Review: Revealed by SJ Pajonas

Posted November 18, 2015 by Lola in Dystopia, Review, Romance, Sci-Fi / 20 Comments

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RevealedRevealed (The Nogiku Series #5)
by S.J. Pajonas

Blurb:
Come back to the Nogiku world with Jiro Itō and Mark Sakai as they live the events of REMOVED from their perspective. Secrets, lies, and cover-ups are all in a day’s work for Jiro and Mark, but when Sanaa Griffin enters their world, truths emerge, plans fall by the wayside, and enemies come out of the shadows. How does Mark veer so far off course while training Sanaa? And how does Jiro win back his family’s loyalty after losing their trust? If you loved the Nogiku Series, REVEALED will uncover the details behind all the action and reveal the future life of Sanaa and Jiro on Yūsei. Don’t miss this companion novel to the four books of The Nogiku Series!

Note: This is a companion novel and should be read after RECLAIMED, Book Four of The Nogiku Series. If you read the REVEALED short stories, Parts 1, 2, and 3 are the first 14 chapters of this book. All the rest (32 chapters total) is brand-new material. This novel is 80,000 words.

My Review:
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review

Revealed is a true gift for fans of the Nogiku series. The Nogiku series is one of my favourite series and even though I think it ended in a good place, I also wished for more. And the author gives us that in Revealed. Revealed doesn’t continue the story, but is a companion novel to the first book, although I would recommend to read it after book 4 as I think it works best that way. It’s been a long time since I read the first book in this series and it was fun being able to revisit that time and see scenes from Jiro and Mark their point of view.

Companion novels told from the other point of view can be a bit of a hit or miss for me, but here it most definitely worked. We get both the point of view of Jiro (the love interest) and Mark (another important character in the series). It was great to see scenes we already know from another point of view, but there are also a lot of scenes where Sanaa isn’t and thus we never know that happened as we only get Sanaa her point of view in the first 4 books. I felt that revealed added a lot of details, explained the behaviour of both Jiro and Mark more and gave us a look what was happening at that time where Sanaa wasn’t aware of. So it’s not just showing us another perspective, it also adds a lot to the story. It doesn’t follow the whole first book till the end, but end somewhere else instead, which I think was the right place to end this story.

I loved reading this book and it was so wonderful to be back in the Nogiku world for a little bit. I easily lots track of time while reading this and had a hard time putting this book down. The book is also bittersweet and made me feel emotional as we know what will happen to these characters later on in the series and gah it was so hard to read certain scenes knowing what would happen next. The only small complaint I have is the ending, while I just said I liked the ending, after the ending scene we skip forth a few years and then it takes place after book 4 and it just felt a bit jarring to go form one moment to years later. I did like how that scene made sure the book wrapped up after book 4, the time skip was a bit jarring as you basically have to remember 3 whole books in that time skip.

Jiro and Mark are both two of my favourite characters in this series and I really liked seeing their point of view. I felt like I learned so much more about these characters. I never realized how much mark cared about Sanaa and how busy and conflicted he was at that time. With Jiro I had a hard time getting into his point of view at first. Jiro is so angry all the time and so different from the guy we get to know from Sanaa her point of view. But slowly that changes and I started to really like reading his point of view. And it wasn’t until the end of the book I realized how well it was written as then I realized that Jiro had changed. Sanaa changed him and his life in such a big way, while at the same time it was subtle enough that I didn’t realize it until the end of the book. It was really powerful to realize that and see how much Sanaa means to him and how much her presence in his life changed him. Gah these two are so great together and seeing their romance begin, but now from Jiro hsi point of view was so awesome and made me like them even more. Jiro and Sanaa are one of my favourite fictional couples as they are so perfect for each other. They are honest and open with each other, share things with each other they hide from the rest and they are such a great couple, begin there for the other and so genuinely caring.

To summarize: Revealed is a gift to all the fan of the Nogiku series, it gives us a chance to revisit the events from book 1 Removed and at the same time gives us another point of view and knowledge of what was going on around Sanaa before she knew something was going on. I would recommend to read this book after book 4 as it has the most impact that way and won’t spoil anything. This book is awesome and I loved every second of it, but it’s also so bittersweet knowing where these characters end up. It was hard to read it at times, knowing they change so much and so much happens to them. I loved learning more about both Jiro and Mark. I feel like we got to see a side of Mark we don’t see often in the first 4 books. And seeing Jiro his point of view makes me realize even more how perfect he is for Sanaa and how good she was for him. I am so glad I got the chance to visit the Nogiku world again in this book and it’s a great addition to this series.

4-star

Links:
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Haven’t started this series yet? Grab your copy of the first book Removed for free!
Goodreads
Amazon
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Kobo

What do you think of companion novels? What do you think they should include to be enjoyable?

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20 responses to “Review: Revealed by SJ Pajonas

  1. Red Iza

    OK, OK, OK, I give up, I just moved it waaaaaaay up my TBR pile, I should read that series at the beginning of next year 😉

    • I hope you’ll check it out! I love this series and it was a lot of fun to revisit the events of the first book. Seeing it through another point of view made for a very different story and made me understand Jiro and Mark their behavior more.

    • The first book is free everywhere, so you can start the series for free. It was great to revisit this world and learn more about the characters. The other point of view really work and gave more insight in these characters their thoughts and feelings.

  2. Great review Lola 🙂 I like companion novels, if they’re done well. And this sounds like one of those! I have a few books by this author on my TBR and the first of this series is one of them. I’m looking forward to starting it now! 🙂
    Wattle recently posted…Shelf Control #2My Profile

    • I hope you give this series a try! It’s a great series, btw the first book in the series is free if you don’t own a copy yet.
      I really liked how the author handled this companion novel and I really felt it added thgins to the story.

    • I hope you’ll enjoy this one! It mostly features Jiro his point of view, but there are also some chapters from Mark his point of view and it was fun seeing their point of view and realizing what they knew and planed in the first book. It really adds tot he story.

    • It definitely was hard to say goodbye to this series and I am glad I got another chance to visit this world with this book. I haven’t read a lot of companion novels yet, but this one really worked. There is so much going on in the first book that the main character Sanaa doesn’t realize and here we get both Jiro and Mark their point of view and learn what they know.

  3. Thanks for the advice about what order to read it in. With companion novels that can get tricky. I’m glad that it ended up feeling like a nice reunion with your favorite characters and that it added new perceptions about them. I’ve read a few companions I loved and a few that didn’t work for me.
    And funny thing, I had this book told from the heroine’s perspective that I could swear was 5-star awesomeness. Then I read the companion book told from the hero’s perspective and it became my favorite and soured me a little on the heroine. LOL
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Books N’ Tunes Challenge Sign Up for 2016My Profile

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