Undying

by Corina Bishop

To awaken and not know who you are is a crushing feeling. Panic and hysteria override all other senses. Strangers approach and terror builds within your chest. You hope these strangers, with their white lab coats, will bring an ounce of reason back to your jumbled thoughts. Instead they bring needles and knives that puncture your skin, introducing new horrors for your brain to try to comprehend.

This is the life Sentra is born into at the age of twenty-four. She is surrounded by people who only cause her agony and pay no mind to her mounting questions. Sentra cannot even find solace in her dreams, where she is haunted by memories from a woman who died long ago. If the pain and confusion wasn't enough, Sentra's body doesn't seem to be entirely human and her detainers have far greater plans for her in a war she wants no part of.

All Sentra knows for sure is that she wants out and she will do anything to gain her freedom.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

580 pages, Paperback

Published January 4, 2017

About the author

Corina Bishop first used the arts as her creative outlet. She dabbled in oil painting, charcoal figure drawling, clay sculptures and some amateur photography. All the while scribbling on scrap pieces of paper excerpts of story's she made up in her head when she was bored or couldn't sleep. She finished her first manuscript, titled Undying, in the fall of 2016. The prologue for this manuscript was first written during one of her college night classes. She was trying not to fall asleep, as the teacher droned on, when the story started developing in her head. She wrote the first two chapters and then did little to nothing with it. Eventually she picked it back up and began to write whenever free time allowed. Undying is the first book in what she hopes to be a three book saga.

Reviews

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her first thoughts were, where am I? What happened? Who am I? She remembers smudged images of her life, but not why she is surrounded by strangers in lab coats who are far from healers, they are torturers and they just won’t stop. They slice, stab, poke and inject and the pain is unbearable. Her mind screams why? Why? Why? ...and still, they do not stop.

Prepare to be chilled to the bone as Corina Bishop jettisons us into a dystopian future where humans are “born” as adults, genetically altered and treated like less than lab rats by a group of scientists with an unknown agenda. Welcome to the world of the UNDYING, the world Amelia woke up to, a world where she and others like her will become disposable commodities, but Amelia is different. She is Amelia, but not and she names herself Sentra. It is that difference that will fuel her drive to learn, to rebel and to survive, but on her own terms. She is determined to take those like her and make their way to freedom, but she has no idea where she is, or how to escape or where to go, because she will discover that things are not as they seem and promises made were never meant to be kept.

If you have never thought of science fiction as your cup of tea, UNDYING will change your mind. Told through Sentra’s perspective, follow her journey from a terror-filled innocent to a fierce warrior who knows loyalty only to her team and other “engineered” humans. Fast, furious and intense from page one, there is no gentle lead in to this tale and few moments of quiet or calm.

Corina Bishop paints a future that is filled with monsters, both the unknown and of the human variety. She has created characters that learn the value of secrets, alliances and selective trusts. There are heroes, and there are villains who fail to feel they are in the wrong in their quest for omnipotence and control.

A brilliant storyline that is both intriguing and appalling, because we must wonder … what if this really could happen? Who are the real monsters and why have they done this? Not a wasted word, not a wasted page, Ms. Bishop has done a remarkable job!

I am voluntarily reviewing UNDYING!

Publication Date: January 3, 2017
Publisher: Corina Bishop
Genre: Science fiction
Print Length: 414 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

[Erica Robyn Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy cow! The storyline of this book was so captivating! I definitely had some Divergent feels going on here, but to compare it fully to that trilogy would be incredibly unfair. I felt that this book was darker, much more suspenseful, and honestly... more memorable!

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

First of all, I think the premise of this book is incredibly eerie and the plot was very well done! I really enjoyed the suspense factor! I loved that we were dropped into the story just as the main character was; confused and terrified. Then as the story continued on, we gradually learn about the people, the situation, and the history of their world just as the main character does. But won't say much more than that to avoid spoiling it.

I thought that the storyline flowed very well and the pacing was wonderful! I loved the bits at the beginning of each chapter that were cited as "Thoughts of a machine" and that as a reader, I didn't know where this was coming from until I finally figured it out somewhere in the last half of the book.

