"Tonight, everything could change. I wasn’t ready to let go of anyone just yet."

If you could change what you know is coming, would you? Cecelia Walker discovers an amazing ability deep within herself that gives her the power to change the future. When mysterious outsiders enter her life, she begins to question everything and everyone she once knew.

Years earlier, CeeCee’s life changed forever the day her parents were killed in a horrific car accident. Suddenly extraordinary people and bizarre events began to seep into her very small world. Surviving for years on her addiction to coffee and running, life suddenly deals her a game-changing wildcard and all bets are off. Her magnificent Gift of Light awakens a tremendous dark power wanting to steal what is hers.

Will Cecelia be able to change what she’s seen and set a new course? Has she met her otherworldly match against evil and found her true soul mate? Or, is nothing as it seems as the power of darkness threatens to consume her and those she loves.

Review 4*

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review.

This is a wonderful paranormal romantic suspense novel. I really enjoyed it!

Cecelia Walker is a character that really got under my skin. I wanted to like her - in fact I did in the beginning - but as the story unfolded I found myself being annoyed by her. I think it was her whiny "why me" attitude that got me in the end. This doesn't normally happen to me, its usually the other way around. I found myself rolling my eyes and hoping that the bad guys would "steal her light" and get it over with. However, this is my opinion and other readers may not have such uncharitable thoughts about the main protagonist. Maybe if I had read it on a different day I would have had a different reaction. Who knows?

So, you're wondering why the four stars: This is because I really did enjoy the story. I enjoyed meeting the various characters who came alive on the page and was quickly drawn into the story, which is told through CeeCee's eyes. Though this book has a darker theme than the author's YA/Teen Ruby Blue series, it has the warmth and humour that is the signature writing style of the author. I loved meeting CeeCee's friend Elliot who, though she is only in a few scenes, has an amazing energy that jumped off the page. I also liked meeting Aaron, I will not say much about him as I don't want to give spoilers and Cash made my heart skitter.

This story is full of shadows and suspense, which kept me hooked. The mystery of the shadowy figures and their sudden appearance in CeeCee's life sent shivers up my spine. When something is later revealed, it clarified a suspicion I had about them. However, I will not say anything more in case I accidentally give a spoiler. There are a few twists I didn't see coming and danger from a fallen angel bent on stealing CeeCee's light. Zacharael is a brooding presence for the most part and only makes an appearance later in the book, but his evil intent pervades the story from the beginning.

I reached the end of the book with mixed feelings. I struggled with my unusual dislike of CeeCee, though felt happy at how the story wrapped up. Whether this is a stand-alone or the start of a new series, time will tell. However, if there is another book I will definitely consider reading it.

Julie Cassar is one of my favourite authors, and I will read any of her books in the future. Her characters are very lifelike and virtually leap off the page. I also love her fast paced writing style, which seems to flow effortlessly from scene to scene. I am in awe of her talent.

Although there are scenes of a sexual nature, they are not explicit and fade out, so if you are looking for something a little more racy, this book may not be for you. However, I highly recommend this book if you love new adult paranormal romances. - Lynn Worton

I received this book to give an honest review.

I have read the Ruby Blue series by this author and she did a great job with that. So when I saw she was writing a new book that was not like the Ruby Blue series I was very intrigued to see what it would be about. The cover and title just calls for you to read it and wondering what exactly is Stealing Light? Sounds paranormal right? Well it deals with angels, light, darkness and things called the Aninox. The book starts off pretty powerful we learn that CeeCee has tragedy hit her pretty hard and ever since that day she has been learning to cope and run a coffee shop. After a few years she starts getting visions of things that will happen though she has no clue as to what that is about until she meets her guardian angel and slowly starts learning about her gift. It seems she is very unique with her light but as we know darkness will try to stop that light no matter the cost. 

Now as she is learning via her guardian angel we also learn that a piece of her is missing though she doesn't quite realize it until she meets Cash. Oh Cash, Cash, Cash what are we gonna do with you? You makes women do nothing but dote and stare though they don't mean to. I guess that is the power of an angel. We see the romance that slowly blossoms between these two characters and you can not help but wonder will it last between them? Especially since a dark figure just wants CeeCee's light. 

Now characters So I really loved CeeCee's friend Elliot we don't get much of her but she makes a powerful impact when she is brought into the story. Her sassy attitude and how she says what she wants and feels works. 

Cash as you know Cash is very handsome and I really loved how the author was able to capture the love he has for CeeCee and how he would protect her no matter what. 

