Absolution
Written by Ellen J. Green
Narrated by Angela Dawe
4/5
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About this audiobook
Dark secrets and family crimes drive a ruthless female serial killer in Ellen J. Green’s breathtaking sequel to Amazon Charts bestseller Twist of Faith.
Ava Saunders was only a child when she saw her mother murdered—a brutal family mystery that was buried with her. Unearthing the past has been Ava’s obsession. Anyone in her way has paid the price. Now on the run, Ava needs to disappear, and she gets her chance when the skeletal remains of her latest victim are mistaken for Ava herself. Is it a sign? Have her sins been washed away? Or has she been given a second chance to finish what she started?
The case surrounding the trail of murders has consumed Ava’s friend Detective Russell Bowers. Victim by victim, he’s been hunting the hunter. One new chilling clue has left no doubt in Russell’s mind: Ava is alive, and not well.
He can’t help but follow her, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the mountains of Italy, where the last of Ava’s blood relatives are hiding her family’s most dreadful secret—and where Russell himself could be pulled into the unforgivable darkness of Ava’s revenge.
Ellen J. Green
Ellen J. Green was born and raised in Upstate New York. She moved to Philadelphia to attend Temple University, where she earned her degrees in psychology. She has worked in the psychiatric ward of a maximum security correctional facility for fifteen years. She also holds an MFA degree in creative writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. The author of Amazon Charts bestseller Twist of Faith and The Book of James, Ms. Green lives in southern New Jersey with her two children.
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Twist of Faith Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Absolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silent Redemption Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Absolution
28 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Absolution (Penton Legacy #2) by Susannah SandlinMirren Kincaid (aka the Slayer) is the former executioner of the Vampire Tribunal. After realizing the people he worked for are worse than the people he was told to kill, he faked his death. Now it has been discovered that he is alive and serving as Aidan Murphy’s second in command in the small vampire/human town of Penton, Alabama. Having been ambushed by six men, Mirren is captured by one of his former employers at the Vampire Tribunal.Matthias Ludiam feels threatened by Penton and has made it his personal mission to ruin the town. While making a stop at a convenience store, Ludiam discovers a human with some sort of special powers. Hoping to use her to ruin Penton, he kidnaps the girl, abuses her, shoot her up with drugs, and feed on her along with his men. Glory Cummings refuses to give into her captors. Matthias Ludiam frustrated with her insubordination decides to feed her to his starving captive Mirren Kincaid in hopes of bringing the Slayer back to the Tribunal. Little did he know that Mirren would have more control, and Glory would see him as more than a monster. Susannah Sandlin wrote a fantastic sequel to Redemption. You become engrossed with the characters the more you learn about them. This multilayered novel is an enjoyable read with lots of interesting plots. The Penton Legacy is a must-read for lovers of Paranormal, Fantasy, Vampires, and Romance. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5ABSOLUTION takes off right where REDMEPTION left off and in the form of Mr. Tall (6′ 8″), dark (Scottish) and ultimate baddassery award of the year, put a Kilt on it and give me a blue ribbon to pull so see just where else he is tattooed Master Vampire of Yummines, Mirren Kincaid. He is fierce, heck he was a Gallowglass warrior in his former life some four-hundred or so years ago. Even Aiden cannot boast that!
The Gallowglass were a band of warriors that keep being called mercenaries, correction, they were not, they were an elite band of warriors who were the direct servants to the leader of the clan. Think of Samurai gone Scott. In societies and countries who were set up to run like this every lord or clan leader or crazy ass leader of a band of monkeymen had an elite set of warriors, and they were bad ass, the biggest bad asses. And Mirrem was one of the Gallowglass (which literally in Gaelic means servant or indebted to a Chief.) The problem is that people saw them as a band of mercenaries because they were not led nor did they take orders from the head of the military under this chief. But as a working Gallowglass (spelled for us US and twenty-first century peeps) We have bastardized and written history from the viewpoint of the winners. They were beholden be it as indentured or not, to a chief and did what they were told. If their chief died, they did not kill themselves, but they went to be hired on or become indebted to another, so yes it seems like they are mercenaries, but mercenary leaves a bad taste on my tongue when I say it and everyone was indebted to a lord or chief back then, and those that were part of the Gallowglass had honor, despite how fierce they were, how deadly and how hard they swung their ax, they had honor. It shows each time Mirren burns a tattoo into his arm.
