Sabina's Adventures In Reading: Release Day Review: Casted Expanded by Sonya Loveday

Jade has been on the run her entire life. She can’t remember her parents, other than she knows they’re dead. She doesn’t even know WHO is hunting her, other than they’re willing to hurt her – badly.

After many years on the run, Jade runs into Jessa and Rainy, who takes Jade under their wings, protecting her. By doing so, they also drag Jade into the magical world. Or maybe it would be more correct to say, they drag her back into the magical world.

Soon Jade finds herself personally involved with a magical book (and its very “lovely” inhabitant; Elinor), fighting for her life and sanity, trying to keep her friends safe, figuring out not only her love life, but her magic as well.

But Fate has more in store for Jade than she truly is prepared for. Will she be able to handle it all?

I read the original Casted last year (you can read my review here), and jumped immediately when asked if I wanted to beta read the extended version. *thank you Sonya!!!*

I have to say, giving Sonya a chapter by chapter feedback was just as fun to do for me, as it most likely it was to read for her. Ok, maybe it was more fun for her. :-) The extended version has larger scenes and smaller scenes tucked in here and there, and complimented the original story beautifully. There are still specific scenes I find myself wandering back to in my mind. One of them is a very special moment between Edge and Jade, and it really stuck with me. It hit a nerve deep inside of me. The intensity…. Wow.

That said…. Casted is an emotional rollercoaster, one minute you’re giggling with joy, the next you’re clasping your hands over your mouth in horror, just to shout at the pages shortly after. And when you think you’re safe, that you finally can release that pent up breath? HA! Guess again! Hold on tight my friends for this adventure is one that grabs you by the throat, drags you into the wild and unsafe to toss you to the wolves – and you will love every second of it. I know I did. Despite the fact that this was the second time I read Casted, my nerves were frayed when finishing the book. I was pretty much screaming with terror, pain, panic and despair. I might even have shouted at Sonya as well. Maybe… Ok, there’s no maybe. I did shout at her. :-) Besides getting a story that went under my skin, I also got a book hangover on top of it all, complete with shaking hands and a headache.

Now to the question that most likely be on everyone’s mind; is the expanded version worth buying if you already have the original one? Crossing my heart, and speaking my opinion (like I usually do), yes. To me it is. You get some more background, more knowledge and to me, as a fan of this new series, and of Sonya, it is definitely worth it. That said, if you haven’t bought and read the original one – buy the expanded one. But be prepared to get hooked into an amazing world. I know I did. In my mind, there's no doubt. Casted Expended is - just like the original Casted - worth 5 potions.

Sonya Loveday, first and foremost is a reader, an avid one. It is of that love that brought her to the realization that this was the answer to the nagging persistent feeling that ‘there’s got to be something more’.
The dream came alive in 2009 when she purchased her laptop and began the tedious step of becoming a published author.
When she’s not reading, she’s writing. When she’s not writing, she’s reading. And when she’s not doing either of those things she’s sleeping, shuttling her children back and forth to school, letting the dogs and cats in and out of the house for the umpteenth time in the last hour and dreaming of a clean house.

Goodreads ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

“My mind absorbed everything in the spell book I clutched tightly to me. Pages ruffled inside of my head, urging me to remember things and then to forget them. Voices chanted with tempo rising at the breaking points of pain until the book vanished and words to an ancient spell scribed across my arms. Each stroke brought blood to the surface, imprinting words I could not read; words that would forever change who I was.”

Jade had spent the majority of her life running from the Triad. A powerful group, who would stop at nothing to obtain Jade and the missing spell book for leader, Lorenzo’s, nefarious plans. And now that she has absorbed the highly coveted magic contained inside the missing book, there is nowhere left for her to hide.

With the help of her friends, Jade steps out from the shadows and learns how to fight back. But no one is prepared for Elinor-the woman bound inside of the book that’s trapped in Jade’s mind. Now she not only needs to protect herself from the Triad, but from what’s hiding inside her mind as well.

Jade never expected the answer to it all would revolve around love.

Edge is dark, mysterious, and a sworn member of the Triad. He also hides a secret past that threatens the thin line he walks between good and evil. Lives are at stake when Jade and Edge’s two worlds collide. Can Jade learn to trust him when he says he is her pre-ordained and vows to do everything he can to protect her? But more importantly, can she trust herself and the woman in her mind?