CeeCee.....so at first I really liked her as a character and then she slowly started becoming annoying. She had this attitude about her when it came to people withholding information no matter how many times her guardian angel told her he couldn't say much it was against the rules. It was just something about her that just threw me off later on in the book that I can not put my finger on.

Other than that I have to say this book was a very good read from the beginning. I really enjoyed how the author explained the Aninox and what they stood for it. 

Title: Stealing Light

Format: eArc

Pages: n/a

Published: Dec 2015

Publisher: Self Published

Source: Author for Review

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Shelfability: Covet

Buy: Links Coming Soon!!

**About The Book**

 

"Tonight, everything could change. I wasn’t ready to let go of anyone just yet."

 

If you could change what you know is coming, would you? Cecelia Walker discovers an amazing ability deep within herself that gives her the power to change the future. When mysterious outsiders enter her life, she begins to question everything and everyone she once knew.

 

Years earlier, CeeCee’s life changed forever the day her parents were killed in a horrific car accident. Suddenly extraordinary people and bizarre events began to seep into her very small world. Surviving for years on her addiction to coffee and running, life suddenly deals her a game-changing wildcard and all bets are off. Her magnificent Gift of Light awakens a tremendous dark power wanting to steal what is hers.

 

Will Cecelia be able to change what she’s seen and set a new course? Has she met her otherworldly match against evil and found her true soul mate? Or, is nothing is as it seems as the power of darkness threatens to consume her and those she loves.

A struggle for me to get into, although I'm not sure whether that's because I'm out of practice with space opera or not! I won't be picking up the rest of this series but I won't go out of my way to avoid any other Gary Gibson stuff that crosses my path.

Heinlein was a nutter.

Iain Banks is the best.

That's what I learned from this book.

Trouble is, I already knew Heinlein was crazy and Banks single handedly saved hard SF from extinction.

The main problem I had with this book is that it kept making me think about other SF authors' works instead of Gibson's own. Let me explain...

There's a society based on an updated version of Spartan principles, which plays a central role in the story. It's not portrayed in an at all favourable light. This can't be seen as anything other than a response to Heinlein's Starship Troopers where-in a society based on an updated version of Spartan principles is portrayed as some kind of ideal in all apparent seriousness.

There's a part where a character quotes T.S.Eliot at a critical moment...the same quote as gives Iain M. Banks' first book its name. There are also aliens with stupid jokes for names...

Ever since the warped but wittily named Minds of Banks' Culture burst onto the scene, other authors of space opera have been copying the idea with no success, whether they be naming starships, robots or aliens...

There are also obvious thematic links to Alastair Reynolds and the Alien films, or at least the first one.

So here's what all this amounts to; all books have antecedents, all authors have conscious or unconscious influences, but if, as a writer, you fail to mix up all your influences with enough of your own ideas or atmosphere, your readers will fail to credit you with the results.

If you write a direct counter-argument to another book, that book will distract readers who have read it - unless enough else is going on for it to only emerge afterward. If you make obvious reference, for no good reason, to another author, during a climactic scene, the reader of both writers will be distracted from the action at a critical moment.

One reason this is so distracting is that Gibson failed to engage my sympathies early - it must have been half way through a 600p book before I began to care about the main protagonist. Another is that too much is given away early - indeed in the back cover blurb, for that matter. Whilst there were late surprises, most of the general outline of what is going on is given away by clumsy foreshadowing.

I have the feeling Gibson could get better if he pays attention to his weaknesses and works to improve but that hasn't really happened for :Peter F. Hamilton, whose multi-tome space operas are not really as good as Gibson's - on the evidence of just this first volume, anyway.

The second half of this book is quite good, from a thriller perspective and I will grant Gibson this; whilst mind-computer interfacing plays an important role in this story, it isn't what it's about, which is a huge relief, because,"Look how cool my imagined gadgets are!" feels nigh ubiquitous and really boring nowadays, as an SF theme.

Instead, Gibson is talking politics and human nature - which has been an SF theme from the birth of the genre, really. But it's more interesting and vaster in scope than, "Wheee! Bio-electronics!" He's also saying something that is a direct counter to much of the aliens-vs.-humans SF of the Cold War era. Or he might be - because now that vol.1 is out the way, a less predictable situation has been set up and he's made me interested enough to tackle vol.2 - despite my nearly quiting at p200.

So if you stick with it, you might like this one - or if you aren't a jaded SF reader, you might too, or if you just don't care about that stuff and want a 'friller, maybe this is a reasonable choice - but you'd probably like :Neal Asher better in the lattermost case.