; and they weren’t exactly great. In other words, I found their shock to be really unrealistic. Not having many memories before the age of four isn’t exactly surprising.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of insta-love. On certain occasions, I can stand it; but most of the time it drives me absolutely nuts. This was definitely one of those occasions. I’m not sure who decided instant love was realistic, but it’s not. The writing was mediocre at best, and I was bored through the majority of the novel. Things picked up toward the end, but even then I just really wanted to be done reading this book.

Overall, I would not recommend reading this book. It was boring and just not written very well. The most interesting aspects of this story dealt with the cult, but that just couldn’t make it great for me.

Megan Leprich

DNFed this one on page 150. This is nothing like the other Natasha Preston books I’ve read. The romance is ridiculous and the cult crap is just weird. Took about 100 pages to even get to the cult stuff and that was after slogging through some really bad romance between a 15 year old girl and 16 year old guy. I never thought I would say that I had to put down a Natasha Preston book but here we are.

Destiny

So first of all, teen romance, please! 

So this is the first book I’ve really read of Natasha’s and while I’m not disappointed I wasn’t really intrigued, although I can say I wouldn’t be writing this if I wasn’t the little bit intrigued with the title and that started it all. 

Scarlett’s just a 16 year old Highschool student with a lot of wit, beauty and not so much brains, or the matter of ‘don’t talk to strangers’ motto. Although, she loves being outside, hanging out with friends and can I say, loves watching movies, go girl. 

New kid Noah, never found out his last name, is immediately the new kid and just instantly starts to get scarletts attention. Kinda creepy right? Well apparently not to her as she immediately swoons over him I mean “absolutely beautiful- like too beautiful to be in this school” something along those lines, but immediately trusts him and tells him her life story, talk about a teenage romance and relationship going too far too fast, I think the only smart thing was the relationship didn’t go too fast or atleast that’s how it’s prolonged in the book itself. 

The plot of the story seemed really fast to grasp at sometimes and I do have to say the setting could’ve been described in sentences so I will say, not much scenic things to grasp, but I will say although the relationship did come together fast only because it was supposed to be favored that way, I think the story needed it. 

Now the overall reason it moved so fast, honest, didn’t see it coming and let me just say

M e s s e d u p

In all reality though, they were my favorite characters in the book to go along with, would I revisit this book, possibly, am I a bit disappointed by the ending and the way it ended yes and no, but I wouldn’t say this was as bad as some books I’ve read, honestly I’m a sucker for teen love, it’s ridiculous but it’s the kind of ridiculous that is good for some of us to read to realize that growing up, we thought it was normal. I honestly am intrigued to read her other books. So thank you.

Laura

This book is horrible, but it’s the kind of horrible I love because I can reread it when I need a pick-me-up. Mind you, this isn’t as enjoyably awful as The Cellar, which I’ve reread many times just to laugh at it- it’s like the Showgirls of the book world. Preston’s heroine is basically the same as Summer, just with different coloring. Her love interest was obnoxious and clingy and she should have stuck with making him the villain instead of going over to Scarlett’s side because brainwashing is a strong force, but boners are stronger. Not as many dialogue gems as there are in The Cellar, no rip off villain with a easily parodied catchphrase. Also, I knew this book was going to be hysterically bad, so I came into the book with that expectation as opposed to how I went into The Cellar. I actually found myself let down in that aspect, because I wanted something more horribly fun to read, dammit. Another reason why I don’t think this book worked as well as The Cellar did for a hate read was the cringe worthy attempts to critique religion. In my head, I was shouting at this book “You’re not talented enough! Don’t go there you’re not talented enough!”. In the end Preston’s biggest problem as a writer is evident in this book and that is that she goes blindly into these stories with “nitty-gritty” subject matter without any research whatsoever. Until she actually researches cults or kidnapping or whatever Law and Order-ish subject she wants to write about, or decides she only wants to write fluffy romances, her books are never going to improve.

Read more like this review on my blog, http://www.bookwormbasics.blogspot.com

Milana Marie Waller

3.5 

i found the writing style idk kind of childish and repetitive
it was overall just a really weird story it was good i mean i wasn’t bored but it was wEiRd
i prolly liked the cellar more
Noah just has some whack personality like wtf
like he just acted weird even other than his weird upbringing and whatnot just the way he acted like oh okay but yeah good book ig

Genesis (@whisperingchapters)

As mentioned in the synopsis, Scarlett doesn't remember anything before she was 4-years-old. It is all a blank in her mind and it's as if it never existed. Suddenly, she starts having "nightmares" but they are really memories from that blank state she has. She starts opening up to Noah, a new student who has arrived at her school and she's immediately drawn to him but Noah has secrets of his own that could be deadly for Scarlett.

The story had me intrigued for sure. I wanted to know the big mystery of it all but the characters were completely bland to me and it was a major struggle to like them. Nothing really stood out to me from them and there was no connection. I still pushed this aside and continued my journey with this book because I really wanted to know what would happen in the end. I was not expecting what came to be revealed and I must admit I was a tad scared since I read this in October (Halloween month) and I'm a huge scaredy cat. Everything was set for this story to be great except the characters. I think the author didn't really captivated their stories or tried engaging us with them because there wasn't much of them to really feel sympathy for. This is something huge considering Scarlett goes through a lot but I never felt anything for her. (view spoiler)["What are you not telling me?" I repeated. Dad closed his eyes and said, "Donald and Fiona are your biological parents." The air left my lungs in a rush. "And the sacrifice was you." Scarlett's biological parents belong in a cult and they believe that Scarlett needs to be sacrificed in order for them to continue to the new life. (hide spoiler)]

There was a romance between Scarlett and Noah that I wasn't completely sold on. It didn't feel like they had any real spark whatsoever. Plus, it was insta-love and I am not a fan of that at all.

The ending turned out to be fairly good and I was enjoying it a lot and then we get a cliff-hanger. Normally, I wouldn't pick up the following book (if there is one since I haven't heard news of it) but I really want to know what's going to happen. I have hopes that the sequel will be better since we get thrown a bit of a twist at the end that I would like to explore.

Awake

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