AD | I was kindly gifted this book series by the author in exchange for a review. All opinions are honest and my own. This post also contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase something through my link, I will earn a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay for the item. I only advertise products that I have used myself and would genuinely recommend.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a book review on my blog. So when I saw a tweet from self-published author Holly Pritchard asking for reviewers for her Ascension Series, I thought, yeah let’s do it! She kindly gifted me e-book copies of all three books in the series. Read on to find out what the Ascension Series is all about, and what I thought of it.
About the author
Here is Holly’s bio as found on her website:
“Holly Pritchard is an author & blogger based in Wales, UK. After a lifelong love affair with creating stories, Holly has pursued her passion of sharing her stories with the world through the self-publishing medium. Holly previously worked under the name Holly Stockport until July 2020.
Holly also runs a blog under the name The Little Landeg, alongside working in the marketing industry full time. She lives with her partner Morgan and their terrier cross, Patch.
When she’s not sat at her computer writing novels, she can be found drinking copious amounts of iced coffee and changing her hair colour every five to ten minutes.“
What is the Ascension Series about?
The Ascension Series follows the story of Melanie Winters, a young woman who has the power to move things with her mind. The complications begin when she inadvertently reveals these secret powers to other students at her university. As the story progresses, we learn alongside Melanie the dark origins of her powers and follow her journey as she discovers others like herself. She ends up on the run from Horizon, a pharmaceutical company that has been secretly running cruel experiments on people for decades, in an attempt to perfect their superpower-giving drug.
I won’t elaborate any more on the storyline because I don’t want to give away spoilers of this exciting series!
The books so far in the Ascension Series are:
- The Ascension of Melanie Winters
- The Evolution of Melanie Winters
- The Transmutation of Melanie Winters
What did I think of the Ascension series?
The first book was gripping from the very start. Melanie’s powers are soon demonstrated and I was intrigued. I wanted to know why Melanie had those powers – what was the back story? This is something that Melanie gradually discovers for herself.
The story is fast-paced and I never felt like it was dragging. There are times when there is a lot of description, but this helps to create a fuller picture of the settings and characters. Overall, there is a lot of action in this book and it moves on quickly. I constantly wanted to read on to find out what would happen next!
There are some shocking twists in this series! One minute, everything is normal and chilled out, and then it suddenly turns dark and twisted. This became somewhat predictable after a while because I could guess that something shocking was about to happen at any moment. But it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story – if anything it increased the anticipation and excitement.
I like how this series blends everyday experiences with sci-fi and fantasy. It makes it exciting but also makes the characters more relatable. There are a lot of characters in this series but they are gradually introduced, so you get to know them and remember who they all are.
One slight criticism I have is that Melanie (and sometimes other characters too) seems unrealistically calm sometimes, even when some really quite traumatic things have happened to her. She will spend time chilling out and socialising, in situations where I think someone would be quite distraught in real life, and unable to think about anything other than the terrible things that are happening! But I tell myself that maybe this is just Melanie’s way of coping.
The ending of the first book – what a cliffhanger! The second book ends in a more relaxed way, and then the third book ends even more dramatically. I had originally assumed that the Ascension Series was a trilogy and that the third book was the last. It was only when I got to the very last page that I realised, the story is very much not over! There is a huge cliffhanger as well as many unresolved subplots so I think there will definitely be a book 4 and possibly more.
Final thoughts on the Ascension Series
This was a fast-paced and easy read that wouldn’t take any keen reader too long to get through. Despite being a little unrealistic at times in terms of the characters’ actions and emotions, the storyline itself was gripping and enjoyable. The idea of the powers and how they were attained is such an interesting concept and Holly Pritchard did a fantastic job at bringing it to life.
If you like sci-fi and fantasy books with a good sprinkling of friendship and romance thrown in, I’d 100% recommend the Ascension Series. The three books very much run on from each other – none would make sense as a standalone novel. Therefore I recommend starting from the beginning of this series and being prepared to read all three books. After the cliffhanger at the end of the first one, you will be hooked!
The Ascension series is available to buy in paperback or e-book format. I believe the third book, The Transmutation of Melanie Winters has only just been released to the public. So if you get in there now you’ll be one of the first people to read it!
A big thank you to Holly Pritchard for sending me e-book copies of the Ascension Series to read and review. I’m so hooked on this story now and I’m excited to read more of this series when it’s released. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!
