C.L Causer

Power Within (The Lazarus Children) by C.L. Causer

There are so many thing to like about this novel.

It has a good plot-well thought out action- well paced- suspenseful and just the right amount of twist and turns to get the reader to the very end wanting to read more. The characters are done well. I love Charlie -she caught me up from the start and kept me hanging in there. There is so much to like about this independent strong young woman to suggest that the gift of these powers that she has seem as though they've been placed in the right hands.

Charlotte 'Charlie' Gordon at the age of eleven suffers an accident that should have been fatal. Out to sea she falls overboard during a strange storm that overtakes the ship she is on with her father and brother. Charlie also, at the same time, appears to have had some sort of dream which was like a vision of what was going to happen. We later find out that she is located- washed ashore where she is resuscitated.

Since then things have never been the same for Charlie. Charlie suffers episodes that wreak havoc on those around her. In an effort to control this she's been given some drugs that will inhibit this. What they really do is suppress her entire body and possibly make her lethargic. While it seems extremely bizarre that she somehow is kept off the radar, so to speak, and only her family and one personal friend, Jake, know what is happening to her; once the drugs were started they appear to be masking the real problem well enough.

We start out with her in college, having fallen asleep in class and managing to destroy a lot of personal computer equipment when her gift-curse kicks in. Thankfully no one has connected this incident and one previous incident to Charlie and she has Jake around to help her. She's low on her suppressor drugs and has had to use the drug more often, so it's time to see the doctor again.

The somewhat routine trip to the doctor begins the terror.

Charlie is attacked - the doctor is acting strangely- and Charlie ends up killing at least two of the people trying to kidnap her. She somehow incinerates them.(shades of Firestarter by Stephen King.) Since the university is close to home Charlie manages to run through the backwoods to get home. When she gets there, she finds that there's news of some strange activity around her doctor's office but no reports of anyone hurt.

At home with family she is again attacked and this time the attackers take the whole family hostage as they explain that they are there to take Charlie because of her abilities. Charlie and family also discover that Charlie's sister Valerie's husband, Ryan, is a mole placed there by the people who are now kidnapping Charlie. Ryan is portrayed poorly enough to have most readers happy that he's a villain.

Mr. Collins, the lead kidnaper, and company are subdued when Jake shows up to save the day. The family decide to go on the run. Charlie decides to split from them and Jake goes with Charlie. Eventually after several more attempts on Charlie, she decides she needs to go alone so as not to endanger everyone.

There are several groups working against each other in regards to Charlie and people like her. It will take Charlie a long time to figure out who she can trust. When the kidnappers start getting serious it might prove to be too late to turn to anyone for help.

This book has the reader guessing- not only who Charlie can trust- also what it is that Charlie might be. Slowly C.L. Causer builds the world that Charlie lives in and the readers start to see the shape of the rules that seem to exist for the people like Charlie. It doesn't take much to realize that Charlie might be something a bit above average in her community.

That makes her more powerful but also more dangerous to those around her. Not only is she a prime target for the bad people, she's also a danger to those around her until she can control her powers.

The suspense winds the story around several times until the end where the real shocker kicks in and because this is the first book of the series the reader is left hanging.

I would be doing an injustice to not give fair warning to the reader:

What damages this novel is the grammar. The upside to that is it makes this a poster child for all to look at to help understand the need for editing by several eyes. The version I have is fraught with so many were sat(9) was sat(21) was stood(9)were stood(4). They are just plain annoying. There are words that are inexplicably separated by spaces. When it comes to the grammar in this novel- well, it's not for the faint of heart.

Sliding tenses back and forth didn't seem to bother me that much- I could mostly figure things out.

This is still a good strong story. It could be better, but all that aside I'd love to see the next book in this story. I definitely want to know what happens next in Charlie's life.

Good novel for Young Adult paranormal romance and Sci-Fi fantasy
J.L. Dobias… (más)

Power Within is one of those books I'm on the fence about. There is an interesting premise, but I just couldn't get into the story completely, especially in the beginning. Causer starts off with some good action, but I couldn't really get into it. Then about halfway through the story, things started clicking for me. The plot seemed to be stronger and I was actually starting to connect with Charlie.

In the first half of the story, Charlie is helped along by her best friend Jake and they have a really sweet friendship, one I was immediately hoping would become the romantic part of the plot. Then Jake disappears, and a new love interest pops up. Tyler was more of the typical YA love interest. Good looking, mysterious, rough around the edges, and he and Charlie immediately dislike each other. Even though the romance was a bit predictable, Tyler grew on me, and I liked that Charlie never relies on him to save her.

Charlie was really the reason I kept reading. She's not one of those over the top characters. As the central character, Causer does a good job of keeping us primarily in Charlie's head, and it's a nice one to be in. She's a nice girl. She loves her family and her friends, and wants to protect them, but she's also not stupid. She's willing to accept help, and it's trying to keep everything hidden, although she is smart enough to have some trust issues with people she's just met.

The one thing that kept me from from enjoying the story was the editing. I did read the updated version the author sent me, but there were frequent grammatical errors, and while I can ignore a certain amount, they became an annoyance the further I read. An example would be the continual misuse of sat and stood. Sentences which should have said "They were sitting at the table." were written as "They were sat at the table." or instead of "They were standing at the door." it was written as "They were stood at the door.".

The last third of the book really picked up the pace and I really got into the flow of the story. I enjoyed the ending and thought it was a really strong conclusion to the first book in the series. I am definitely open to reading more by Causer.… (más)