What happened between the time he became a vampire and attached himself as the Tribunal’s executioner was his time as a Ronin warrior, he had lost his master, he was lordless. So even in taking on the job as “THE SLAYER” for the Tribunal actually took the mercenary status away, for he followed their orders, and what he did until the one faithful day he refused to go that far, was dishonorable though he kept up his tattooing because he felt every death, and never wanted to forget them. Yes another broken alpha who punishes himself. (oh come closer let me yank that blue ribbon – listen to the Kilt Song if you still do not get it.. snickering)
As I mention in the beginning where I compare a member of the Tribunal to JR from Dallas, Matthias likes kidnapping those with power to serve his own obsession with obtaining any and all power he can steal, conquer or manipulate into, not work for it like an honorable man. He is one of our leading villains, and he likes kidnapping people too. He found one of those he enjoys kidnapping, one with power, Glory Cumming. Another broken but fiercely independent woman who was abused and drugged has been living as a chew toy for Matthias (said vamp) for a month. The twist? Someone caught “The Slayer” and now is holding him in a cell, slowly starving him and widdling him down. It takes these two personalities thrust together by this megalomania and his son William (who calls himself Will and is one of Aiden’s lieutenants) who has never been treat much better than JR treated John Ross Ewing, III. Just like JR, for Matthias blood and loyalty forced is more important than being a good parent. Unlike John Ross Ewing, III, Matthias’ son left and hid for a reason, his father did not fit into where he wanted to be in life. His father forced him to be a vampire at the age of 22 when he turned him. Sick and twisted doesn’t even begin to describe this man. Somehow through a lack of parental guidance or attention, Will managed to escape the cycle and become his own man.
(As you are beginning to see, this is a complex and engaging series. Just writing it out I want to keep going, but I want you to enjoy what I have written and I want to wrap this up.)
Where Aiden and Krys are soft and gentle, in as much as they can be, Mirren and Glory’s story is hot, rough and edgy. She is not afraid to do what it takes to not only keep her man but make a place to call her own in this town, which means defending it to the end. She also is not afraid of him. After all what kind of woman other than a fierce one would fiddle with a man’s dials and electronics, root through his video library and move his tools. Which means learning what her power is all about and accepting it as part of who she is. Just as Mirren learns to accept himself for who he is, and give himself Absolution from his past deeds and crimes.
Glory is going to be a favorite of mine because she cooks. I wanted to have this glorious recipe all created and photographed for you but you are going to have to take it from me, the zen chef and do what Glory did for Mirren, whip up your partners favorite food because a way to a mans heart is through his stomach, yes I know silly but true. For this story boy is it ever true because it was the nail that drove the final spike through and Glory got it right with the first pot of stew. She also discovered her nitch in the community which will not only allow her dream of being a chef come true and is going to be able to make many a vampires dreams and memories a reality, with a taste of their favorite it food, from before they were turned to after!
All and all this book and the first one in the Penton Legacy Series is brilliantly told, funny and bold and so engaging. I really cannot wait for Omega to come out. I gave Redemption a 4 and I am giving Absolution a 5 star review. Throw in the sex scenes in both books at five stars? And make food a primary focus in a book? Cabin Goddess herby places this in the… - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: Dark and intense sequel set in a fascinating world with remarkable characters.Opening Sentence: Business was hopping at the Circle K convenience mart in Roswell, Georgia, a few generic suburbs north of Atlanta.The Review:The second novel in the Penton Legacy series continues with another dark and intense installment. Absolution begins with uber-bad guy Matthias plotting to destroy the town of Penton and the vampires within it. Vampires are having a hard time surviving after humans were inoculated for a disease that makes their blood bad for vampires to drink. Matthias is jealous of Penton, its’ leader and the fact that his son would rather live with that horrible group than him. Penton is a safe haven (of sorts) for a group of vampires that are lead by Aiden. Aiden also has a group of unvaccinated humans that they take care of and can safely feed from without any worry of perishing from bad blood.One mystery that was left unanswered at the end of Redemption was where did Mirren go? He disappeared pretty quickly after the terrible events of the first book without telling anyone where he was going. It doesn’t take long to figure out what happened. Mirren was kidnapped by Matthias. Matthias takes this as a stroke of luck in his quest to destroy Penton. He hopes to return the great Enforcer to the Vampire Council by starving Mirren until his bloodthirsty ways return and he is once again the great killing machine he once was. Matthias also gains another pawn in Glory. He kidnaps her after realizing