Well it ended rather abruptly...
Do I feel like I know what is going on? Not really. When I read the synopsis, I really had a sense of adventure and excitement. I didn't get that from this short story though. I got that there was a couple of brothers, but didn't really go beyond that for me.
Will I read Forbidden? Probably, I love Ted Dekker's writing. Will I be rushing to get it today? No. I'll get it at some other point.

The Progeny is a thriller with some paranormal aspects (progeny have a particular ability and the Scion who hunt them are resistant to it), a bit of humor (“Vampires aren’t real” cracked me up), and a few nifty twists that kept me guessing. The story is told in first person. The reader learns about the three orders as Emily does, lending more immediacy to the action and the things she discovers. Racing around a European countryside and journeying through the royal “courts” of the Progeny, we are along for quite a ride as Emily must decide who to trust.

I would class this novel as New Adult, it has a YA vibe with primarily adult characters and adult themes. The cos-play rave nature of the “courts” was an interesting element, but definitely added to the new adult/YA feel. Other parts of the story were decidedly more adult, and one particular element would give me pause if I wanted to quibble about a morally questionable choice. However, none of this detracts from the fact that this is a thoroughly readable and enjoyable suspense thriller.

Tosca Lee begins a new series with showing how far a woman will go to hide the information she knows:

Emily wakes up and does not know who she is. She cannot remember anything about her life or her preferences. However, Emily is told that this was her choice, her choice to have all of her memories erased and to start a new life. She leave a note for herself to not go looking into her past. However, some things are easier said than done. Emily Jacobs is a descendant of Lady Elizabeth Bathory, who was one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. Emily is now on the run for her life for the information that she knows but decided to erase so it would not fall into the wrong hands. There are those that want to help her and say they know her but she cannot trust anyone as she cannot remember, all she knows is that she needs to find what she has lost before she is killed.

Looking at other reviews of this book I am in the minority for this book in my DNF status. I hate it when I do not finish a book, but after trying to read this book for 3 weeks I had to call it quits when you find yourself dreading picking up your ereader to read. I made it through a good chunk of this book over 50% and I kept wanting it to get better and more interesting but it just never got there for me, which is disappointing as the premise was really promising.

I think the beginning of this book is really strong with Emily waking up from having her memory erased and obviously she cannot remember why, but with a note to herself to try and live a normal life and to not go looking into the past. I mean there has to be a really good reason why anyone would go to that types of measures. I found this interesting and even when things do not go as planned I still was wanting to pick up this book. Everything changed for me when it was revealed as to Why Emily was being hunted and made me want to stop reading as the reasoning for me went out of the book. I mean Lady Elizabeth Bathory is touted as one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. She killed a lot of people, supposedly, depending on whose side you are on in this book. These murders created the Hunters group whose goal is revenge for all the murders she committed; they want to terminate her line. I guess for me all these years later and I'm pretty sure we could all trace some for of ancestry back to her and really lots of people were murdered on mass throughout history by bad people, there would be none of us left if everyone wanted revenge for what happened in the 1500s.

Lee tries to have a paranormal aspect in the book with having the Progeny have the ability of persuasion, in which they can make people do things just by thinking it. Interesting aspect but I could see that as more of a reason to hunt them then the whole Lady Bathory aspect.

This book was just not for me and that is why it has become my DNF of this year (thought pretty good that I have only had one so far). If you are interested in picking up this book, please do not just read my review. As I said above there are people that loved this book, I just wasn't one of them.

Cheers!!!

   

As retellings go, this one just didn't do much for me.

At first I thought I was a little bored because I was just waiting for Jesus to come into the story -- if anyone can make a book interesting, Jesus can, right? But even after Jesus came on the scene, I found my mind wandering often enough that I had to keep starting tracks over to figure out where I was in the story.

The passion story is inherently interesting, but I felt like this rendition didn't really bring anything NEW to the table. In many ways, it felt like a more in-depth jaunt through Jesus' "greatest hits" as the author strung filler between big events from the Gospels such as healings or Jesus' most salient teachings. While telling the story from Judas' point of view may seem in itself transgressive, ultimately everything about this story feels too "safe" -- there is nothing surprising or unexpected in the character of Jesus; Judas is absolved/redeemed in a way that waters down even his betrayal; and none of the other apostles are given enough character development to make them feel any more real than the canon has already made them.

This book did have its moments of inspiration. The writing is good and the author seems to be well-versed in the political, cultural, historical, and geographical setting. And the story is strongest in Judas's moments of doubt, when he wonders whether he follows a Messiah or a madman, when he doubts Jesus' sanity or his ability to lead, when he struggles internally with the implications of his devotion. But ultimately, the story never goes quite far enough to make a lasting impact or to cast a well-known tale in a new light.