Awake (Book) Review

Have you ever heard stories of the chosen one? Regardless of other details, many groups, legends, religions – particularly cults – lay in wait for a special person, the chosen one, who is destined to save them from some calamity. Maybe your own beliefs have you waiting for such a person to arrive. But have you ever considered how it would be to actually *be* the chosen one? Natasha Preston explores just such an angle in her gripping novel, Awake.

Scarlett is, for the most part, your average teenager. She has loving parents, a sometimes pesky older brother, and despite moving around a lot as a young child, a stable home to crash in when school is out. What she doesn’t have is a boyfriend – or any memory of her life before the age of four. It’s an interesting mix, and one that becomes all the more so when a handsome boy named Noah joins her school. Right from the start, Noah has his eyes on Scarlett. As flattering as that is, Scarlett can’t help but be surprised. Could a guy like that really want her, with no ulterior motive?

As Scarlett and Noah grow closer, Scarlett struggles with emerging flickers of memories from her past that don’t seem to fit with the childhood her parents have told her about.  What can it all mean? Is everything she’s ever known all just a lie? As she wrestles with the memories, she finds herself growing even closer to Noah. But Noah himself is also wrestling with inner demons. Though he was sent to complete a task, he finds himself falling for Scarlett, and he must soon make the ultimate decision. Does he betray the woman he loves, or everything he’s ever know?

Awake is a nail-biter of a book that will have you on the edge of your seat at many times. Scarlett and Noah are both very believable characters, even as the details of their story become ever more unbelievable. As the book hurtles towards its climactic finish, it is anything but predictable, leaving you guessing and hoping for a happy ending that just might not appear.