The Genesis of Seven by Sara M. Schaller Book Tour, Guest Post & Giveaway! {Ends 9/29/20}

9/20/2020

The Genesis of Seven
(The Empyrean Trilogy, #1)
By Sara M. Schaller
YA Fantasy, Paranormal
Hardcover, Paperback & ebook, 348 Pages
July 7, 2020 by Designs by Seraphim
Eighteen-year-old Jordan Conway has always wanted to help people, but helping seven archangels to achieve their divine duty was never quite what he had in mind…

When Jordan is entrusted by the head nun of his orphanage to deliver a mysterious backpack to a New York City address, he comes unexpectedly face-to-face with Archangel Gabriel. Their acquaintance fast uncovers a labyrinth of secrets that connect Jordan’s once-normal life to an ancient heavenly prophecy. Now, he must help Gabriel to reunite the archangels before evil forces grow too strong.

Soon, Jordan and Gabriel find themselves on a divine quest across the globe, while deep in the pits of Hell, Satan plots his return to earth. To gain control, however, Satan needs the powerful prophetic objects locked safe inside Jordan’s backpack—and the devil will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

With that notion threatening his only family and the safety of his newfound friends, Jordan must do whatever it takes to protect the ones he loves and help the archangels succeed. If that means sacrificing all he thought he knew to go to war with the devil himself? Bring it on.
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REVIEW by LAWonder10:
The Genesis of Seven is an uniquely, twisted tale inspired by a portion of the Revelations book of the Bible. It involves battles, prophesies, and a search for those things pertaining to a long-awaited prophesy to be fulfilled. It consists of Archangels, Satan, and other evil "creatures of the underworld". The story, also, includes certain key human individuals...One boy in particular.

It is a race between good and evil. Much of the burden lies within one 18-year-old boy. Who will conquer?

The story is well-written, holds a bit of humor, a lot of suspense and intrigue. The characters are well-defined and the background scenes are fairly easy to visualize. The Title and Cover image are well-chosen.

I have a slight problem with it, in that I feel it is similar to taking a part of history and changing it. The author has taken a portion of the Book of Revelations, the plot builds upon, and twists it. I feel it is okay to fictionalize some of history which is vague but not to change it, especially when it is directed and a young, impressionable audience. I am sure this is a very controversial literary work. Additionally, it was slightly confusing at times and I felt a few scenes were incomplete. However, it was creative, imaginative and an incredible interpretation.

As a whole, the book is intriguing, captivating, sensitive, poignant and ends in a way which leaves the reader anxious for more.

I offer a Three and a Half Stars rating.
*This book was gifted me with no pressure for a positive review.

GUEST POST

SARA M SCHALLER is a paralibrarian, publishing professional, and young adult author. She lives in Colorado with her mom, dad, brother, and four furry canine siblings. Sara loves the world of pop culture and the performing arts, so when she is not reading or writing, she is either watching movies and shows, attending conventions, or going out to see live performances. She likes to write stories for all ages in the fantasy genre, and her writing usually contains elements of speculative fiction and features a large cast of characters. Sara has a Bachelor’s degree in English, Art History, and Religious Studies from the University of Denver, and a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University. For five years, Sara worked as a graphic designer, and her creativity in design carries over into other areas of her life like writing. You can visit her online at www.saramschaller.com.
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The Origins of My Book Title
It's natural for readers to be curious about book titles—they set the stage for the book, possibly even the entire series, and are a brief glimpse of what to expect from the narrative. It's equally natural for readers to be curious about what meaning book titles hold.
Sometimes, authors may not be able to reveal that meaning because it might spoil something about the story, but for most authors, there is some explanation that can be shared. And that is what I intend to do. I get a lot of questions about my book title, The Genesis of Seven, mainly in regard to how I came up with it and what exactly it means. So, I thought it might be interesting to answer those questions now.
First, I must begin by saying that creating book titles is no easy feat. In fact, for me it's probably my greatest weakness. It took me months to finalize my title, and at that, I had already gone through two other iterations that simply did not work.
What were these other iterations you ask? The first was Forever Fallen, inspired by one of my favorite quotes from Paradise Lost ("Awake! Arise! Or be forever fallen."). The second was Call of the Angels, inspired by a key plot point in my story in which Gabriel must send out a call to the other archangels to gather them all together. However, I knew neither of these titles would work because 1) I wanted something more symbolic and 2) they just didn't feel right.
It was back to the drawing board for me to find inspiration for my title elsewhere. Coincidentally, as I sat at my desk one day wracking my brain for a title, I looked over at a stack of oversized art history books that sat on the floor of my office and suddenly inspiration struck. These art history books featured illuminations of the St. John's Bible, an artistic masterpiece in itself, especially for someone interested in art and religion like myself. But more to the point, these books were split into different sections of the Bible.
My eyes focused on the word Revelation written across one of the covers, and immediately I thought from Genesis to Revelation, a silly phrase one of my college professors would say all the time about the material we were going to cover in class. Yet, as my mind thought about this phrase, I couldn't help but narrow in on Genesis—not only is Genesis a book in the Bible, but it also means beginning. My book is definitely a beginning because it's starting a new story, a new series even. However, it's also a beginning because my book is an origin story for the angels. And as that thought entered my mind, I knew that my title had to be The Genesis of Seven because there are seven main archangels that my book revolves around.
Quickly, I accepted this as my title because not only did it feel right, but it also had the right amount of symbolism that I was searching for. It's strange how you can get stuck on something for a lengthy period of time, and then all of a sudden figure it out. That's essentially what happened to me.
Ultimately, what I learned about creating titles is that you can't force it and the timing has to be right. It can be frustrating when a title doesn't miraculously come to mind, or when one does and it is completely wrong. All I can say is keep at it and it will come eventually. Everything happens for a reason (even the stumbles and the falls).

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The Genesis of Seven by Sara M. Schaller Book Tour, Guest Post & Giveaway! {Ends 9/29/20}

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