I loved the characters! Whether they were good or bad, I thought they were all incredibly well developed. These are the types of characters that I know I will remember for a long time; especially Sentra, Marcarious, Callie, and Katarina. Though I do wish we got to know Brad and Trishna just a little bit more.

The creatures were really interesting! We got to know the Kneavox and the Canary beasts pretty well. But it was clear that there were other creatures out there, like the Sweepers. I would have loved to find out more about those and whether or not there were any others!

The action scenes were incredible! I loved how fast-paced and descriptive they were. There were also a lot of them, and I was so thankful that each one was even more exiting than the last!

This book was also a total emotional rollercoaster for me! Some parts made me anxious or afraid, some bits made me cringe, while others made me laugh or tear up. It was really a great journey!


Beware, the negatives:
While there was so much about this book that I really loved, I just couldn't look past the fact that it really needed a strong edit. There were many typos, a ton of grammar mistakes, and issues with formatting, punctuation, apostrophes, and capitalization.

Usually if I find myself editing a book as much as I did with this one, I would have DNFed it. This is the very first case though where the storyline and writing style in general was wonderful enough to allow me to look past the editing.

Another small issue I had was with repetition and info-dumping. Most of this happened in the very beginning of the book, so it took me a while to really get hooked into the story. But again, with some editing, I think that issue would be cleared up.


My favorite passages:
I lie there, mostly with a mixture of fear, confusion, and downright discomfort battling in my brain, as I try to think clearly. How did I get here? Who is this man? Who am I? Am I going to be locked in this frozen body forever? More importantly, why am I still naked?

The dark shadows under my blue eyes made my already pale skin look as if I had died a week ago and that this fact and not caught up with me yet. Yeah

"It is just best if you accept it now. They have complete control of who lives and who dies on this ship. If you want to live, you will have to bend to their will and find some way to hope that all of this isn't for nothing. Hope for your future."


My final thoughts:
I want to give this book five stars so badly. I think it really has the potential to be a five star book for me. But unfortunately, I had to stick with just four stars because of all the editing I found myself doing...

But again, I would most definitely recommend giving this a read and I urge you to try to look past the mistakes. The storyline and characters are really incredible.

I absolutely cannot wait to see where this author goes! She definitely has a major talent when it comes to storyline, character creation, and plot. I really hope to see this book take off! I've also got my fingers crossed for a book two! :) But if this is a standalone, I would be just as satisfied.

[Leta McCurry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had the potential to be brilliant. The premise is chilling. Imagine that you wake up in odd circumstances in a strange place. Maybe you were in a coma but that doesn't seem right. You're not sure who you are or where you are. You quickly find yourself under the absolute control of others with undefined purposes but obviously with an agenda centered on you. Then begins the testing - the mental and physical torture beyond belief. Why? Why would these people treat you so inhumanely? You come to understand that you are simply a "lab rat" for some undefined purpose.

Bishop leads the reader through the thoughts, emotions and actions of the main character, Amelia/Sentra as she evolves through disbelief, despair, desperation, defiance and rebellion. Sentra as well as the other characters are well defined. You never know what is going to happen next and the plot moves along at a good pace. The ending is satisfactory but demands a sequel.

I found myself a little confused though. The writing is good and that seems at odds with the fact that there are multiple spelling, grammar and editing issues. I am accustomed to seeing a few editing issues in books even by best selling authors abut this book has more than a few. It has a lot. Normally, editing errors like this go hand in hand with poor writing but that is not the case here. Seems contradictory, but the writing itself is quite good. So, I find myself giving Undying a 4 star rating and recommending it as a good read in spite of the faults. Bishop has an incredible imagination and tells a heck of a story. With better editing this would be a 5-star.

[Annette Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waking up not knowing where you are can be frightening, but waking up not knowing who you are is absolutely terrifying and this is exactly what happens to Sentra, the central character in this dramatic and futuristic tale. The book is written in the first person, which can sometimes be a little off putting for me as a reader, but in this case works spectacularly well, as it really gives the author the ability to recreate the feelings of panic and confusion for the reader, which really draws you in the story.
The book is quite slow to reveal what is really happening, a technique that works well as the reader gradually discovers what is going on at the same time as Sentra does, and the reveal when it does come is pretty shocking and twists the whole narrative of the book in a new direction.
Full of action and tension, with a great character in Sentra, and some equally interesting "baddies", who as is often the case, don't see themselves as bad guys at all, this book had me hooked from the first chapter to the last page , and left me wanting more- which means that I am glad the author left the ending open for a sequel. That being said, I particularly liked that the book had a relatively satisfactory self contained ending, not the dreaded cliff hanger as is all too often the case these days. It left me much happier as a reader, since I felt it was a complete story in its own right.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it to readers who like character driven science fiction with plenty of action.

