Awakening by Diane M. Dresback

This is a hard to classify book. There are the seeds of redemption. Possibly some justice coming. And much of it could be vengeance. But what makes this book so challenging is that it’s book one of the trilogy Awake as a Stranger. And this book does not stand alone. It leaves many unanswered questions. The three books need to be read to get the full story.

It’s also hard to classify as to what genre or subgenre it belongs to. It’s a mystery. It has elements of science fiction. Could even be called a thriller.

The book follows the lives to two women, Treaz (pronounced like trees) and Omani. Throughout book one they don’t know each other and never come in contact with each other. Treaz is a transitioner. She jumps bodies and inhabits other people for a certain period. Omani is trapped in a compound run by her uncle. The compound is in Switzerland. That’s all the plot I’ll give away.

This is a fascinating book. It’s told completely from the point of view of those two women. Therefore, the reader learns about why they are in the situations they are in as the two characters learn. They are both grown women and yet they seem to be childlike, naïve, immature. Neither have experienced that much life due to how they were raised, which makes the strange predicaments they find themselves in that much more interesting.

The book is well written. I have no complaints other than the structure. So much is left open that reading the next book is a requirement. And I assume reading the third will be as well. The book isn’t overly long. Just 260 pages.

There is limited profanity. No on page sex. And no violence.

If you’re looking for something different, this is definitely it. I read the prequel novella first and that was enough to make me read the first four chapters included with the novella, which was fascinating enough to compel me to read the entire first book. And I will read the second and third eventually.

I’ll rank this one sixteenth. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, but the fifteen books before it are better. And because it’s not complete it was hard to rank above those fifteen excellent reads.

1. The Record Keeper by Charles Martin
2. The Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron Ross
3. Days Coming by Pat Simmons
4. The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
5. The Maid by Nita Prose
6. The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear
7. Where is My Sister by Jane Daly
8. Braving Strange Waters by Sarah Hanks
9. Another Ending by Sara Whitely
10. Blood Red Deceit by Steve Rush
11. Without Fail by Lee Child
12. The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman
13. The Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman
14. Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke
15. A Vanishing Act by Edwina Kiernan
16. Awakening by Diane Dresback
17. Harlot’s Moon by Ed Gorman
18. The Hidden Saboteur by Charles Besondy
19. Cali’s Hope by John Matthew Walker
20. Field Training by Patrick O’Donnell
21. Deadly Pursuit by Elle Gray
22. American Prophet by Jeff Fullmer
    

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