Transcend by Christine Fonseca

Title: Transcend
Author: Christine Fonseca
Rating: 5 out of 5

From Goodreads:
All seventeen-year-old composer Ien Montgomery desires is an escape from his family's rigid expectations for his life; someone to inspire his music. When he meets a beautiful violin-prodigy, Kiera McDougal, his life music takes on new life. With her, he imagines a future outside of his parents’ control. That is, until a horrible accident tears them apart.

Sent to die in a sanatorium, Ien’s obsession for Kiera grows unbearable. Tortured by thoughts he can’t escape and the truth of his monstrous disfigurement, he flees, desperate to exact revenge on the people that ruined his life – his parents. But, vengeance is empty. Betrayed by those closest to him, Ien discovers that the price for his happiness may be his sanity.

Set amidst the landscape of New York's Gilded Age, and inspired by Phantom of the Opera, TRANSCEND exposes the fine line between love and madness.

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Look at that cover. Wow. So simple, yet gorgeous.

I'm someone who reads pretty quickly, but I really savored Transcend. I spent more time thinking about what I was reading and what was to come.

"Will I become the thing I fear the most of all?"

Ien, a seventeen year old musical composer is overwhelmed by pressure from his family. He is ready to begin his life with his musical partner and love, Kiera, until horrible circumstances rip them from each other. Ien is sent to die at a sanatorium where he begins to plot revenge against the people who have left him disfigured and alone. But Ien will find more than he expected when he begins his crusade of vengeance.

"New truths. I'm more than the flesh and bone that defines me. More than the pain that consumes me and the madness radiating through me. I am a man. And I am still alive."

This book reads like a song. It flows easily, starting with a beautiful introduction then coming to a grand climax that will leave you breathless before crashing around you. I loved the alternating between first and third person. I liked being inside Ien's head, but at times it was quite intense, so it was also nice to have the third person point of view.

I usually have strong feelings for main characters, whether it be love, hate, lust, etc. What I felt for Ien was different. The madness and hate inside of him frightened me. Then I felt pity for the things he'd lost and the things he could never have. I got so wrapped up in his reality I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. Ultimately, I genuinely cared about Ien. I cared about what would happen to him.

I fell completely in love with the story of heartache, pain, and vengeance. The characters, whether real or imaginary, found their way into my mind and heart and rooted themselves there until the last page and will stay there for a while.