that she has some kind of magical/mystical powers that will aid him. But Glory doesn’t fall for his crap so he tries to feed her to a hungry Mirren and things don’t go as Matthias hoped.Once back in Penton, Mirren, Aiden and crew have a better idea of who is after their destruction. They know Glory is a part of that plan (whether as Matthias’s pawn or victim) and just like Matthias they want to know what she can do. After being thrust into this world, Glory doesn’t know who to trust but she feels that she can trust Mirren, since he showed her kindness in a moment of weakness. She is also attracted to that huge hunk of man and it really doesn’t take long for her to act on it.The sexual attraction between Mirren and Glory is turbulent. I enjoyed their interactions with each other as they both were a little to pig-headed to let the other get away, more-so Glory than Mirren. Mirren may not have felt that he deserved her but I did. I felt really bad for Glory from the very beginning. She was taken from a horrible situation with terrible things done to her and thrust into a world she knows nothing about. She easily could have gone insane but she didn’t, she decided to fight.Absolution jumps around to many different points of view including people from the city of Penton to the bad guys. The story has many dark themes with drug use and physical abuse. The story also has quite a bit of action and a bit of mystery that helps propel the story along. It also helped that I really wanted to know Mirren’s story.As a bridge between Redemption and Omega, Absolution‘s ending doesn’t look so good for those in Penton. I was left a little depressed for those people but I hope that in the next book their troubles will be over and can’t wait to read how this series will end. I will definitely be picking up a copy of Omega.Notable Scene:As she talked, Glory pulled on what she thought was her link to Mirren, concentrating to gather her focus. She visualized everything in the room but didn’t unleash her full power. It built inside her while she talked about going downstairs. It grew as she recounted Matthias’s plans to give her to Mirren to kill. Her powers coalesced around her when she described Mirren’s raw, bloody wrists where they’d been tied with the silver-laced rope, when she described how thin he was, and how hungry she realized he was because of his eyes.Then she unleashed her powers with a shudder that bowed her spine. She visualized everything around her moving, spinning, breaking apart—with Lorenzo and Thomas at their center.Both men shouted and ducked into defensive postures, but Glory held her concentration, opening her eyes to slam the heavy wooden dresser on top of Lorenzo, then propel the whole thing hard against the wall, with him underneath. Thomas was already on the ground clutching an arm bent at the elbow—going the wrong direction. Papers, glass, lamps, video camera, spotlight, umbrella—all of it flew in a circle like one of those big tornadoes Glory had seen on the TV news.FTC Advisory: Susannah Sandlin/Suzanne Johnson graciously provided me with a copy of Absolution. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I read the first book in this series, Redemption, and was not really blown away by the story itself or the mythology. I wanted to give Absolution a chance because I did enjoy some of the secondary characters and was interested in seeing them get their HEA. Sadly, this book was a book I did not finish. I got about a hundred pages in and was bored. I was not feeling the connection between the two main characters, plus I was still struggling with the way these vamps live. I love vampires, but I find it really hard to believe that one would let his mate go and use someone else to get blood from. Feeding is very intimate, so why would you share that with someone you are not involved with? I have never seen it happen in any other vampire novel I have read and it just rubs me the wrong way. There is more action in this book, but I was still left wanting and had to finally give up. I am just not invested in these characters anymore and there are too many things about the way these vampires choose to live that bothers me. After reading other reviews though, I seem to be in the minority because many people enjoyed this series. So, I would recommend checking out some other reviews and see what others think before picking up this series for yourself or reading a couple of chapters and judging for yourself. This is second novel in this series, so if you want to read it I would recommend going back to read Redemption first.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Continuing where Redemption leaves off, Sandlin delves further into the community of Penton Alabama, where the major story line puts Mirren in the spotlight. Further developing his history so we better understand the character, he will fast become your favorite despite his often monosyllabic conversations. Surrounding Mirren’s story, the influence and interference from the Tribunal begins to ratchet up the tensions and concerns for both the vampires and their scathe. Sandlin’s deft handling of characterization provides relief from this tension, with injections of laugh out loud humor at Mirren’s befuddlement and confusion. This perfect addition to the series adds a cliffhanger, leaving you begging for more.
I received an eBook copy from author for purpose of honest review for BTS eMagazine. I was not compensated for this review - and all conclusions are my own responsibility.