Category Archives: Ya Sci-fi

Rewrite Redemption
By: J.H. Walker
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: January 25, 2013
Genre: Sci/Fi YA
Rating:

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She’s sixteen. He’s seventeen. They don’t know each other…at least not yet.

She has a secret and her whole life revolves around keeping it. Every few months and with little warning, she simply disappears, pulled into the past for hours or even days. She’s terrified it will happen in front of someone, changing her life forever. So far, the only witnesses have been her parents, and that didn’t end well. She has no control over it and no idea why it happens to her.

She wants answers.

He has answers—at least he understands what’s going on. He has a secret, too. He’s part of an organization that goes back in time to rewrite reality. But he also has a problem. He broke the organization’s number-one rule by altering his own timeline. As punishment, he’s been blocked from time travel, which is most unfortunate. Because the changes he made to his timeline, accidentally resulted in disaster for his family. A disaster he’s now prevented from repairing. No one can travel beneath the organization’s radar except a Shadow. But they’re rare, so rare he’s never even met one.

Then he moves to her town.

A.J. travels back in time with little to no warning. She has no idea why/how she does it but it’s been happening since she was a baby. As a result of this phenomenon, her mother went crazy and killed herself and her father uses alcohol to get through the day. She goes through her days trying to remain invisible as much as possible. It isn’t until a new guy shows up at school that she begins to realize that she can go back in time and rewrite her future.

This was such an interesting concept. I’ve read time travel books before but nothing like this. There is a guild that’s sole purpose is to oversea the time travels and make sure that any threat to the world is taken out before an apocalypse can happen. Guys like Constantine go back in time and edit the past to make a better future. However, A.J. is a whole different thing. She time travels at will without the guilds approval or knowledge. She’s what they call a Shadow.

Due to one tiny alteration Constantine made in his past, his current life is hell and he no longer has his Editor abilities to fix it. His family is falling apart and it’s all his fault. When he comes across A.J. he comes up with a plan. Get to know the girl and have her help him go back in the past and fix his mistake. However, it becomes clear that she’s more than just a random Shadow.

Even though I really enjoyed the story, I did have some hang ups. There was of course the insta-love. These two go from not knowing each other to falling in love. I understand that it’s supposed to be this whole alien soul mates thing but I’d have liked the love to be a bit more slow building. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the mega info dump when Constantine tells Lex all about the Guild and what it all means. I felt a bit overwhelmed.

However, this was a whole new world for me. I’ve read time travel books before but never one like this that dealt with the actual person having a tweak in their DNA strand allowing them to time travel. I liked that we went back in time with A.J. and experienced the disorientation when she lands and has to figure out what to do next. Especially since she isn’t intending to time travel so she isn’t always prepared. I think my favorite part is when A.J. goes back in time twice and come across a Native American named, Hosa. I wish we’d have spent a little more time with his characters since I found him very fascinating.

This was a very interesting take on a time travel story. I liked that the author thought outside of the box with this one and brought new items to the table of time travel.

“I might have won the lottery but I hadn’t cashed in the ticket yet. And until you have the money in your hand, you don’t have the prize.”

J.H. grew up in Central America. She now lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies with her photographer husband and many, many books. In addition to her never-ending study of human behavior, she’s a political junkie and a certified tree hugger. Rewrite Redemption is her debut novel.

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Alice in Zombieland
(White Rabbit Chronicles, #1)
By: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: Sept. 25, 2012
Genre: Paranormal YA
Rating:

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She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

This is not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. The only thing that is the same is that the main character’s name is Alice, there is a rabbit shaped cloud that appears when there’s trouble and her best friend’s name is Kat. Other than that, I saw no other similarities.

Alice’s father used to be a paranoid drunk. He was always going off about these monsters who kill people. He wouldn’t allow anyone to go out after dark and would keep watch over the house while everyone was asleep. Alice used to think he was just nuts, until the night she talked her father into going out at night so that the family could watch her younger sister’s recital. And that was the night when she saw the monsters eating her father. That was the night she lost her family.

The characters in this story weren’t shallow like a lot of young adult books. Instead, they all show strength in the face of danger. Alice decides to hunt the zombies that are terrorizing her. She has to learn to not only fight but to fight in the spirit realm. You see, these zombies are not the reanimated flesh and bones that we’ve come to know. These zombies are spirits that feed on the spirits of the living. So the general public have no idea that they are out there.

