The Unbound Series eBook Giveaway – 2 Winners – Worldwide – Ends 05/09

Love romance novels? Enjoy fantasy fiction? Then let me introduce you to The Unbound Series by Jessica Bradshaw! Two lucky Contest Corner readers will win e-book copies of the first two books in the series, so read on!

The Unbound Series is a paranormal romance by Jessica Bradshaw. I just had to check these books out when I read this description on the author’s website: “It (liberally) blends cultures, various historical periods, Simon & Garfunkel, and Agnostic, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic beliefs (with a bit of mystic Judaism for good measure), all in the name of paranormal romance.” Mrs. Robinson meets theology? My curiosity was piqued!

In this series, we meet Samuel, an angel who has spent his existence attempting to find his soulmate, a person to whom he was bonded with but was forcibly separated from in a “Time before time” prior to gaining his current consciousness. He has been reincarnated in human form on earth over the course of hundreds of years but despite many marriages and lives, he has yet to re-locate the love that he knows is out there. Currently serving as a guardian angel to those in the earthly realm, his world is turned upside down by the revelation that the teenager whom he has been assigned to watch over since her birth, Jude, has been his soulmate all along. Worse still, Samuel is forbidden by his angelic supervisors to go down to Earth to finally join her, uncovering a much bigger destiny for Jude, whose ability to communicate with otherwordly beings has both angels and demons taking a vested interest in her. A paranormal romance that mixes teen angst with a brooding angel and mystical musings, the Unbound trilogy is a coming-of-age story that fantasy fans are likely to enjoy. I’m not always a big fan of this genre personally, but Bradshaw kept me interested and wanting to find out what would happen to the protagonists. The books are an interesting mix of the modern day woven in to historical flashbacks, with these old souls narrating their lives in casual 2012 slang. Although this style didn’t always quite fit for me, I did find it entertaining to read about angels comparing the trials of modern-day adolescence to the Crusades!

One of my favorite things about these books is the fact that it portrays the guardian angel realm to be much like a corporation, with the angels having to report to various supervisors and deal with paperwork. These angels have to go through the same red tape in heaven as we do on Earth! The only difference is that their “HR” stands for “Heavenly Realm” and not “Human Resources”. 😉 Surprisingly, the most unrealistic parts of the book for me were the ones involving the Earthly realm – for example, I didn’t find it to be very believable when Jude’s counselor suggests she solves all her problems by simply jetting off as an exchange student to England, and I found it a little too tidy when all of her new friends happen to be gifted soothsayers and ghost whispers as well. Although the point of the book is that angels, ghosts, and demons have influence on daily life, so really these plot devices are just illustrating that and showing how the developments in Jude’s life might not be entirely of human volition.

These books were more engaging than I had expected, and they are every bit as good – and in some cases, better – than their contemporaries on the best seller list. The only difference is that not as many people have gotten a chance to read these yet. It was fun to read these books over a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning, and it really made me want to break out my Bridge Over Troubled Water album! Sadly, my record player is broken, but I was able to pull up a Simon & Garfunkel playlist on Spotify to play along with the book. If you’re a fan of otherwordly romance novels, I’d encourage you to check out this up and coming author and give these a read!

TWO lucky Contest Corner readers will each win e-book copes of Hazy Shade of Winter and Sun is Burning. Prize will be delivered as coupon codes which can be used on Smashwords for the e-book format of your choice. Here’s how to enter:

1. For your first entry, click here to visit TheUnboundSeries.com, then come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me something you learned about the books, the author, or just found interesting! This step is required to qualify for the drawing.

Want extra entries? Do any of the following, and leave a separate comment for each one:

2. Write a post on your blog linking to this giveaway. Then come back here and leave a comment with the link to your post!
3. Write about this on Twitter, then come back and leave a comment on this post with the link to your tweet! One Twitter entry per person. You can use the button at the bottom of this post to tweet with one click!
4. Subscribe to my blog updates by clicking here. Then come back and leave a comment on this post with the email you subscribed with!
5. Post my button on your website – just copy and paste the following code, and let me know where you put it: