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SOURCE: PUBLISHER MY THOUGHTS LOVED IT After hearing about horse shows from my niece and wondering why there aren't more horse themed books for teens, well, I was thrilled to be offered this one from Bloomsbury. Take a group of girls, some with more money than sense, throw in world class athletic ability and stir in some mean girls and you have a story that is hard to put down. Tommi, an heiress, tries to overcome the fact that she can have anything she wants by training a horse by herself to prove her worth. Unfortunately, she gets sidetracked by a guy Alex, who is pretty selfish. Zara, another girl with money and celebrity parents, is trying to put her party girl image behind her and become a responsible rider except she too gets sidetracked by family issues. Kate, the poor girl, (relatively speaking), must work for everything except that she has secrets and her perfectionism starts to take over her life and possibly ruin her health as well. The story focuses on the competiveness that occurs in world class riding known as the A Circuit. Horses are expensive, the care and maintenance is hard work, well, unless you are rich like Zara and Tommi. Kate must work for everything she gets, but she does have Fitz, a barn worker to help her out and he does sound really hot. Kate is the character I was drawn to most. She has an almost OCD like perfectionism about her and when that evolves into an eating disorder, it is handled expertly by the authors. You can tell they poured their knowledge and expertise into each chapter. Even though I am not a horse person, my best friend was a competitive rider and reading this brought back a lot of memories of watching her care for her horses and her rides. Overall, I enjoyed the characters and the competitive horse riding gives a new twist to the current crop of teen angst novels. I did feel like I wanted to yell at all of them at times to wake up and stop feeling sorry for themselves. Tommi and Zara have a completely set of issues with mostly absent parents while Kate has control issues. There are mentions of alcohol, sexual situations, and some langues, but nothing too harsh. I would recommend this for those teens older than 13. |
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| Could they be Lena and Ethan? |
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SOURCE: PUBLISHER MY THOUGHTS LOVED IT Like many dystopians thrillers for young adults these days, this one brings in all of the big guns. Genetically manufactured robots(?) known as Partials are human like with emotions and have taken over earth since they bring with them a virus that decimates the population along with death to the point there are very few of either existing since the Partials have a built in expiration date. The humans can't maintain their population since only a few of them are immune to the virus and babies die within days of birth from it. So Kira, a sixteen year old medic in training is on the trail for a cure. With the capture of Samm, a partial, she begins to come closer and closer to a cure but lacks a bit of research. Her lab is blown up and a riot is started as a cover to save Samm from certain death although she doesn't know it, she is part of the Partials plan for their own cure. Whew! This really reminded my of Frankenstein, when the monster discovers he has feelings and the townspeople revolt against the creation of artificial life. It brings into question, the exact meaning of life. So if lab created life has all of the qualities of humans, what makes them not human? The plot moved along these lines but at times it was a bit plodding. I wish it had moved a bit faster but I will definitely want to read the next in the series just to find out what happens next. The end of the book has Kira questioning herself and her own humanity, so I really want to see where this goes. I like both of the main characters, the secondary characters were pretty forgettable though. Each side has their own nasty and unlikable leader and I am still not certain which is good or evil, so that in itself will be interesting to find out. |
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SOURCE: PUBLISHER MY THOUGHTS ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT Aria lives in a post apocalyptic world where the Earth has become so damaged with some sort of solar flare activity (at least this is how I understood the storms) called the Aether which causes the landscape to catch on fire and become charged with electricity. There are two main factions that inhabit the planet. Those who live in inside enclosed pods that protect the inhabitants from the storms and those who live outside in the elements. These outsiders have developed skills and evolved super senses to help exist in a mostly ruined climate. Those that live in safety have done so at a price since the genetics that make humans able to adapt has been bred out. The pods, for all their relative safety from the storms have become breeding grounds for psychological breaks. Her mother, a geneticist, sees this coming and tries to protect her and in some ways she does. Aria finds herself at odds with the leader's son when he breaks and kills. She is essentially sentenced to death, but escapes and by luck or design, she is rescued by outsider, Perry, who saved her once in the pod. They are from extremely different worlds, so you have the whole Romeo and Juliet thing going on. The world building is entirely believable and it is so easy to slip into. The story is told in alternating chapters from each of their point of view which works nicely for this book. This is one of those books that doesn't catch your attention right away, so for the few chapters, I thought, oh, just another sci fi story for teens, then I become totally wrapped up in the world. Aria has become one of my favorite female leads. She starts out weak and then grows immensely taking everything in as she learns to cope with her whole world turned upside down. Perry also grows into a new role as he finds he can almost trust her which for him is groundbreaking since his history has been one of incredible loss. Now, I can't wait until the next in the series. |
