BOOK REVIEW: Sands of Time by Jonaxx

Love, time, forgiveness, and acceptance are highly influential in anyone’s life. Love always wins out. Time is uncertain. Forgiveness is the highest form of love. Acceptance is the first step in moving forward. Sands of Time, a book from the Costa Leona Series written by Jonaxx and all having these four notions of life, is an exemplary novel worth reading a thousand-fold.

To begin with, Sands of time may have a common plot, character, and settings when it comes to fictional writing but the author wrote it on a matchless level that a reader cannot stop his/herself from finishing it in one sitting. The flow of the story is there is an innocent girl living with her father who organized a society with diverse beliefs compared to the common world or simply known as a cult, which the father manipulated the innocent girl to become the leader at such a young age and being called as the “Lady of the Light”. On the other side, there is a man born into a prestigious, wealthy, and honorable family. They met, known, and fell in love with each other for a short amount of time but unfortunately, they separated ways for there is a catastrophic moment for each of their family. The father of the man got killed protecting his wife from getting raped by the father of the innocent child. After four years of getting separated, they met again for two reasons: the man wants the love of his life to get back and to put in prison the killer of his father which he escaped since the tragedy happened. While on the way to improving the status of both the man and the innocent girl, the family of the man fired him as the chief executive officer of their own company because they don’t want him to be in a relationship with the child of the killer and the family is still in agony for their loss of loved one. The girl found out about what happened and she broke up with the man telling him to fix the relationship between him and his family. The man let his family deprive him of being the CEO and he successfully built a company of his own, making it one of the top-performing companies nationwide. After a couple of months, they met again but this time, the killer called his innocent child asking for help and telling her his location the innocent child did the right thing which is to report it to the man so that they can investigate and finally put him in prison. One day, the killer called his child saying that he found out that his child has communication with the man and he frustratingly added that he will go to Manila so that he can confront the man and do what he did to his father. The child worryingly reported to her man that call, therefore, the man called security for his mother because she is also in Manila. On the same day, the innocent girl went back home to Costa Leona for her considered family member which she really cares about confined in a hospital. While she was roaming around the town, he identified his father and followed him. That came to her mind that his father manipulated him by telling him his location. At a right time, the man searched for his girl and found her along with her father, the killer. The father of the girl went to prison and the girl ask for forgiveness from the family of the man because of the terrible mistake of his father but the family didn’t forgive her immediately and the mother of the man who lost her husband take all her anger towards the innocent girl. The girl willingly accepts all the anger and before she walked away from them, she peacefully said to the mother that her son should stop looking for her now since justice is already served. But when the man got home, he did not see his girl in their house and asked his mother about her whereabouts but before she could answer, he immediately went out and searched for her. To end the story, they get back together again, with peace and a stronger relationship. The main characters of the story are Soleil “Liel” Sierra Cervantes and Raoul “Raj” Vesarious Riego. Soleil is the “Lady of the Light”, a diamond of the first water, pure as snow, described as a goddess even when she is mad, and a selfless girl when it comes to love. Raoul has the character of a fighter, tough but soft in heart, forgiving, responsible, loving, and understanding man. The side characters are Felicia “Fely” Riego and Hades Riego, the mother and father of Raoul, Cresia Lopez, best friend of Soleil, and a goat, a pet of Soleil when she was a child. Fely is an understanding, strong, and forgiving mother for the sake of his son’s happiness despite losing her partner in life. Hades with a character of tough but with a soft heart man, a giving, responsible, loving husband, and a protector but died fighting for his family. Balthazar Cervantes, the protagonist, is the manipulative and selfish father of Soleil, the killer of Hades, and had an obsession with Fely. Most parts of the story happened in the town of Costa Leona. A place with mountain ranges, large scenery of farm fields, and beautiful white sand beaches. The people in that town respect the family Riego because of their riches which gives them employment and a source of income.

Secondarily, the story gives all kinds of emotions to the reader. The words that have been written made it successfully through the heart of the reader that what the character feels is the same as the reader. In this way, it gives a wider perception of the character’s point of view about what is happening in the story or what he/she feels about. The author makes the reader feel that he/she is in the story primarily witnessing the events. This serves as a short span amount of time to escape the real world and explore the fictional world. The story is giving the feeling of love for family, friends, and special someone in life, the feeling of forgiveness for someone that made life sometimes miserable, and the feeling of acceptance in order to finally step up in the next chapter of life.

At last, although it is only fictional, Sands of Time has its own supremacy and identity that readers can relate to real life. At times, love drives someone to do vague things to other people. For instance, the selfish love of Balthazar towards Felicia made a lot of people hurt. On contrary, love made us do something for the sake of the happiness of others. Furthermore, the story proves that time is the biggest factor that influences one’s decisions in life. People take time to heal, especially when the pain is extremely not measurable. In like manner, forgiving and acceptance require time. The story can tell that accepting events that made life in downfall moments is like a bird freeing in the sky after it has been caged. This means acceptance is an aspect to set life free from being caged and seeking peace of mind. Likewise, this story creates a connection between the fictional world and the real world. Being said, the moral of the story can also be applied in real life.

For various reasons, Sands of time, a masterpiece of Jonaxx, give the vibe of a chef’s kiss after reading it. First, the story has the plot, characters, and settings written beyond comparison. Second, while reading, a reader can feel all kinds of emotions. Lastly, it has its own distinction that a reader can interdependent his/her learnings from the story to his/her own life. Above all mentioned, Sands of time will always be the most painful yet second to none that one will ever read.