Bel Reviews: Amy Kathleen Ryan's - "Spark"

For those of you who enjoyed the first book in The Sky Chasers series, Glow, the second book will be on the shelves near you soon.

**If you haven’t read Glow, there may be spoilers so I suggest grabbing the book before reading on.**

I jumped at the chance to review Spark and was over the moon to receive the book in the mail. It felt like forever since I’d read Glow but surprisingly the characters were still fresh in my mind and I was back into the rhythm within a few pages.

Here is part of the goodreads.com blurb

Waverly and Kieran are finally reunited on the Empyrean. Kieran has led the boys safely up to this point, and now that the girls are back, their mission seems slightly less impossible: to chase down the New Horizon, and save their parents from the enemy ship. But nothing is truly as it seems…Kieran’s leadership methods have raised Seth’s hackles— and Waverly’s suspicions. Is this really her fiancé? The handsome, loving boy she was torn from just a short time before? More and more, she finds her thoughts aligned with Seth’s. But if Seth is Kieran’s Enemy No. 1, what does that make her?

If Glow can be compared to Lord of the Flies; Spark has every right to be compared to the 1981 Todd Strasser novel, The Wave.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely is the concept we explore through these well-developed characters and heart-wrenching plot lines.

Seth is portrayed as an evil maniac for some of the first book and yet I found myself really being able to sympathize with his plight right until the last page this time.

Amy Kathleen Ryan takes us places where we are looking at our own morals and asking what we would do if placed in a similar situation. To be honest, some parts made me a little uncomfortable on an ethical level, because I couldn’t see myself dealing with situations better than her characters did. The action scenes are fast paced, and unexpected heroism is the call of the day.

I read Spark cover-to-cover in 3 days, though without life getting in the way it would have easily been back on the shelf in 24 hours. Where the third book will lead us I have no idea, but I am on the edge of my seat and you’ll find out why once you own a copy of Spark.

http://www.amykathleenryan.com/spark.php

http://amykathleenryan.blogspot.com.au/

Hardcover, 309 pages

Expected publication: July 17th 2012 by St. Martin’s Griffin ISBN 9780312621 (ISBN13: 0978031262135)