I liked that the drama that takes place in this book wasn’t over exaggerated. You had the typical issues between cliques but that was about it. There also aren’t any love triangles taking place. So instead you get a paranormal packed adventure from start to finish. And Gena knows how to write a story. She kept the storyline going at a steady pace with spikes up suspense throughout.

Considering that this book’s cover and title make you think that this is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with flesh eating zombies, it was a bit of a let down. However, for being a paranormal young adult novel, it was pretty good. So don’t go into this book (like I did) expecting zombies or AiW because you won’t get it. Go into this expecting a young adult paranormal story and you shouldn’t have any problems.

“Truly living required risk.”

Hover
(The Taking, #2)
By: Melissa West
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Published: Aug. 13, 2013
Genre: Sci-Fi YA
Rating:

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On Earth, seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander was taught to never peek, but if she hopes to survive life on her new planet, Loge, her eyes must never shut. Because Zeus will do anything to save the Ancients from their dying planet, and he has a plan.

Thousands of humans crossed over to Loge after a poisonous neurotoxin released into Earth’s atmosphere, nearly killing them. They sought refuge in hopes of finding a new life, but what they became were slaves, built to wage war against their home planet. That is, unless Ari and Jackson can stop them. But on Loge, nothing is as it seems…and no one can be trusted.

This is a sequel to Gravity and you MUST read Gravity before reading this. You cannot just jump in and hope to catch up. It had been a while since I read Gravity and even I needed the refresher that the author gives when starting the book. It took me a little bit for me to get my bearings and to get back into the state of mind since Hover starts right where Gravity left off.

I don’t want to give too much away in my review but all I can say is that although this story isn’t as gruesome as the last, it still has a high level of suspense to it with a couple of shocking moments. Ari and Jackson are trying to beat the clock and keep a full blown war between the aliens and the humans from happening. New characters are introduced and are vital components to the story while we get glimpses from the secondary characters from the first book. So with everything that’s taking place, and the new characters that are thrown into the mix, there is a lot going on. I was never bored with the story of felt like the story lagged. The pacing of the story was brilliant.

I also like that we get a better look at Jackson who is still a mystery in this book. You start to peel back the layers that makes up his character. In the first book you think he’s this confident person, but it isn’t until you see him in his own element that you realize that it’s all just a mask that he wears. He’s really just a hurt, panicked, broken boy who’s been beaten down like a stray dog all of his life. So much is expected from him and so much is taken from him that he wears this mask to not only protect himself but protect the ones he loves.

The reason why I took away a star from this, and I may later change it when I reread a finished copy, is because the formatting was horrible. I was given an ARC by the publisher and words were missing or were off to the side of the page in a different paragraph. There were words that had overlapped each other leaving me to guess what it was supposed to say and if what I was reading was the same sentence or again, something that was from another paragraph in the story. And all of the “f” and “fi” in the entire book were missing. So for instance instead of “first”, I’d get “rst” or instead of effective I would read “eective”. I understand that this is an ARC and usually I let these mishaps slide under the radar because I know the book hasn’t been through the final wringer yet. However, the problems were so huge and disruptive to my reading that I couldn’t fully get into the story. Every sentence I was having to figure out what the author said. Maybe once the book is released I will revisit the book and will find myself more enveloped in the story, thus bringing this up to 5stars.

Will I continue with the series? Definitely. Melissa has a great voice when it comes to telling a story. She doesn’t add drama where drama isn’t needed just to keep the story interesting. However, be warned, she is a master at leaving you on the edge of your seat the entire time… even until the very last word.

“Then do me a favor. Try to imagine what it would be like to be petrified to think or act freely. Not just worries that you will disappoint, but literally afraid that you or someone you love would die if you ever thought or acted of your own accord. That has been Jackson’s life. So before you start judging him for not telling you who he is, maybe you should consider his motives and consider that perhaps, for someone like him, he put everything on the line for you too and you pushed him away.”

Previous reviews from The Taking
Gravity

Melissa lives in a tiny suburb of Atlanta, GA with her husband and daughters. She pretends to like yoga, actually likes shoes, and could not live without coffee. Her writing heroes include greats like Jane Austen and Madeleine L’Engle.
She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and an M.S. in Graphic Communication, both from Clemson University. Yeah, her blood runs orange.

