Welcome! In the spirit of authors helping authors, I'm kicking off my blog with a book review.
LIMITLESS, a new adult romance by Kaylene Winter is chock full of hot passionate love. If you embarrass easily, the love scenes might have you blushing. Its braided plot hooked me in Chapter 2, when the central characters become “overcome with instantaneous lust.” Full of youthful excitement throughout, Winter’s story takes her readers on an eight-year journey filled with the aspirations of today's teenaged dreams: touring with a rock band and traveling the world with a social media influencer.
I was quickly drawn into the youthful Gen Z culture, as the characters text each other, Facetime, and post to Instagram. Winter uses the slang of their generation in the dialogue. The characters “slide into their DM’s” and express excitement with expressions like “Yeet!” The book is playfully written in first person. Chapters are organized by shifting the point of view back and forth between the two central characters, Jace and Alex. I liked this because I was able to see both sides of this unfolding love story and get a great handle on their personal struggles after they left home to make their way in the world. Coming of age, Jace and Alex and their friend groups are relatable and likeable. There is an underlying kindness in them and most of them are accountable for their actions, which makes for a heartfelt story. The pages of the book are filled with sights and sounds of major cities and country-sides world-wide that will fill your senses. Winter incorporates a love of animals and music, and a respect for mental health. She gives her reader a satisfying ending, which I surmised in Chapter 22, when I began reading like a freight train to see if I was right. The events in the story remind us we’re not alone in our youthful follies or our toils to make our relationships work.
Like the flour, sugar and yeast are common ingredients that make a good loaf of bread, Winter utilizes the tropes of love, to bake a high energy Gen Z style romantic love between Jace and Alex. All the bases are covered: distance making the heart grow fonder, the acts of rescue, awkwardness of first times, waiting for the time to be right, and the joy of being in love with the one who compares to no other. The book has everything a romance reader craves.
Stay tuned for next week's blog post entitled, "The Emerging Author Chronicles Part I"