Earthrise by Aprilynne Pike

Publication Date: Sept 1, 2015

Series: Earthbound (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: mystery, supernatural, abilities, love, mythology, gods and goddesses, past lives, memory

Setting: Phoenix, AZ, and various places around the world

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Tavia Michaels

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 356 pgs.

HC/PB: Paperback (On Amazon)/E-Book

List Price: $9.99/$5.99

Publisher: Imaginary Properties LLC (NOT Penguin: Razorbill)

Summary/ product description: “Even with the power to create and destroy at will, Tavia Michaels couldn't save her parents. She couldn't save the boy she's loved for countless lifetimes. She barely managed to save herself from the treachery of supposed friends. So how can she save the world from a deadly plague--and the immortals spreading it? As the events of EARTHBOUND and EARTHQUAKE reach their thrilling conclusion, no one is safe--Tavia least of all!”

My Review:  As the final book of the Earthbound Trilogy, Earthrise is an awesome, romantic finish. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to this series. Now I’m just sad it’s over. I love Aprilynne Pike’s books, though I’ve only read this series and the Wings series. She write really interesting, compelling characters. She does a great job of creating a world or society within the real world.

To recap, In Earthbound, Tavia suddenly has the ability to create things out of nothing, but they only last temporarily. She is living with an aunt and uncle after her parents died in a plane crash. Tavia was injured in the plane crash too and had to under go brain surgery. Some people are out to kill her and a guy named Benson, who works at the local library, helps her. She’s seeing this blond guy, which turns out to be Quinn, her lover in a past life. At the end of the book she meets Quinn’s current incarnation, Logan. She also finds out she’s a goddess, an earthmaker. In Earthquake Tavia tries to convince Logan of what he is, and then his house explodes and they are both captured by the Rediciates and taken to their facility. Logan later receives his memories when they are taken to the Curatoria facility in the Death Valley area. Their powers resurge, but Tavia still only has memories from her past lives as Rebecca and as Sonya. The Rediciata creates a virus that can not only kill people, but Earthbounds too, permanently.

At the beginning of Earthrise, Tavia’s mission to create and distribute vaccines to the world and involves help from a doctor and her friends. She travels to different country, trying to avoid the Reduciata Earthbounds Daniel and Mariana. Tavia exhausts herself and has to create high-caloric foods just to keep her energized enough to create vaccines. Some Earthbounds are dying and catastrophes are occurring. The Rediciata gets of the their tale and tries to discredit the vaccine. Bad stuff happens, but the ending wrap ups nicely.

Also, Tavia is back with Benson. I love Benson. Logan is okay, but Benson is just a regular guy who’s father is an Earthbound and they got caught up in everything. Benson really cares for Tavia. He’s smart, funny and sweet. Logan seems a bit arrogant in believing that Tavia has to love him. They’ve had so many lives together, many of which Tavia’s unable to remember. I think she and Benson deserve a chance to be together for their life.

I recommend this series to fans of: Fallen by Lauren Kate, The Immortal series by Alyson Noel, Halo by Alexandra Adornetto, Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini, any books with mythology, gods and goddesses, angels, demon, magic or abilities. Paranormal Romance in general. Try this book. Also if you liked any Aprilynne Pike books, such as Wings, Spells, Illusions, Destined, Life After Theft or Sleep No More, read Earthbound.

Cover Art Review: Saundra Mitchell designed this cover? The author of the Vespertine? Really? Why wouldn’t Penguin publish this final book?

In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

Series: Not a Drop to Drink (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: survival, adventure, travel, action, post-apocalyptic

Setting: Traveling from Ohio to California. Many states. Set 10 years after the previous book occurred.

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Lucy, at age 16

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 371 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Katherine Tegen

Summary/ product description: “The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

In this companion to Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis thrillingly combines the heart-swelling hope of a journey, the challenges of establishing your own place in the world, and the gripping physical danger of nature in a futuristic frontier”

My Review:  An amazing companion novel/sequel, In a Handful of Dust might even be better than the first book Not a Drop to Drink. This is a survival adventure though a post-apocalyptic world in which water is hard to find. Even though it’s technically a companion novel, I’d suggest reading Not a Drop to drink to hear Lynn’s survival story.

I didn’t mind the 3^rd person or dislike any of the characters. It’s purely gripping dystopian survival. The plot is mainly the physical journey and Lucy’s own personal journey of becoming a woman. The first book was set solely in Ohio, but this book takes us from there all the way to California. I love books with travel and adventure. Especially when they travel to real places. Lynn and Lucy start in Ohio, then go through Indiana, Illinois (where I live), across the Mississippi into Iowa…and so on.

She has Lynn for support. Lynn, who’s now 26 or 27, still has her rifle and has great aim with it. Lynn is tough, and Lucy’s more emotional and hopeful. Lynn talks like a country person and Lucy talks more like she grew up in a town, which she did. Lynn seems more like a cowgirl. In the first book she didn’t do much traveling, but she does have survival expertise.

