Blog Tour: Transcendence (Review and Interview)

Transcendence by C.J. Omololu

Release Date: June 5, 2012

Publisher: Walker and Company
Pages: 336
Buy The Book: Amazon

When a visit to the Tower of London triggers an overwhelmingly real vision of a beheading that occurred centuries before, Cole Ryan fears she is losing her mind. A mysterious boy, Griffon Hall, comes to her aid, but the intensity of their immediate connection seems to open the floodgate of memories even wider.

As their feelings grow, Griffon reveals their common bond as members of the Akhet—an elite group of people who can remember past lives and use their collected wisdom for the good of the world. But not all Akhet are altruistic, and a rogue is after Cole to avenge their shared past. Now in extreme danger, Cole must piece together clues from many lifetimes. What she finds could ruin her chance at a future with Griffon, but risking his love may be the only way to save them both.

Full of danger, romance, and intrigue, Transcendence breathes new life into a perpetually fascinating question: What would you do with another life to live?

Transcendence is such an addicting story. I got hooked from the beginning and stayed up way past 3 am reading it. The story starts off in London with an encounter with a couple of cute boys, a few strange flash backs, and then the story begins to unfold.

The main character Cole, is a cello prodigy. This girl is seriously world famous! She has a lot of drive, and total dedication to her craft. She spends hours practicing, teaching,playing at concert's and that's in addition to her schooling. While in London, she meets Griffin, a total hottie, and begins to have some rather odd flash back's. After she returns home, Cole begins having an increased amount of flash back's that don't seem to make any sense. When she runs into Griffin, she begins to wonder if this is more than just a coincidence.

Griffin was a really great character. He took Cole under his wing, and taught her everything he knew about the "Akhet". He explained what all the weird feelings she was having were. He did his best to make her feel at home in her own skin, and like this was all normal. Or could eventually feel normal anyways. Griffin was her night in shining armor, protecting her and fighting for her. I adored him!

Overall, I really enjoyed Transcendence. It's a really great story with a dash of romance, and a lot of mystery at the heart of it! It was completely addicting and I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't stop reading until I got to the very last sentence!

Interview with C.J. Omololu

Transcendence is so different from Dirty Little Secrets. How did you come up with the idea for your book? 

They really are different books. I started thinking about death and the afterlife when a friend’s son died unexpectedly and came up with the idea of a group of people who could remember all of their past lives as a way of dealing with it. I read a bunch of books on reincarnation and took the parts of it that I liked and made up other things as I came up with the ‘world’ of the Akhet.

In your book, the main character is a very talented musical prodigy. Do you play any musical instruments? 

Sadly, no. I did play cello in the school orchestra in sixth grade, so I had a super basic knowledge of how it works. My grandfather was really musical and could play the piano insanely well and my son plays guitar and everything else he can get his hands on, so it skipped my generation. Somewhere out there is a photo of me in ninth grade wearing a band uniform and holding a clarinet. I was a ‘faker’ for our school’s award-winning marching band. They needed people to fill out the ranks in the things the band did during halftime shows and it was either band PE or swimming at 7 o’clock in the morning. I even got to go to the Rose Parade and fake my way marching down the street without playing a note.

In the story, Cole, gets to travel to some pretty amazing places! What's the most exotic place you've been to? 

I’ve been to Nigeria, in West Africa – my husband’s family is still there. We didn’t really go outside of the big city, but it was a culture shock all the same.  I also spend a good deal of time in a small town in central Texas, which is exotic in its own right.

If the Akhet were a real group of people, would you want to be one of them?

Yes! Being Akhet isn’t without its drawbacks as people will see in the book, but I’d jump at the chance.

The way that you wrote Transcendence, there is definitely room to do more with the story if you chose. Will there be a sequel in the future? ( please oh please!)

 That makes me so happy! Yes, we’re just putting the finishing touches on the sequel which will be out next year. Most of the characters are back and there are some intriguing new ones as well – I loved writing it and I think it came out really well. I’d love to do more, but only time will tell.

Thanks for letting me come by your blog!

Thanks for stopping by! It was a pleasure to have you her today! :)