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Author: Suki Michelle and Carlyle ClarkSYNOPSIS:
Global pandemic is raging. Olivya Wright-Ono's once loving home has been converted to a hospice for the dying. Her ability to see auras forces her to witness, with agonizing detail, the vibrant colors of life consumed by malignancy. The beautiful and troubled, Mikah, is an elite Empath in the ancient Kindred clan, led by the brooding, ever-morphing, monster named Prime. Mikah has learned a terrible truth . . . the plague is linked to Kindred origins. When Olivya sees evidence of disease creeping into her mother's aura, she has no one to turn to but Mikah. Can he unearth the Kindred secrets and find a cure? Can she trust this boy whose power allows him to manipulate her very emotions? With her mother's life, and that of the world, in the balance, Olivya and Mikah embark on a quest to stop the Pandemic, only to discover it is far, far more than a mere disease . . .
MY REVIEW:
MY RATING:
SYNOPSIS:
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.
MY REVIEW:
My favorite thing about Bumped was the concept. In the not-too-distant future, a virus has destroyed fertility in adults, so the wombs of teen girls ignite bidding wars, getting pregnant is encouraged and glamorized, contraception of any kind is forbidden. Even though it's squeegy, I could actually see this occurring, burdoning young fertile ones to give their all for their country, for the world. Unfortunately, the concept is the only thing the story had going for it, while there are so many possibilities and nuances in that scenario that are never explored. I don't understand how books that are all concept and no substance are all the rage. As with Wake, this novel is fairly popular and well-received, but I just don't get it.
Bumped starts off very telly, with alternating, talky viewpoints that bounce between twin sisters, Melody, the sardonic, cold one, and Harmony, the hyper-religious one, as they introduce us to their dystopian world and contrasting ideologies.
Separated at birth, they're acquainting for the first time. Harmony is ecstatic about finding her sister, and Melody is beyond annoyed at her presence. After 20 or thirty pages, you finally get some scenes with dialogue, but everything is still kept sparse with very little description and hardly any sensory impressions that it makes it difficult to SEE or experience this world. The faintest strokes are drawn on every page for two unlikeable, thinly drawn characters. One can see how their different environments have shaped their dispositions, but knowing that doesn't help make them relatable. You never get to really sink into their shoes, feel what they feel and identify. At least I didn't. I didn't feel angry, hurt, sad, gleeful, just blah.
In addition to sketchy characters, Bumped also had no plot. For Seriously! It's just a window into this teen-preggo world. And the problem with a book without a plot is it has no hook, climax or stakes. It didn't go far, have a purpose or build to anything substantial. The characters did have decisions to make in the end, and they both softened up somewhat about five chapters from the end, but it was way too late to feel vested.
MY RATING
Author: Andrew KlavanSYNOPSIS:
Charlie West's memory is finally returning---and he realizes that he somehow knows when the terrorists are going to strike next. Whatever it takes, he can't give in or give up until they're stopped. But the clock is ticking! Does he have enough time?
MY REVIEW:
The Final Hour is the last installment in the Homelanders Series. The story opens with young hero, Charlie West, in the slammer for a murder he didn’t commit. He only agreed to take momentary blame so he could infiltrate a terrorist ring, and the terrorists have mostly been rounded up, yet days, weeks, months go by, without a peep that tells him why he’s still locked up.
His cop contact Rose finally visits but delivers the bad news, that Washington wants to brush events under the rug, as the controversy could hurt their global interests, so getting him out isn't going to be as easy as Rose had thought. He promises to continue to fight for Charlie but doesn’t make any promises as to when he’ll be released, but says it will, at minimum, take weeks.
The missing year of Charlie’s life from taking a drug to erase his memory while captured by the anti-Americans is still trickling back in bits and pieces, and he begins to remember a terrorist plot that’s planned for New Year’s Eve. But with sketchy info to go on, no proof, no one to call, more than a million lives on the line, and the prison guards not only against him but abusing him too, he has no one to turn to and no way to out to stop it. Charlie doesn’t have weeks! Only days!
The Final Hour offers a gritty glimpse into prison life and contains some violence, but it never veers into the obscene. It’s in line with other thrillers of similar vein. This beginning unfolds more slowly than the previous because he's locked up, but Klavan does a good job of building suspense and keeping it taut throughout.
Even though there’s no hammering Christian message in this book, which I prefer in fiction, it still managed to feel, to me, a little preachy at times, even though it’s not talk but rather a string of moral dilemmas Charlie must wrestle through. And the current rhetoric that insists “terrorists hate America because we’re free” felt very heavy-handed as well and was clung to so mightily, it nearly topples the story. Terrorists have a blend of motivations and reasons for committing acts of terror, but with Klavan picking just this one and having the Homelanders be so blatant with their hate and anti-American speech, it made the recruitment of random, everyday Americans implausible. Even if this is the main drive of such radicals, one would think, to recruit, you'd exploit the susceptible where their hate can bloom into a desire to commit violence. You wouldn't really care if they believed the same as long as there was a willingness to act.
There were parts in the end, showing Charlie in action, which were almost laughable, but still, it does provide great escapism and this is the perfect series for teens, boys especially, who love thrillers. It’s hard to find good “boy books” and this is a wild, morally sound, action-packed ride. You don't need to be a Christian to enjoy this, just a YA thriller lover. If you enjoy books by Robinson Wells or Patrick Carman, you will love the Homelander Series.
* I received this book free through Booksneeze, but that in no way compromised or affected my review.
