In Book 1 of the Descent Series, Chasing the Avatar, Maya begins her perilous
adventure by leaving behind everything she knew to delve into the a spiritual world of chaos and danger.
Have you ever searched for all the answers to life and never found them? Have you ever
had a demanding thirst that was never satiated? Have you ever looked for that great high never to attain it? That was me,
all my life until finally I found the answer. I found the elixir of knowledge, the high of all highs. I found a guru! Quickly,
I came to believe, like so many Hindus, that she was an avatar—a human incarnation—of the violent, voraciously
destructive goddess Kali. So, what did I do? I did what any hungry, thirsty, reckless seeker would do: I dropped all I was
doing, everything I had and even who I was in order to chase after the avatar.
Maya is a young
woman with the brightest, most promising prospects in the world—a doctoral student at Harvard University, teaching and
advising undergraduates; yet, she’s drowning in intense discontent. In the midst of her anguish, she meets Cha Ma, a
Hindu guru. Immediately, she believes that Cha Ma is an avatar—a human incarnation—of the goddess Kali, the most
malevolent and destructive of all Hindu deities. Spellbound, Maya runs off to India to live in the guru’s ashram as
a Hindu. Her choice hurls her parents, Paul and Marie, into emotional, physical, and spiritual battles far beyond their
wildest imaginations, for they must fight for their daughter’s life and soul, as she teeters on the edge of her very
existence.
Spirits supernaturally collide as they battle for the lives and souls of Maya, her parents, and
the people attached to them.
As Maya seeks the truth, she finds that dabbling in things not of God makes
way for the insidiousness and slipperiness of evil and the danger of sliding deeper and deeper into darkness.
Watch an interview of Jovan discussing Chasing the Avatar and Dancing
with the Avatar
Watch a review of Chasing the Avatar by Ronda and Sarah of Destiny Image
(very helpful!).
Jovan reads the 11th chapter, "A House
Swept Clean," of her book, "Chasing the Avatar," at a local Books-A-Million in Fayetteville, NC.
In Book 2, Dancing with the Avatar, Maya continues to delve deeper into things not of God.
Having given up her promising life without a single glance back, she had moved to an ashram in India to worship
her guru, Cha Ma—whom many believe to be an avatar of the goddess Kali.
Now, while living in the fantastical world of the ashram, Maya spirals deeper and deeper into a supernatural
world that is beyond her wildest dreams and worst nightmares. As an insidious web of evil weaves tightly about her, Maya sinks
into greater and greater delusion—slipping between euphoric highs and suicidal lows. Maya’s experiences cause
her to question her beliefs and test her sanity.
On the other side of the world, after having been unwittingly tossed into the deadly battle by Maya’s choice
to move to India, her parents continue to face increasingly more difficult emotional, physical, and spiritual battles as they
fight for Maya’s life.
The
stakes are high in this violent war between good and evil as heavenly angels and demonic beings strategize and battle to gain
ground for the souls of Maya, her parents, and people close to them.
As Maya dabbles deeper and deeper into things not of God, the evil surrounding
her threatens to overwhelm and destroy her and others. Will Maya survive in her chosen new world? Will her parents survive
the warfare aimed at them because of loving her?