The Sowing

The Sowing is the first book in The SEEDS trilogy written by a mother and her two daughters (Kristy, Amira K., and Elena K. Makansi). It's a young adult/new adult dystopian novel with healthy doses of science fiction.

THE BLURB:

The Resistance Has Begun.

Remy Alexander wants vengeance. When she and her friends discover a clue that could help reveal the truth behind the massacre that claimed her sister's life, she may finally get her chance.

Valerian Orlean wants answers. Why the girl he was in love with disappeared three years ago. Why she joined the Resistance - a covert organization sworn to destroy everything he believes in. When he is appointed to lead a government program whose mission is to hunt and destroy the Resistance, he may finally find his answers - and Remy.

In a world where the powerful kill to keep their secrets, and the food you eat can change who you are, Remy and Vale are set on a collision course that could bring everyone together - or tear everything apart.

In this science-fiction dystopia, the mother-daughter writing team of Kristina, Amira, and Elena Makansi immerse readers in the post-apocalyptic world of the Okarian Sector, where romance, friendship, adventure, and betrayal will decide the fate of a budding nation.

MY THOUGHTS:

This book started out promising, but as a standalone book it didn't do enough for me. There were many things to like here, including decent writing, but I don't think this installment took us far enough in some areas In the end I think this entire book only serves as a setup for a story with potential.

Before I realized this book alone was going to sort of fall flat for me, I did find many things to enjoy about it. It tells the story of a rebellion against an organization that seeks to shape and thereby control its citizens through modifying their food in ways that affect their behavior and abilities. We follow the viewpoints of two main characters, one in the Resistance and one in the Sector. Both are fairly likable.

A few things I had trouble with were as follows: when we first meet Soren, he's a jerkface and I immediately learned to dislike him. Then all of a sudden we're supposed like him, and I couldn't. Remy frustrated me by the end when she was stubborn in her rage against someone who she now knows had nothing to do with her sister's death, and who in fact has saved her life multiple times. But the most irritating thing to me was when Soren and Remy, who otherwise seemed like intelligent people, happen upon a Sector airship and decide it's a good idea to just take off in it, never stopping to think that it could be tracked.

I guess I'm most interested in the people in the book. I want to see Vale and Remy interact now that the truth is revealed, I want to see more of Linnea, and I really like the supporting character of Eli and would like to see more of him. Soren plays a big role, but as I said, I have a hard time liking him after he was such a jerk when we first meet him and I wasn't talked into believing he had reason to change so much.

Hopefully we will see more of those character interactions and development in the second book, as well as what happens next between the Resistance and the Sector. Until then, I feel a little let down that The Sowing introduced some great ideas and then didn't really take them anywhere yet. The authors certainly do bear watching, though!

MY RATING:

3.5 booksies

The SEEDS Trilogy website: http://theseedstrilogy.com/

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The sequel, The Reaping, is due out Fall 2014

Sparrow Man

Sparrow Man is a dark romantic fantasy by M. R. Pritchard, due to be released next month. I had the honor of beta reading this novel, and was pretty much blown away!


THE BLURB:

Meg Clark has turned out to be everything her father and the people of her little North Country town of Gouvernour, NY, have been saying her whole life: nothin’ but a piece of white trash. And that’s how she lives; she’s even got the tattoos to prove it. Well that’s how she was living, until she got knocked up and engaged. In an effort to hide her past and turn herself around, she spent her inheritance from her dead mother on the perfect little house with a white picket fence. Then something terrible happened and Meg got sent to county lockup so her fiancé, Jim, wouldn’t have to. 

And then everyone started waking up…dead. 

Good thing escaping from County wasn’t hard. Jim told her exactly how to get free. Now Meg is running and the walking dead are following. In a last ditch effort to find weapons to protect herself, Meg finds Sparrow instead. A tall, strange man with a quirk, Sparrow has an obsession with feathers and the only goal that’s on his mind is finding an old barn on Route Thirty-Seven with a snowy owl in its rafters. 

Meg’s headed to Kingston, where she and Jim agreed to meet if they ever got separated. But sometimes, crossing the border brings more than just freedom and protection and safety. Sometimes it brings questions that someone like Meg would prefer not to answer. And everyone keeps asking questions, including Sparrow. He thinks she’s hiding something and he’s not impressed by her stories of the sins she’s been committing all her life. While Sparrow’s the one who’s a bit cracked in the head, it never occurs to Meg that she could be the one who’s not remembering something. Like what really happened that day she killed those seven men.

MY THOUGHTS:

The first two thirds or so of this book was a-freaking-mazing. Tantalizingly suspenseful, sending delicious shivers down the readers' spine! Not only are you engrossed in the story, but you really love both Meg and Sparrow Man. Meg isn't a simply an empty vehicle of a main character, a host for the reader's experiences and reactions to everything going on in the book. She is her own person, clearly defined, and we respect her strong will and her grit. 

You're probably wondering why I said only the first two-thirds of the book was amazing. It's not to say that the last third is bad, by any means. It's only that when certain revelations are made, the thrilling sense of suspense is gone. That fact is likely unavoidable. Now we know what's really going on here, we know all the players in the game and their motives, and our heroes must actually deal with the truths that have been  revealed. It's still a fun story being told, it's just that the feel of it is different.

An author's writing matures as they continue in their field, and I am really impressed with the evolution I've seen in Pritchard's work. I am very excited to see where her books take us next!

MY RATING:

4.5 booksies!

Author's website: http://mrpritchard.com/

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Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, Book I)

Is this book young adult paranormal romance? Is it urban fantasy and horror? It's a bit of everything, and the fact that what you get here is so unexpected takes a little getting used to, but then ends up being refreshing and fun.

THE BLURB:

Eighteen-year-old Jenny Morton has a horrific secret: her touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague, the "Jenny pox." She lives by a single rule: Never touch anyone. A lifetime of avoiding any physical contact with others has made her isolated and painfully lonely in her small rural town.

Then she meets the one boy she can touch. Jenny feels herself falling for Seth...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the deadly pox inside her to confront his ruthless and manipulative girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

MY THOUGHTS:

Some pretty darn decent writing here, folks. I was hooked on the first half of this book, which reads like a young adult paranormal romance with an original twist. 

But then the unexpected began to happen.

First - a scene of an ensorceled threesome semi-rape, in which we are treated to descriptions of how one of the girls gags on...well, you know. 

Okay, not so much young adult anymore! Add to that the fact that the main characters smoke weed every now and again, and I can see how some parents wouldn't want their younger teens reading this. The pot didn't bother me - in fact, I found it kind of refreshing. By no means do all high school seniors partake, but some do, and so I thought it perfectly realistic for these characters to do so.

Second - the romance becomes a little less romantic now that we've involved pus dripping off of one lover's blistered tongue into the other's mouth, even if it's a means of saving him. And it's a little hard to see the character dispensing vigilante justice by causing popping blisters and flesh sloughing off of bones as a hero. BUT...once you are able to reconcile yourself to the grotesqueries, you do find yourself cheering on these characters with the admirable motives, regardless of their methods.

The end of Book I gives us a fascinating explanation behind these paranormal folk and their history, and so the story can easily continue to be fun, interesting, (and somewhat shocking) in the next installments of the series.

MY RATING:

4 booksies!

The Paranormals continues in Tommy Nightmare, Alexander Death, and Jenny Plague-Bringer.

Author's website: http://www.jlbryanbooks.com/home.html

Jenny Pox is currently free to download on all ebook platforms!

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