There’s no romance in this book. Lucy and Carter liked each other, but he’s only in the beginning of the book. This book focuses on a different kind of relationship. A Mother/Daughter or Mentor/Apprentice kind of relationship, but it’s more like Guardian/Adopter Daughter.

If you have not read these books and like YA dystopian, then you should read them. If you enjoyed: Ashfall, Rot & Ruin, Matched, Under The Never Sky, In The After, or any other YA books with survival and adventure, then give this series a chance.

Cover Art Review: Love the colors, which are the same as the 1^st book’s cover. A very epic landscape with the characters traveling. And a big title.

Infographic from Epic Reads:

Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith

Publication Date: October 1, 2014

Series: Standalone

Genera(s): Thriller/Mystery/Romance

Subjects: reporters, rainforests, murder, suspense, adventure, travel, wildlife

Setting: Brazil: The Amazon Rainforest, Rio de Janeiro and Boa Vista

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Emma

Age/Grade Level: New Adult (17+)

Length: 338 pgs. (in the Paperback ARC copy the gave me)

HC/PB: Ebook & Paperback

List Price: $4.49/$11.05

Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions

Summary/ product description: "ASPIRING JOURNALIST SWEPT INTO HIGH PROFILE MURDER MYSTERY IN THE AMAZON"

"Victoria Griffith’s debut novel is a triumph! Amazon Burning is a spellbinding tale of love, intrigue, and murder set in the imperiled Amazon rainforest. A young woman’s coming of age story is deftly woven into this vast ecological conflict, as indigenous tribes struggle to defend their land against the loggers, ranchers, and miners who are destroying it. A nonstop thrill ride that will leave you wanting more."

--Courtney Farrell, author of Enhanced

 “When 22-year-old aspiring journalist, Emma Cohen, is forced to flee the comforts of her NYU student life, she maneuvers an internship from her father at his newspaper in Rio de Janeiro. There, Emma is immediately swept into a major news story--and a life-threatening situation--when a famous jungle environmentalist, Milton Silva, is mysteriously murdered.

Emma must now enter the Amazon rainforest with her father to investigate; both awed by the enormity and beauty of the Amazon, and appalled by its reckless destruction. Not only will Emma have to brave the primal world of the Amazon, she must fight to survive the kidnappers, villains, corrupt activists, and indigenous tribes that lay in wait along the ever-twisting trail of the murder case. Stretched to the brink, it s up to Emma, her father and the dreamy news photographer, Jimmy, to unravel the mystery and live to tell the tale. 

Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith is a spectacular debut Young Adult novel. Griffith's powerful rendering of the Amazon rainforest forms the perfect, wildly exotic backdrop for this extraordinary tale of a young urban woman coming of age in the midst of intense conflict.”

My Review:  This book is different from what I usually read. I usually only read paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi books. The only realist thrillers I’ve read recently were murder mysteries or about hackers. In Amazon Burning the main character Emma is an aspiring reporter and is interning with her reporter father in Brazil. I really enjoyed the setting in this book. It was the most appealing thing and the reason why I said I was interested. The different animals and plants that I’ve only seen in picture or in movies like Rio (the animated movie about a blue Macaw). The setting and atmosphere was well written. It was like a mental vacation to a place I may never get to go to.

The plot was interesting enough. I never guess who killed Milton. The book entwined other issues related to the Amazon, including illegal poaching and trafficking of exotic animals as pets or for “magical” properties. Deforestation and burnings for ranchers was also brought up. There were indigenous people described in the book. They had strange ideas and traditions, but are not savages. They are called the Yanomami and they like in the rainforest and hunt and plant small farms to survive. Some have horrible diseases like malaria.

The romance between Emma and Jimmy is supposed to be a big part of the book, but to me it felt minor. I was turned off by the part that mentioned oral sex. As someone who ever only reads YA, NA is still pretty new and I don’t like erotic stuff or thing that I going to disgust me. I basically skipped through those because I did not want the mental image. I like kissing and there’s some of that. I feel like the romance is kind of unrealistic though. Emma’s personality seems all over the place. Is she really so hot for someone when she has more important things going on? I think the author should have taken it slower with the romance. Plus Emma’s having issues with a professor at NYU who sexually harassed her and is trying not to look slutty in case someone’s watching her.

This book did have some entertainment value and it’s worth a read for anyone who’s a fan of thriller movie or like books about travel and social and environmental issue. It’s thoughtful and anthropological. I still feel like there are some things that could have been improved. The characters felt kind of flat and not worked out. Maybe it’s just the 3^rd person POV in this case. It was a change of pace and different from my usual genera.

Cover Art Review: The cover is good for a romantic thriller, but that girl looks nothing like the main character Emma.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Amazon Burning, then you can get at at the following online retailers:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Burning-Victoria-Griffith/dp/1938231945

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amazon-burning-victoria-griffith/1118945099?ean=9781938231940

Astor + Blue Publishing Company: http://www.astorandblue.com