by Bety Comerford and Steve Wilson

 

The Introduction begins by explaining what an empath is, which will be easily identifiable by anyone who has spent their lives being hyper sensitive to the emotions of others. It also postulates that an empath can feel the emotions of the dead, which I'm not sure I would agree with as I have my own beliefs about ghosts and spirits and such.

 

All that aside, the book approaches the subject as a skill to be embraced, where other books speak of shielding and how to protect oneself from the sometimes overwhelming emotions of a crowd of people. It promises to explain how to change the energy of emotions so that the empath can affect the world around themselves, actually changing the vibrational level of emotional energy. The authors style themselves as "Shamanic healers" and use an example from an empath named Alex to demonstrate their methods.

 

Each chapter breaks down the idea of what it is to be an empath. The first chapter tells about Alex learning to discern between what people say and the emotions they project, while finding pure comfort in nature and among animals who communicate purely on an honest, emotional level. It paints Alex as a solitary child who instinctively knows that his parents won't understand his internal perceptions. In some ways I think using Alex as an example became too simplistic. I also found it incongruent that he didn't pick up on the false laughter of older boys making fun of him when he could easily note false sincerity in adults.

 

The book suggests that energy from negative emotions can be felt physically and create feelings of unwellness, that this is what separates an empath from the rest of the population who all feel some level of empathy and that learning to deal with a high sensitivity to emotion is part of the lessons that we are meant to learn. The authors postulate fatalism to a degree that some readers might agree with and others will find at odds with their own beliefs.

 

Subsequent chapters include subjects like energetic safety, keeping silent, bad things that happen and dealing with a sensitivity that lasts forever, as well as acceptance, simultaneous time, how to use the energy (or magic!), responsibility and energy evolution.

 

I felt that Alex's teenage experiences were too cliché. People react differently to situations and the depiction of Alex didn't come over as quite right for the typical teenage empath. I've known a few and find them generally more intelligent and less reactionary than the average teenager. Alex's response to frustration didn't quite fit. However, I could see the lessons couched within the tales of Alex. One particularly important one was in letting go of struggle when dealing with spiritual entities and allowing energy to naturally flow.

 

The book explains some color symbolism and how it relates to Chakras. It also talks about using empathic energy to cast spells and about grounding as well as auras. I'm inclined to disagree with the assertion that "everybody wants to fit in". In my own experience as an empathic teenager, I found the facade of conformity to group trends of little interest and whatever need I might have had for friendship to be satisfied by those few others who felt themselves similarly different, usually found in music, literature and drama classes.

 

Despite the book's preachy tone and diversions into things like ghosts, UFOs and other strange phenomena, I think there is a lot of valuable information for the natural empath who might not have encountered others who understand this extra sensitivity in their lives. The example about the rock musician who needed to learn to ground his excess energy was particularly good. While I don't think the needy version of the empath depicted in the text is at all universal, there is useful analogy for anyone and this book would be especially valuable for those who actually do need validation from people outside of themselves.

 

Near the middle of the book, the authors relate some of their own life experiences. These give some good examples of how things can kind of fall into place and for situations where sometimes the best course just 'feels right', even if it doesn't appear to be the most logical choice. They also express a belief in reincarnation and the concept that each life is meant to become a lesson in a longer series of spiritual existence, stating that you choose your circumstances before birth according to the lessons you are meant to learn that time around. It's a fairly popular view within the new age paradigm.

 

The chapter on simultaneous time quotes Einstein, then goes into reincarnation and UFOs, so the reader's beliefs will determine what they get out of this chapter. It also postulates the belief that everything happens for a reason. As new age books go, this one feels like it's talking down to the reader much of the time, yet there are some important lessons and it could be valuable for someone who is new to the subject matter and is in need of guidance through their own empathic experiences.

Kyla was born the younger daughter of the royal family of a planet known throughout Coalition space for its indulgence and debauchery. Travelers come from all over to give into their deepest desires in the decadent royal court, but Kyla has been surrounded by sex and physical indulgence since childhood. Now she wants nothing to do with such empty pleasures--at least, until she encounters Hall.

Hall is irresistibly sexy and mysterious, and he seems to know her from the inside out. He makes her want to explore the sensual side of herself for the first time. But he has already declared himself as a potential suitor of her sister, which means he's completely off limits to Kyla. He's also hiding a gift that makes him as dangerous as he is attractive.

When she discovers a plot that threatens to bring down the iron fist of the Coalition on her peaceful planet, Kyla is forced to rely on a man who has been hiding secrets from her all along--a man who makes her want things she's never wanted before.

 

Review

I was very excited when I realized Kent was going to put out more books in the world she set Hold.

 

This book isn't a prison planet one but it does feature a character we met there. He has cool powers and time in the prison changed him into a better person. Kind of... lol The heroine is a bookworm living in a public sex/orgy society who does care for that sort of thing. T

 

his is an odd book for me. I read it easily and happily. I like the characters and the writing as always with Kent/Noelle Adams is very good. But everything is paper thin. The love between the couple, the world building, character motivation... I think because I knew the hero from the last book and had snuck and read the third book in the series, I was more inclined to hang in there.

I saw Becca Campbell’s influences and I found a kindred spirit, so when I was given the opportunity to read Empath, Book One, and the entire Flawed Series, I jumped all over it.

 

This will definitely be a series I finish!

