Book Review: Heavenward by Olga Gibbs Plus Win A Signed Copy (CLOSED)

Recently I was contacted by author Olga Gibbs who offered me the opportunity to read and review her book Heavenward, the first in the Celestial Creatures series. I loved the blurb and eagerly accepted, I hope you enjoy my review.

Synopsis

Life is tough for Ariel. A childhood, filled with domestic violence, neglect, abuse and the recurring nightmare that plagues her every night, for as long as she remembers, questioning her sanity, and a secret, which she doesn’t want anyone to know and is so desperately to forget herself. Now she’s locked away in a rural town in a Northern England, with her life as dull as the town itself.
But when three new students appear in a sleepy town’s school, Ariel doesn’t suspect that her life is about to change forever, as she is drawn into an ancient celestial conflict, that is bigger than her, and which she needs to survive to remain herself.
But would you chose to protect humanity that broke you or would you take revenge?
It’s a story of a survivor, who’s refusing to be a victim and is prepared to fight until the end.

Review

Heavenward is the first book in Olga Gibb’s Young Adult Celestial Creatures series. In this book we meet Ariel, a seemingly normal school girl with a secret past filled with neglect and abuse. Just trying to make it through each day Ariel finds her life thrown into turmoil by the unusual arrival of three new students at her school. She soon realises that these are no normal students and after a dramatic classroom incident awakens to find she has been whisked away from the life that she knows, stranded in a foreign place filled with unearthly beings. Confused and frightened Ariel tries to discover the truth about who she is and who she can trust in this unknown land, often questioning her sanity along the way.

I have really tried not to give too much away about the plot of this book for fear of ruining it! The beginning of this book starts off fairly slowly, telling the reader about Ariel’s everyday life and dropping subtle hints about the abuse she has suffered, details of which are filled in as the book progresses. Once the action kicked in though I was gripped and found the book to be a real page turner, finishing it in two days.

It’s fantastically written using highly descriptive language throughout allowing me to feel like I was transported into the story -I could almost smell and feel what the characters are experiencing. There are a few nightmare inducing, gruesome parts of the story which are described so vividly, really helping me as the reader to see what Ariel finds herself up against. It’s not all action though there is a small amount of romance thrown in the mix for luck and we see the emergence of a love-triangle starting to form.

With regards the characters I feel I really got to know Ariel more than any of the others and presume as the series continues a more rounded picture of the main characters will emerge. I love that this series has a strong female lead, especially one who’s past could easily have broken her. Brave and strong this first book sees her start to believe in herself and realise that she can control her future and I’m looking forward to seeing this belief grow as the series continues.

This book ended quite suddenly on a real cliff-hanger and being impatient (as I am) I can’t wait for the release of the second instalment. I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though it’s not usually a genre read I lot of and can really envisage this being made into a movie, it would make a fantastic watch!

**This book does contain scenes of violence that some readers may find upsetting.**

About The Author

Olga Gibbs lives in a leafy-green town, nestled amongst the green fields of West Sussex, England. She lives with her husband Richard, their two daughters and the ginger cat Fluffy.
Olga has been writing since the age of fifteen, mainly short stories and novellas and was a guest columnist for a local newspaper. When she is not dreaming up new adventures for her imaginary friends, she does outreach work with teenagers.

All of her books and stories feature a strong female protagonist. This she hopes will help shift attention away from strong, powerful able male characters, showing readers that women can be equally powerful and capable. Olga has written these strong females to inspire not only her own daughter’s but all young women, allowing them to believe in the enormous strength and power they possess within themselves. By doing this she hopes to challenge the over-sexualised, male dominating messages society sends which often expect young women to behave and obey in a certain way, seeing them only as pretty trophies. If she only inspires one girl, even a bit she will be happy!

She is currently writing a second book in the “Celestial creatures” series and another stand-alone psychological crime thriller book with two other books in the pipeline.

For more information about upcoming publications visit www.olgagibbs.com 

Heavenward is available to buy from Amazon

Fancy winning a signed copy of Heavenward? We have two copies up for grabs, click below to enter….

Terms & Conditions:

UK ENTRANTS ONLY

Two winners will each receive a signed copy of Heavenward by Olga Gibbs

Entries close at 11.59pm on 30th June 2018

Winners will be chosen at random and contacted ASAP

Winners will have two weeks to claim their prize before another winner is chosen

I was gifted a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.