Summary:

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.

Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.

Everyone except Jenna Fox

This is a sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox if you have not yet read that book, beware this review will contain spoilers.

260 years after leaving Jenna’s story we travel across what used to be the United States to the Eastern states. We find out that unbeknownst to Jenna’s father, one of his co-workers kept a copy of Locke and Kara’s information. They have been brought back to life to be visual examples of Dr G’s business. He keeps them hidden away in his mansion and displayed for wealthy businessmen to come and admire for the technology. Even though they are illegal specimens, it is known (because of Jenna) that it is possible, medically to reconstruct so much of the body with only the minimum cell samples. Early in the story Kara is unsatisfied with their current situation, and now that she has heard that Jenna is still alive, she has some questions that need answering, and they decide to escape.

This side of the story is told from Lock’s perspective. He is concerned about Kara’s determination to find Jenna, she has mysterious and dangerous thoughts in her head and he fears for Jenna’s safety. He is also still deeply in love with Jenna and desires them to all be reunited.

I found the author’s vision of the future in this book was very interesting. The United States being separated into two sections run by politics. The Republicans and the Democrats and you can only move to a different side of the country every 8 years. There are also added factors of the nomads in which she refers to as “land pirates” as well as super fast moving cars, trains and more intelligent robot/cyborg beings. It is highly imaginative and yet a believable and interesting look of what could be possible for our future.

My mind had a hard time grasping some of the emotions that occur within Jenna, Locke and Kara. Most of them would include huge spoilers for you, but mostly I felt it  hard to grasp onto how many emotions they have for being reanimated people. They not only experience human emotions of hate, anger, love, guilt and depression but it’s the level in which they “feel” these emotions I had a hard time understanding. It’s all very dramatic and overly emotional even for humans. Also, in the first book we are also introduced to the fact that Jenna must eat only a bag of nutrients only every couple of hours to sustain her system, but in this continuation of the story, I don’t remember there being any emphasis on the nutrients supplements, even in one part it refers to Lock eating off plates, but I don’t remember being filled in with any information or changes in the technology that allowed them to be able to handle real food.

The narrator for the audio book did a great job. There were times that I had to remind myself that this is somebody being reanimated after centuries and very confused about what was going on in the world because there were huge sections of just information about what he was thinking and “feeling”. He is in a body that is similar to the one he has always known, but doesn’t seem to be quite the same or work the same way.

Although there is a lot of traveling from the East coast to the West coast and we get to meet a lot of different types of dangerous people along the way 80% of the story is just Locke’s thoughts about what is happening, or did happen to him in the past. The narrator for the audiobook does a really good job of voicing the side characters as well. It is an interesting and unique twist to a science fiction look into our futures. How one day the advances in medicine and technology can bring us so close to being able to live for centuries at a time and still maintain our most basic of human emotions and instinct to survive.
—

Listen to an audio sample.

1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

2. Burn Bright by Marianne De Pierres

3. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

4. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

4. Indelible by Lani Woodland (2nd in the Yara Silva Trilogy)

Most Anticipated in 2012

1. A Million Suns by Beth Revis

2. Blaze Dark by Marianne De Pierres

3. Fever by Lauren DeStefano

4. Velveteen by Daniel Marks

5. The Soul by Stephenie Meyer

Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.

As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.

They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love – one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY

The first book in a captivating trilogy, Veronica Rossi’s enthralling debut sweeps you into an unforgettable adventure

Hardcover, 384 pages

Expected publication: February 7th 2012 by ATOM (first published January 3rd 2012)

ISBN 1907411054 (ISBN13: 9781907411052)

Under The Never Sky is told from alternating perspectives of Aria and Peregrine (Perry). Aria has lived a very sheltered life under the dome of the Pod called Reverie. Everything is controlled, monitored and protected. They have learned to fear and avoid the outside world known as “The Death Shop.” For it contains wild people, uncontrollable weather and sickness. All of these things are personally unknown to Atria who lives her life in a protected world. Those in the Pod are connected together with their Smarteye. A device that attaches itself onto the head and has visual and hearing capabilities to talk to other people in other pods as well as their own. As well as many other features, but mostly used as a communication device.
The alternative perspective is Perry’s. He was born outside the Pod in the” Death Shop “and survival is key on the outside. He must hunt, protect his people against other tribes and lives in a world that is opposite of Atria’s.

When Atria is banished from her Pod she has no choice but to move at all times. She has focused her efforts into locating her mother who was away on business at another Pod. During Atria’s travels she eventually meets up with Perry. The differences between the two are so distinct that it makes for most of the story. Their interactions with each other are very calculated and slow-building. Atria is very talkative, while Perry is more pensive and watchful. He has a very animalistic way about him and she is very naive and unaware. The interaction between the two as they discover together that they need each other to find the people that they have lost and Atria depends on Perry for survival.