GRAVITY is her first novel.

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Triangles
By: Kimberly Ann Miller
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Genre: YA
Rating:

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A cruise ship. A beautiful island. Two sexy guys. What could possibly go wrong?

In the Bermuda Triangle—a lot.

Hoping to leave behind the reminders of her crappy life–her father’s death years ago, her mother’s medical problems, and the loser who’s practically stalking her–seventeen-year-old Autumn Taylor hops on a ship with her sister for a little distraction. When she wakes up in the Bermuda Triangle, she fears she’s gone nuts for more than one reason: that loser’s suddenly claiming they’re a happy couple… a hot guy is wrapping his arms around her and saying “Happy Anniversary”… and suddenly, she’s full of bruises, losing her hair, and getting IV medication. Autumn visits the ship’s doctor, hoping for a pill or a shot to make the craziness go away. Instead, she’s warned that these “alternate realities” could become permanent.

She just has to ask herself one question—how the hell is she going to get out of this mess?

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Cinder
(Lunar Chronicles, #1)
By: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published: Jan. 3, 2012
Genre: YA
Rating:

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Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

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Echo
By: Alicia Wright Brewster
Publisher: Dragonfairy Press
Published: April 25, 2013
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Rating:

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The countdown clock reads ten days until the end of the world. The citizens are organized. Everyone’s been notified and assigned a duty. The problem is . . . no one knows for sure how it will end.

Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit. They travel toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans.

Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task force, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on Ashara’s death.

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Warm Bodies
(Warm Bodies, #1)
By: Isaac Marion
Publisher: Atria
Published: April 26, 2010
Genre: Young Adult
Rating:

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R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse. Just dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy’s memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim’s human girlfriend. Julie is a burst of vibrant color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that R lives in. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead and the blurry line in between.

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Stung
By: Bethany Wiggins
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Genre: Distopian YA
Rating:

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There is no cure for being stung.

Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered—her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right hand—a black oval with five marks on either side—that she doesn’t remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. She’s right.

Those bearing the tattoo have turned into mindless, violent beasts that roam the streets and sewers, preying upon the unbranded while a select few live protected inside a fortress-like wall, their lives devoted to rebuilding society and killing all who bear the mark.

Now Fiona has awakened branded, alone—and on the wrong side of the wall.

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Bumped
(Bumped, #1)
By: Megan McCafferty
Publisher: HaperCollins
Published: April 26, 2011
Genre: YA
Rating:

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When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.
Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

I liked the concept of the book. The fact that at the age of 18 you will be sterile, so when you are a teen you are studded out to surrogates to procreate for the highest bidder. It makes me wonder where on earth these authors come up with this stuff.

The lingo took a little bit to get used to but you sort of get the hang of it after a while. I didn’t really get used to all of the Jesus talk though. The Hallelujah’s and the “oh my grace” was a bit much but with her being a heavily religious person I can totally see that.
It took me a LONG time to get used to the MiNet. I really did think that people in the future have eye problems. It wasn’t until closer to the end that I realized that all the wink left, wink right, blink, blink, butterfly kisses, was actually them looking onto the MiNet and communicating with other people.

I wish the book wasn’t so predictable though. You know what is going to happen from the start but for some reason you read the book anyways. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book but I really do wish that it had some curve balls to it.

Ram is visibility upset that his wife has gone missing the day after their wedding.
Melody shoots Zen (her friend) a panicked “Now what?” look.
Zen brings his arms together in a circle and pantomimes a way overdue pregg.
“WHAT?” I mouth.
Zen now strokes his bodacious invisible bump.
“Why are you pretending to be pregg?”
Ram opens his eyes to see this.
“I’m pretending to hug,” Zen wails in exasperation. “This man needs a hug.”
When I don’t go for it, he starts ripping his hair out. “GIVE HIM A HUG.”

Wither
(The Chemical Garden #1)
By: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: March 22, 2011
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Rating:

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Obviously, something went terribly wrong. Genetic mutations have festered, reducing human longevity to twenty-five, even less for most women. To prevent extinction, young girls are kidnapped, mated in polygamous marriages with men eager to procreate. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery, a recent victim of this breeding farm mentality, has vowed to break loose from its fetters; but finding allies and a safe way out is a challenge she can only hope she will survive.

 
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