Review: Soul Finder (Book #2) by Jacinta Maree

Genre: NA Supernatural, Dystopian
Published: September 16, 2016
Publisher: Inked Rabbit Publishing
Pages: 263
Source: YA Bound Book Tours
Synopsis:
Since being discovered as Soulless, Nadia has become a target for both terrorist groups and government corporations. Now, her only hope for survival rests in the hands of the man sent out to kill her: Diesel, the Mad Dog terrorist.

Diesel is determined to free himself of the never ending curse of reincarnation and the haunting memories that plague his mind. But when his search leads him to Nadia, a greater desire stills him from taking her life.

Unable to see into Diesel's cracking mind, Nadia instead puts her faith into his strength, fueled by eleven generations of unmatched rage and insanity. Their tight-rope relationship balances the two between life and death, love and rage, trust and betrayal.
Tension pulls at the hems of their dangerous companionship, and as time runs out all madmen must eventually make their choice.

Book two of the thrilling Immortal Gene series dives deeper into the danger of trusting your heart over your head.

Readers discretion: Adult language, violence and some adult scenes. For mature audiences only. 

Buy Link:

Amazon

My Rating:

★★★★★

Review:

I received this book from YA Bound Book Tours for an honest review, all reviews and opinions are my own. You can view the whole tour schedule here.

After the first book I was in love with both the covers and the stories, this one starts right where the first one left off on. So that cliff hanger didn't stay one for very long but again this one leaves off on a major cliff hanger I must know more. I need more! Okay now I will try to calm down enough in order to write this review. 

So I still love Diesel and Nadia, even though Nadia is trying to stretch her wings a bit in this one. She is coming into her own and trying to find out the kind of person she wants to be. Even though she makes some mistakes along the way I respect her for that, I mean how is a person supposed to learn if they don't make a few mistakes here and there. Diesel of course takes this to heart, he needs to learn how to forgive. Perhaps he will... Nadia also had to learn to survive with out Diesel always being there, they get separated continuously through out their journey. So in all it is a good thing she is questioning and getting answers on her own about everything including Diesel, otherwise she may regret it down the road, if she lasts that long that is.

They also pick up a new friend along the way, Hiro, I feel like Nadia really needed him along in their group because he was like the sister she was missing in taking care of. She also felt like even though maybe she wasn't the best person she could teach this one she is caring for how to be a better person. Hiro is innocent in all ways I think he has no clue what is really going on though he does learn pretty quick with being plunged into the madness that is Deisel and Nadia. 

The action is fast paced just like the first novel. It grabs your attention and doesn't let you go until you are at the end then crying for the next one. I liked that we finally get to see a little bit of the world where the rich people live or the ones that are important, it isn't what its all cracked up to be,even they have their problems.

Of course I can't wait to read the next one to see what trouble Nadia and Diesel can get into and how they will get themselves out of it. I am eagerly awaiting for more answers as well there are still so many things about soulless we do not know about or yet understand. 

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook│

About the Author:

Born in Melbourne Australia, Jacinta Maree considers herself a chocoholic with an obsession with dragons, video gaming and Japan. She writes a variety of genres including YA paranormal, steampunk, horror, new adult, dystopian and fantasy. Winner of 2014 Horror of the year and bestselling author, Jacinta writes to bring enjoyment to others while fulfilling her own need to explore the weird and the impossible.

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Review: Transcendent by Katelyn Detweiler

Genre: Young Adult, Magical Realism
Published: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Pages: 448
Source: First to Read
Synopsis:
A beautiful work of magical realism, a story about a girl in the real world who is called upon to be a hero.

When terrorists bomb Disney World, seventeen-year-old Iris Spero is as horrified as anyone else. Then a stranger shows up on her stoop in Brooklyn, revealing a secret about the mysterious circumstances surrounding Iris’s birth, and throwing her entire identity into question. Everything she thought she knew about her parents, and about herself, is a lie. 

Suddenly, the press is confronting Iris with the wild notion that she might be “special.” More than just special: she could be the miracle the world now so desperately needs. Families all across the grieving nation are pinning their hopes on Iris like she is some kind of saint or savior. She’s no longer sure whom she can trust—except for Zane, a homeless boy who long ago abandoned any kind of hope. She knows she can’t possibly be the glorified person everyone wants her to be… but she also can’t go back to being safe and anonymous. When nobody knows her but they all want a piece of her, who is Iris Spero now? And how can she—one teenage girl—possibly heal a broken world?