The world that we are brought into is very creative and vivid. The idea of how the Aether sky works exactly, what has brought about this Never Sky of constant storms and electric build up. The author describes the Aether storms as the famous Starry Night painted by Van Gough. A very visual mental picture of swirling blues and electricity lighting up the sky and high winds that endanger all. This world is so different than our own, but it’s delivered to us in a way that we can understand and somewhat grasp what the characters are going through.

There is a constant flow of activity and pace to the story that it was hard to set down once you begin reading. There are several obstacles and danger that build to the mystery of the plot that keep the reader intrigued and interested with what is happening and how the story may end. Perry and Atria build their trust and relationship very slowly through arguing and learning and adjusting to each other in their new situation, but they always seem to get back to focusing on what the bigger picture is and where they are going. The author introduces several other side characters along the way that bring in both humor and danger to their quest. We are introduced to Atria as her being a very naive and sheltered person, but she grows into a determined fighter that the readers will grow to admire and root for as a leading heroine.

Overall I enjoyed the story, it was very fast paced and entertaining. The world that we are taken into is imaginative, unique and engrossing. I would have liked to see  more of the inside of Reverie and the daily lives that Aria and her people have come to know before she was actually forced out of the Pod into the Death Shop. I am also interested in understanding how this world came to be, what kind of apocalyptic incident happened to make the world this way. Although I have no doubt that we will learn more about that in future books and intrigued by what that background could bring to the story.
—
http://cubicleblindness.com

About the book: A love so strong, even eternity can’t separate them.

Evie Starling has lived a relatively uneventful life hanging out with friends, gossiping about boys, and driving her 1966 Mustang. All of that changes when she moves to Gunnison, Colorado, to start college and meets two mysterious men.

For centuries, Alex Night and Emil Stone have yearned for Evie—but they each have their own reasons for wanting to be with her. When both men claim to be her soul mate and tell her about an unbelievable past, Evie learns that she’s not the person she thought she was. Soon, Evie finds herself in the middle of an age-old battle between the Amaranthine Society—the soul protectors, and the Daevos Resistance—the soul destroyers. With a past she doesn’t understand, and a future rife with danger, Evie has to decide who she can trust. But Alex and Emil aren’t the only ones who want Evie, and her soul is about to become the rope in an eternal tug-of-war

The thing that stood out most for me was Evie’s voice. She is a very opinionated and strongly spoken main character. She stands by the decisions that she makes and even when she is confused about what is going on, she never falters with her direct and to the point questions. Both Alex and Emil are not very straight forward with her, and she’s not stupid. Evie notices straight away when they are not telling the truth or even parts of the truth and she will point that out immediately. Both boys appear in her life very suddenly, although months apart. Her situation is both confusing, scary and intimidating.

Evie has a different kind of relationship with both Alex and Emil as well. When she meets Alex she is embarrased and makes jokes and has very fast come-back responses to his statements. He is very protective of her instantly and because of that he comes off as a little controlling and bossy in my opinion. He slyly takes away from Evie some of what makes her so strong. He doesn’t want her to drive her Mustang unless he is with her because it attracts other boys. He always wants to be the one paying and opening the doors as well. Although this seems gentlemanly, the way it is brought up in the story makes Alex seem a little to overprotective and secretive.

With Emil, he seems at first more laid back, he kisses her the first time he sees her. A love at first sight kind of attraction. He never comes off as hiding anything from her until the interactions with both he and Alex begin to show that they know each other. Although Emil never comes straight out in telling Evie he is intimidated by her car, they still have a relationship in which I feel she loses a part of herself to be with the boy.

When Evie finally sees that she needs time away from them both, I felt pride in her decision. If she cannot be sure of what she wants, how can she be sure of which relationship is right for her.  This part of the story is also where it becomes more of a page-turner and the answers and confusion really start to open up and we can see a direction for the story and their relationships with each other.

I have never been a fan of romances, love triangles or girls that never stick by their decisions. With this being the first book in a trilogy it really focuses more on the characters. We get to meet them, figure out their personalities and most of all see where the story may be going with their interactions with each other. There are a lot of emotions and drama happening, most of all a lot of questions and some and story-telling. As the story progresses and the questions are beginning to find answers, I had a desire to find out what happens next.

It took a good half of the book for me to really get into this story. The introductions of the characters, and their relationships between each other, although very necessary in the end, took awhile to get into. As we get to know the characters’ past in the 2nd half of the book and the neccessity of them finding each other, it really took on new interest. There is always an air of mystery surrounding both Alex and Emil. There are some scary moments that help build an ominous feeling. And as the story really takes off we get some great supernatural elements as well as a feeling of war ahead.  A battle between the Amaranthine Society and the Daevos Resistance that none of them saw coming.

Now that the characters and their past lives and stories have been introduced to us, I am anticipating very exciting things for the sequel. It is a great read for those who like romance, a touch of history and the supernatural.

—

Hardcover, 320 pages

Expected publication: December 6th 2011 by Pendrell Publishing

ISBN 982729793 (ISBN13: 0980982729763)

http://www.angelacorbett.com