 

Amazon  /  Goodreads

 

MY REVIEW

 

Empath by Becca Campbell hooked me from the opening pages. I was quickly drawn into Jade’s world and the characters became my friends too…most of them.

 

Jade walked into the classroom and it confirmed her reason for online classes. The feelings bombarded her…anger, attraction, excitement. She struggled to maintain a calm appearance. Were they her feelings, or someone else’s?

 

‘She believed in God…Why had he given her this FLAW?’

 

Everything changed for her when she met Logan. He calmed her.

 

Logan, is a professor at the college she was attending and he is a loner, for reasons of his own. He knew he should stay away from her, but we know how that goes. Becca Campbell’s writing drew me to him immediately. There is something special about him and I was as drawn to him as Jade was. She wondered…is he special too, is this the beginning of something wonderful for her, could she have a relationship?

 

Ethan…Becca draws a vivid picture of him in my mind. I do love a good villain and Ethan fits that picture perfectly. He is a psychopath, feels no fear and has powers of his own. He collects snakes and they are his tools of torture. Serial killers collect trophies and his are especially heinous. His thoughts and fantasies are EVIL, and they are about Jade. He MUST have her.

 

Cam, poor Cam. He has a huge crush on Jade and I wonder what will become of him. Since a snowboarding accident, he has blackouts that cause a sense of deja vu. I love that Becca describes his senses in depth…every sight, sound and smell, no matter how small.

 

Jade has more friends with unique powers of their own and they all hold a special place in her world. Why were they chosen? Maybe they weren’t FLAWS. Maybe they were gifts.

 

When Jade meets ‘Bigfoot’ I was not surprised. I expected it and had hoped it would happen. I think I know his name. Will I be right? We will have to wait and see.

 

I like how the romance is slow developing, subtle. Do you remember your first love…the butterflies in your stomach, the heat of a blush rising to the surface of your face, the excitement of even a glimpse of him/her, the teasing and playfulness of a conversation? It reads like real life and that makes the story even more believable. The triangle is not really a triangle, but Cam feels like it is.

 

I guess you can tell I fell in love with the characters. They may be young, but the danger surrounds them as they go about the normal business of life. I usually write more about the action in a novel and the characters just happen to be in the way. Not so with Empath. I am now heavily involved in their lives and will see it through to the end.

 

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Empath by Becca Cambell.

 

5 STARS

 

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Forced into retirement, Captain Soledad Scott, a former warship captain, has decided on a new career as a mother. She’s come to the Pleasure Dome where a computer-matched male will donate his sperm the old-fashioned way and make her dream of motherhood come true. But Sol’s worm-hole dyslexia sends her to Room 990 instead of Room 660.

Commander Gabriel Merriweather, half-breed Chakkra and master empath with the Diplomatic Corps, awaits his sterile playmate of the evening. When she arrives and orders him to pleasure her as if he were the paid sex toy, Gabe willingly complies. But the next day he learns that the woman isn’t a Dome employee, but a maternity client who has stolen his sperm and disappeared.

Sol can’t believe that the man she just spent the night with is the very man who destroyed her warship career. What will he do if he discovers that she’s carrying his child? Unwilling to find out, Sol decides to disappear.

But is the universe big enough to hide her from him?

 

 

Review

This book was very uneven. Parts of it were wonderful and other parts just didn't make sense at all.

 

I am a sucker for a wrong bed romance and make it a science fiction romance with a kickass heroine adjusting to retirement. Yes.

 

The hero and heroine were wonderful as the action, passion and world building.

What didn't make sense is the heroine's crazy resistance to the hero and behavior during that resistance. Just dumb and made for less falling in love time. The sister didn't make much sense either.

 

So, I will try more by this writer but I hope for better.

A real hero is someone who undergoes great troubles without giving up.

Aeron Lorelei has been unjustly accused of a murder at sixteen, condemned by all her town people, abandoned by her family and reclused in a psychiatric institute where her treatment is prolonged over time by a dishonest, corrupt medical doctor.
Not only that. Because of her remarkable medium and telepathic powers, she is generally held up as a freak since her childhood, and later considered as an actual witch, by the nasty town gossip.

She underogoes so much trouble, pain and injustice, that she loses her own self-confidence. Of course, she is hurt, scared and angry. And yet...

And yet, deep inside, she is a generous, innocent person, unable to hate even her persecutors.
She is a wonderful, complex character, full of contrast: frail but also strong, tormented but very sweet.

The adventure begins when the new doctor in charge decides to trust her and to send her back outside the institute. Aeron returns to Oppidum, her little hostile native village, exactly when a vicious serial killer starts to kill women in the area.

By her powers, Aeron is dragged into a powerful empathic connection both with the killer and the victims. She feels in herself their terrible sufferings and she communicates with them after their death.
But of course she is also accused to be the killer by the town, arranging an actual witch hunt.
So she must investigate to solve the mistery and try to save the victims as well as herself.

A sincere new friend, a regretful father and a formidable nanny ghost will be her unexpected allies in this gripping paranormal-mistery adventure.

Romance (lesbian, of course!) is just hinted in this novel, because Aeron really isn't in the right mood for a love story nor she has any time to.
However we have the sweet beginning of a new blooming feeling, and it's really delicate.
Hopefully to be continued in a new adventure of the series...!

Overall, a very pleasant reading.