My Rating:

★★★☆☆

Review:

Though the pace was a bit slow, it had some interesting ideas. Many people that question religion or if there is a god or not, usually ask why if the big one exists why doesn't he give us a sign or send us another Jesus or a miracle, something like that. This really hits home about what if there was another that was born like Jesus but maybe not as magical.

I didn't mind Iris she seemed like a complex character, confused about what she may be yet still trying to deal with being a young adult with normal every day problems. Before she learns the big truth she is just an everyday student that loves playing violin and helping out with the less fortunate. Than boom you find out you are this prophesied one kind of like the second Jesus and now she has to figure out what she wants to do with that information. 

Zane who helps Iris through out the book is one character I really liked and was rooting for. Not everyone who plays or acts mean are, some of the nicest people have the toughest shells. They are made that way by society, its either that or be eaten alive. Zoey who is Zane's sister is in  the picture as well and one of the main reasons why Zane is a good and decent guy, though I don't think he gives himself quiet enough credit. 

Though  that is about it good character wise I thought the parents were a little to forgiving though at times, and sometimes Iris was a little to naive.  I understand that the parents were trying to be helpful and understanding but she ran  away from them while they were surrounded by a mob of reporters and they didn't keep them in the know of where she was yea she is almost 18 so I understand why they weren't chasing after her she is basically an adult, but most parents that I know would have flipped. 

Review: Gamescape: Overworld (Book #1) by Emma Trevayne

Gamescape: Overworld (The Nova Project #1)
by Emma Trevayne
Publisher: Greenwillow
Release Date: September 13th 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia
Rate: ★★★★☆

Synopsis:

The planet is dying. Centuries of abuse have damaged the earth beyond repair, and now all the authorities can do is polish the surface, make the landscape look pretty to hide the disease within. Two prominent yet mysterious businessmen couldn’t fix it, either, but they did something even better. Together, they invented Chimera, the most complex and immersive virtual reality video game the world has ever known. The Cubes in which Chimera is played quickly became a fixture of this landscape: part distraction, part hospital, and almost wholly responsible for holding up the failing world economy.

Miguel Anderson is also dying. He isn’t the only one who plays the game–everybody does–but Miguel has more reason than most: When players leave their Cubes for the day, the upgrades and enhancements they’ve earned for their virtual characters leave with them. New lungs to breathe poisoned air, skin that won’t burn under the sun are great and everything… but Miguel, born as broken as the earth, needs a new heart–and soon–if he wants any hope of surviving just a little longer.

Then the two Gamerunners announce a competition, with greater rewards and faster progression than ever before, and Miguel thinks his prayers have been answered. All he needs to do is get picked to lead a team, play the game he’s spent years getting good at, and ask for his prize when he wins. Simple, really.

At first, things seem to go according to plan. Mostly, anyway. Inside his Cube, with his new team–including his best friend–at his back, Miguel begins his quest. He plays recklessly, even dangerously, for someone whose most vital organ could give up at any moment, but his desperation makes him play better than ever. The eyes of the world are on him, watching through status updates and live feeds, betting on his chances. With greater rewards, though, come greater risks, and the Gamerunners seem to delight at surprising the competitors at every turn. As he ventures deeper into a world that blends the virtual and the real to an unsettling degree, Miguel begins to wonder just why the game was invented at all, and whether its stakes could be even higher than life and death.

I thought it was going to be a little more dystopia like and not all about the game play. I was pleasantly surprised. I liked that it had more of the game elements in the book it seems like each book I read dealing with a virtual world turns into a dystopia, and yea this is a little bit but it is more end of the world type of stuff.

Miguel Anderson has it pretty tough he knew he had an expiration date, that is why he is playing the game to get a new heart in the end. I understand why he plays but he also wants to live his life full till the very end, so he is caught in the middle of two worlds it seems. He was a strong character and didn't let life get him down. He didn't seem to have many emotions till about halfway through the book not sure if it was just because he was focused on getting a new heart or maybe he just didn't let himself feel because he knew he didn't have much time. 

The Gamerunners I feel I have to touch on them since they orchestrated the whole game and this new element to it. Though I don't want to go into to much detail because you find out a lot while reading through. They are very mysterious and still even at the end I want to know more, they aren't the top dogs they think they are. These two though they say they don't get along, can actually work together, they came together to make this game didn't they. If only they weren't so conniving maybe Miguel could help them, because even though one of them says they are good he is still just as conniving as the other.

The game play itself was described wonderfully. Though I would have liked to hear a little bit more about the actual world the live in and what is exactly wrong with it and why is it so far gone. I understand some of it was acid rain and the sun being toxic, I know those can't really be fixed but there should be some way to maybe work towards making the earth healthy again. This book just makes it seem everyone has given up on living and gone into a virtual world. Which in my opinion if people want to keep living they would try to figure something out, instead of trying to download their brain into a game while their bodies die out in the real world.

