New Adult

Future Shock

future shock

Future Shock (Future Shock #1) By: Elizabeth Briggs

Plot:

What do you do when the future is too late, and the present is counting down to an inevitable moment?

Elena Martinez has street smarts, the ability for perfect recall, and a deadline: if she doesn’t find a job before she turns eighteen, she’ll be homeless. But then she gets an unexpected offer from Aether Corporation, the powerful Los Angeles tech giant. Along with four other recruits—Adam, Chris, Trent, and Zoe—Elena is being sent on a secret mission to bring back data from the future. All they have to do is get Aether the information they need, and the five of them will be set for life. It’s an offer Elena can’t refuse.

But something goes wrong when the time travelers arrive in the future. And they are forced to break the only rule they were given—not to look into their own fates. Now they have twenty-four hours to get back to the present and find a way to stop a seemingly inevitable future—and a murder—from happening. But changing the timeline has deadly consequences too. Who can Elena trust as she fights to save her life?

The first book in an unforgettable series about rewriting your destiny in the city of dreams.

Review:

Elena is a protective foster kid that’s about to age out of the system. She’s incredibly smart with an eidetic memory, but has a tendency to lash out violently while protecting weaker people. Stressed and running out of options when a big tech company offers her an undisclosed, but apparently massive sum of money, she accepts and ends up traveling to the future.

I liked Elena a lot. She was a teenager, so she had her annoying moments, but she was smart and well fleshed out. Her “romance” with Adam was weird, and Future Adam’s attempts at giving them a “moment” went into creepy territory. It didn’t make sense and I wasn’t a fan. The characters by themselves were fine, but the romance felt forced and way too fast, especially since she spent so much time not trusting him.

The other characters were less interesting, though, they grew on me by the end.

The ending…*sigh* I was not a fan. I like a happy ending, but I don’t require one. This one felt, rushed and anticlimactic and Elena who had been mostly smart up until that point just kept making stupid decisions. They all did, actually, except Adam. It was frustrating and left me unsure if I wanted to continue with the series.

I love time travel, I thought Elena was a great character, I also really enjoyed the future tech that was shown, but all of that wasn’t enough to overcome the parts of the book I disliked.

3/5

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) By: Claudia Gray

 

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) By: Claudia Gray

Plot:

Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father’s killer through multiple dimensions.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite’s father is murdered, and the killer—her parent’s handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul’s guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.

Review:

Lost Stars was an incredible book, because of that I needed to try something else by Claudia Gray. A Thousand Pieces of You is about parallel universe and traveling to them, if that isn’t right up my alley I don’t know what is.

A Thousand Pieces of You is about traveling between universes, it’s got a system all worked out, it does it multiple times, but that isn’t the main point of the book. The main story is a freaking love triangle! Ugh. Other people might not feel that way, the characters certainly wouldn’t, it’s not about who she loves that way it’s about finding who killed her father and what the hell is going on, but there was just too much relationship stuff for me to agree. Her struggle between the two was in every chapter and it annoyed me to no end.

The book was well written the world’s created were cool and well thought out, but I just couldn’t stand the main character. She was stupid, it was clear from the first chapter that something was wrong with her motivation and she didn’t question it, she just pushed on and it bugged me. I just kept wanting to get to the part where she was as smart as people kept saying and I had to wait until the end of the book.

If it wasn’t for those two things I’d read the next book, but I just can’t handle more of the relationship drama. She’s basically made her choice at this point, but I know it’s not going to be that simple, it can’t be in these types of books. Technically I believe this book was actually a New Adult instead of a YA, the heroine was a senior in high school but she had sex, so *shrug*

If you don’t mind any of the things I mentioned I recommend reading this, it has a nice fleshed out plot and I’m sure it will continue to be, but I just can’t go on and that makes me sad. I was really hoping that Claudia Gray would end up being another favorite author.

3/5

Web of Lies (The Hundred Halls #2) By: Thomas K. Carpenter

Web of Lies (The Hundred Halls #2) By: Thomas K. Carpenter

Plot:

Whoever controls the Hundred Halls, controls the world.

Aurelia “Aurie” Silverthorne has high hopes for her second year in the Hundred Halls, the world’s only magical university, but her expectations are destroyed when she accidentally unleashes a plague of faez-eating thralls and spends week after week getting killed in the Grand Contest.

But none of this matters when Aurie learns that the Cabal searches for a powerful magic that will help them get control of the Hundred Halls. If Aurie can’t stop them, then passing her classes will be the least of her worries.

Review:

Within the first 30% of the book a couple of the tropes that I’d been happy weren’t in the first book reared their heads. We got some mild angst and a super-hot guy interested in one of our girls. We also had some stupid decisions and some moments of why did it take you so long to do what needed to be done. I could also see the author introducing a love triangle in the future, though a second guy hasn’t been introduced yet.

Overall I was super disappointed in the second book of the Hundred Halls series. Yes, there was more world building, but the main characters weren’t developed further and they were back to getting over the death of their parents. It wasn’t the focus but it was mentioned a lot, especially by Pi who I’m not sure Carpenter knows what to do with at all.

Aurie is supposed to be the selfless smart one, but she makes several selfish stupid decisions. Pi is supposed to be smart and impetuous, and willing to take advantage of a situation to help herself, she mostly lived up to that but she also became a lone wolf and her storyline was pretty much over halfway through. There were definite pacing issues.

Honestly, I’m probably not going to read the next book and I think I’m just going to avoid the genre completely. We’ll see.

2/5

Trials of Magic (The Hundred Halls #1) By: Thomas K. Carpenter

Trials of Magic (The Hundred Halls #1) By: Thomas K. Carpenter

Plot:

There are exactly one hundred halls of magic to choose from. Ever since our parents were killed I knew exactly which hall was for me.

Aurelia “Aurie” Silverthorne is one of the best and brightest to ever apply to the Hundred Halls, the only magical university in the world. To be accepted, she must pass grueling trials that claim the lives of aspirants every year.

But more than her desire to practice magic is at stake.

Aurie’s little sister has been courting powerful forces in hopes of protecting herself from the beings that killed their parents, but alliances come with complications. As things spiral out of control, and dangerous foes arise at every turn, Aurie knows the only way to protect her sister is to pass the trials—even if it means making a terrible sacrifice.

Review:

Once I got into “Trials of Magic”, which was pretty fast, I was so scared that YA tropes I hate would rear their ugly head, but they didn’t.  There was no stupid angsty teen moments or love triangles or gorgeous men/boys that loved our heroines. Those things alone cause me to like the book more.

Technically it’s New Adult, not YA, but I’ve noticed some of my most hated tropes are in both.

Anyway, Aurie and Pi were both interesting and different enough from each other but were still likable. The world was ours with the addition of magic and I could have used some more world building and some more character development on side characters. Hoping for more of that in the second book.

“Trials of Magic” was mainly spent with the girls overcoming the fact that their parents were killed when they were younger. It was sad, but they did well on their own, better than I would expect two young girls to do, but I guess we can attribute that to their powerful magic.

It was a good book, nothing really amazing, but it was interesting enough with interesting enough characters for me to buy the second.

3.5/5