Blog Tour: Collide (The Taking #3) by Melissa West

Collide (The Taking #3)
by Melissa West
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: 02/09/15
Rate: Loved it (5 stars)

Synopsis:

Military legacy Ari Alexander has survived alien spies, WWIV, and a changing world order. But when the new leader of Earth uses Jackson—the only boy she's ever let herself care about—to get to her, Ari has no choice but to surrender.

To free Jackson, she agrees to travel to the national bases to train others to fight. What she discovers is a land riddled with dying people. Ari has the power to heal by turning the fighters into aliens—half-breeds like her. If she succeeds, together, they have a chance at overthrowing the alien leader, Zeus. But if she fails, everyone she holds dear will be wiped away forever.

Once again, everything Ari’s come to believe is thrown into question. In a world of uncertainty, loyalties are tested, lies are uncovered, and no one can be trusted. If Ari and Jackson have any hope at survival and at preserving a life for the future, they must fight the final war with their eyes wide open.

Collide is the perfect ending for this extraterrestrial series. I love Melissa's world, the battle, Ari's character and Jackson's and their love story. It's impossible to not be devastated by the ending of this series, but as a fan I feel like this is the kind of tribute that The Taking deserved.

I have to confess that it's been a while since I read the first books, so at first I felt a bit out of place. However, I kept reading all started to make sense and I found myself even more invested in the story. I remember finishing the second book like "Oh my God, this can't be happening" and when I started it I was a bit worried just by that last thought. But I shouldn't have worried so much. 

All the known characters on the series are there in the last book. Some of them die and we get to meet new ones and it's even more heartbreaking than the other two books. The epic battle we have been waiting is everything I have expected. I found myself terrified by what would do Zeus and not knowing what was going to happen was the worst part! So I understood Ari more than ever. 

Ari and Jackson grow as a couple. Their relationship is even more intense and you can see how amazing they are together. They work together and they fight for a better future, to defend the humans and the Ancients and to defeat Zeus once and for all.

I have to confess that I am madly in love with Jackson. He's definitely the perfect book boyfriend! And he makes the reader swoon more than a couple of times throughout the story.

The ending of the series is simply perfect and romantic. Everything a fan would expect from a series like this.

Filled with action, love, friendship and an epic battle that will decide the fate of life on Earth, Collide is the perfect finale for a series that every YA reader who loves science fiction books needs to read. Melissa West is an amazing author and you can see how talented she is by reading this series. You will not regret it if you give them a try.

*I received this eARC in exchange of an honest review.

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Melissa West writes young adult and new adult novels for Entangled Teen and Embrace and Penguin/InterMix. She lives outside of Atlanta, GA with her husband and two daughters and spends most of her time writing, reading, or fueling her coffee addiction.

She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and a M.S. in Graphic Communication, both from Clemson University. Yeah, her blood runs orange.

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Release Day Blitz: Collide (The Taking #3) by Melissa West

Collide (The Taking #3)
by Melissa West
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: 02/09/15

Synopsis:

Military legacy Ari Alexander has survived alien spies, WWIV, and a changing world order. But when the new leader of Earth uses Jackson—the only boy she's ever let herself care about—to get to her, Ari has no choice but to surrender.

To free Jackson, she agrees to travel to the national bases to train others to fight. What she discovers is a land riddled with dying people. Ari has the power to heal by turning the fighters into aliens—half-breeds like her. If she succeeds, together, they have a chance at overthrowing the alien leader, Zeus. But if she fails, everyone she holds dear will be wiped away forever.

Once again, everything Ari’s come to believe is thrown into question. In a world of uncertainty, loyalties are tested, lies are uncovered, and no one can be trusted. If Ari and Jackson have any hope at survival and at preserving a life for the future, they must fight the final war with their eyes wide open.

Collide

by Melissa West

I walk down the dirt road and stare off into the distance, my mind on the impending war, when my eye catches on something beside the road. A half mile away, but absolutely there. I edge closer, another step, then another, my heartbeat picking up. The wind slowly slips around me, throwing my hair in my face as I strain to see.