I know they are working on technology like this for gaming wise and to be honest it both is a little exciting and terrifying to me. Terrifying because it could lead to something like this or make people not notice each other even more than our current technology does. Exciting as well because I think it would be really fun, it would have to be one of those things where it would have to be played in small incriminates, so as to not get out of hand.

Overall it was a good read and leaves off with the reader wanting to know more, especially about them Gamerunners. I know I have questions racing around in my head about what is to come after this.  

Favorite Quotes:

"Dude, I've been ready since yesterday morning, it was those damn doctors." Yeah. Another thing Miguel knows about. "They said I could go once I'd eaten something, though." "You're never going to put a shirt on again, are you?" Leah asks. "Nope."

"Please tell me you're not making adjustments without me." says Lucius. He can be incredibly light-footed when he wishes.  "Would I do that?" "Yes." "You're probably right," Blake concedes.

You are in an old building. It has many rooms. Each room is filled with strange, ancient artifacts."It's called a museum, Storyteller," says Leah. Part of him wants to laugh, it's nice to know he isn't the only one who talks back. 

These were some of my favorite quotes the first one to show that even though the game was played and Miguel was very serious about winning, it wasn't everything they still goofed off at times and had fun still. The second one shows Black and Lucius who are the game runners, whenever I came to a chapter about them I devoured it wanting another and to know more about them. The last one is my favorite because every time I heard the Story teller talk I just wanted to roll my eyes or say something sarcastic like Leah did. Most of the time the story teller didn't help at all just stated the obvious about what was in front of them.

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YA sci-fi/cyberpunk writer. Fan of words and music and chocolate. Represented by Brooks Sherman of FinePrint Literary Management. My first novel, CODA, will be out Spring 2013 from Running Press Kids, and its sequel, CHORUS, will be released the following year.

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Review: Soulless (Book #1) by Jacinta Maree

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Published: October 1, 2015
Publisher: Inked Rabbit Publishing
Pages: 391

Source: YA Bound Book Tours
Synopsis:
Welcome to Soulless.
We are the generation that laughs at death.

Reincarnation; what was once considered a gift of immortality has become an eternity of nightmares.

Nadia Richards lives in a world plagued by reincarnation, a system of recycling souls where all past memories, personalities and traumatic events are relived daily in disjointed sequences. Trapped within their own warped realities, not even the richest and most powerful are saved from their own minds unraveling. Madness is the new human nature, and civilizations are crumpling beneath themselves trying to outrun it. 

Within a society that ignores death, Nadia appears to be the one exception to the reincarnation trap. Born without any reincarnated memories and with printless eyes, the hot tempered 19 year old quickly becomes the ultimate prize to all those wishing to end the vicious cycle, or for some, to ensure they could evade death forever.


Readers discretion: Adult language, violence and some adult scenes. For mature audiences only.

My Rating:

★★★★★

Review:
I received this book from YA Bound Book Tours for an honest review, all reviews and opinions are my own.

Nadia, I really liked her she was distant yet wanted to be close to other people. She was born with not knowing really who to trust and who not to trust because she didn't live any lives previous to this one. I really think Nadia's mother was a real jerk the father was as well but the mother took the cake and didn't want to claim her as any child that came from her because she was different.

Diesel he was a very confusing character at first I didn't even know how old he was because it described him as looking old in Alpha prison. Then when most of the book is finished I find out he is around 25 or so I read the whole book to find out he was 25. Hehe just kidding the book was so good I had a hard time prying myself away from it. Diesel was that character that gave the book an extra push towards greatness, I don't think Nadia could have made it with out him but neither could he have made it on is own.

Frankie and Vance these two were confusing for me I think they wanted to make a friend but they didn't know how to exactly. In a world where you literally can have enemies forever it is hard to keep friends or even loved ones close. These two though have been in each others lives continuously, and I think that is one of the reasons I liked them regardless of how they treated Nadia and Diesel. I hope these continuously find each other no matter what. A true meaning of soul mates were what these two had I think.

I really liked the plot and how living so many lives can effect a person and start making them crazy I mean some people go crazy with only the lives they are given right now. Imagine having many lives in one body to contend with. Also I really liked how it seemed to push people apart and no one knows friendship or trust anymore because of it, I think that is sometimes how people are going now, where we are so disconnected with each other because of technology.

I can not wait for the second one and am glad I have the chance to read the next one so you will be seeing another blog post up real soon, and will probably have even more to go on about. Also look at that cover! It is amazing is it not.