The figure moves toward me, and I toward it, then I see long white hair whip in the wind and suddenly my blood stops pumping, my legs stop moving, my lungs stop drawing breath. But still, he continues to move. I scramble back, falling, digging into the dirt, desperate to get away. I have no weapon, nothing. I’m not prepared. I can’t fight him. Not here. Not now. And then in a blink of the eye, he’s in front of me and every muscle in my body quakes with fear. A slow smile creeps across Zeus’s face, and then one word is placed in my mind as though it were my thought instead of his.

Soon.

“Ah!” I gasp for a breath that won’t come and scramble up, only to find myself tangled in blankets. I fight against them, just as Jackson pulls me against him. “Jackson?” I blink hard, momentarily disoriented. “How did I get back here? Where is he? Did you see him?”

I try to stand, but Jackson forces me to sit still. “Ari, it was just a dream. You had a dream.”

“No. You weren’t in here. I was alone and then I went outside and—”

“You didn’t. I came in shortly after we all went to bed. I couldn’t sleep without you. And I’m sorry about earlier.”

My mind reels, unable to stop. “Wait, no, you weren’t here, and I left. I went outside. I—”

“Why don’t I get you some water? Stay here, okay? I’ll be right back.”

He steps outside the makeshift curtain, and I sit back in my bed, my hands shaking. I clench them together in hopes of steadying them, and that’s when my gaze lands on my fingers, on the thick red mud caked underneath each nail. I hold them out in front of me, fighting to keep a sob from escaping my lips.

It wasn’t a dream. Zeus is here.

Melissa West writes young adult and new adult novels for Entangled Teen and Embrace and Penguin/InterMix. She lives outside of Atlanta, GA with her husband and two daughters and spends most of her time writing, reading, or fueling her coffee addiction.

She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and a M.S. in Graphic Communication, both from Clemson University. Yeah, her blood runs orange.

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On Sale: When We Collide by A.L. Jackson

Book Addicts! When We Collide, a novel written by A. L. Jackson, is now on sale promotion! Meaning that you can get a digital copy of this book for only $0.99!

When We Collide
by A.L. Jackson

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Lost to You and Take This Regret comes a gripping new tale of loss and love. 

William has spent six years running from his past and the last eight months trying to rid his mind of the dreams that increasingly haunt his nights. Trapped in a world of false ambitions and feigned affections, William knows he’s reached a breaking point and something’s going to give. 

Maggie had lived her entire life without hope until one man showed her what it meant to be loved. He’d been her light in a lifetime of darkness. Six years ago, that darkness stole him away. Without him, she’s surrendered herself to an existence she doesn’t know how to escape. 

When the family William left behind is struck by tragedy, he is called back to the one place he’s sworn to never return to again. 

In a moment that will change his life forever, William comes face to face with the girl who, with one look, captured his heart. He is unable to ignore the buried desires and the hope for the future they’d once believed they’d have. 

Now William is ready to fight to take back what had been stolen from him six years before. 

But he never imagined what that fight might cost him.

“You know him?” Amber asked. 

I glimpsed the confusion on her face. 

William. 

My secret, my heart. 

The beautiful man I’d lain with for hours under the stars, our lives poured out in a torrent of stories and words. The way he held me while I shared the ones that hurt me the most. How he touched me, the way he made me feel incredibly safe. How that hold had escalated from safety to ecstasy as the soft pads of his fingers would dance across my lips when he locked himself to me, the perfect weight of his body, the expression on his face when he came. 

The heartbreak in his eyes when I told him goodbye. 

I knew it all. 

“Yeah.” My voice was soft. “I know him.”

A.L. Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Take This Regret and Lost to You, as well as other contemporary romance titles, including If Forever Comes, Pulled and When We Collide, as well as the New Adult Romance Come To Me Quietly due out January 7, 2014. 

She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children. Her favorite pastime is spending time with the ones she loves.