[Elena Alvarez Dosil · Rating 4 out of 5]

My original Undying audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

A young woman awakes at a special lab, where she is undergoing numerous painful tests. it is like torture. She doesn't know what she's doing there, or even who she is and where she came from. Nobody is giving any kind of explanation, but the strange memories she has don't make sense at all.

I loved this book from start to finish. It was one of those that I couldn't put down. It has a length of almost 16 hours but I finished it in just a bit more than two days. Corina Bishop has written an amazing story in a new world, full of details and great characters. The intrigue was what mostly kept me going. Where is Sintra? Where is she? How is this world that she is in? Are they telling her the truth? There are some surprises along the way, some expected, some not, but I can say that this has been a roller coaster, and the need of wanting to know more has made me to lose some hours of sleep. During the time I was listening to this book I was completely obsessed by this world and the experiments carried out at this facility.

It was easy to connect to Sintra, even though I did not understand her reactions all the time. Bishop has an incredible talent for transmitting the character's emotions, and all the characters in this story, although weird in one way or another, feel like real people. There is a great world building too at play, even though there are still some unknown details that I'm sure will be revealed in future books. I just can't seem to get enough of it!

This is a book that almost deserves a five-star rating. And why am I saying almost? There are a few minor details that bothered me. First, when Sintra is being heavily tortured, she narrates the story saying the she feels her tears down her face. I haven't been tortured in my life, but I know what is is to feel much pain, and believe me, I don't think I would have thought about my tears running down my face. I think this wouldn't have been present in a more mature text. Second, one of the characters spells the word 'hell' (H-E-L-L), but this is referred in the text as wording out syllables. Mmmm, no. Hell has just one syllable, the other things are called letters. I think someone should have pointed this out to Bishop before publishing the book.

Laura Jennings really became Sintra in this story, transmitting her emotions and attitude. She also performed well the rest of characters, giving them unique voices and styles. I have a few things to say though. At the beginning of the book, there is a sentence said by Sintra but with Cordova's voice. I had to rewind some seconds because what I was hearing didn't make sense, and this was why. I found weird that Cordova had a heavy accent, but her twin sister Katerina had none. It's true that Cordova's accent was mentioned in the text and Katerina wasn't, but I would expect a similar accent from both twin sisters. The audio production was quite okay, although there were some volume changes and the 's' sounded saturated. This bothered me a bit at the beginning, but I got accustomed to it after a while.

I'm so looking forward to the next books, still unpublished, and what new things how Bishop has in store for Sintra and her friends. I hope Catherine Bishop will not make us wait too long.

[J.L. Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I received this audiobook from the author, I was immediately captivated. With a summary like that, how could you not be?
The premise is the stuff of nightmares.
Twenty-four-year-old Sentra wakes up with impressions of a happy life that is no longer her own and the new, bleak existence of a lab rat.
And she isn’t the sole character to experience the hell of being subjected to disturbing and brutal experiments.
There are others with their own horrendous backstories on how they came to arrive in such a place, each one more frightening than the last.
Ms. Bishop not only captures the infinite feelings, emotional connections, uncertainly, and fear of Sentra, but also those of her fellow prisoners.
She does it in a way that reveals differences in character and personalities.
You believe responses to chaos from one person to another because the author crafts character development believably, despite the genre.
To add on to the powerfully-worded experience, Laura Jennings provides heart-wrenching narration. It was so intense that I had to take breaks during the course of listening; one of the reasons it had taken so long to finish. I didn’t expect to get so emotionally enthralled.
Who knew the “thoughts of a machine” could make you feel so much?
One thing that I would have liked to see more was the origin.
How did this place come to be? When was it decided that this would be the way of life for some and not others?
Regardless, I'd highly recommend both the book and the audio version if you enjoy fantasy or sci-fi.

[Autumn Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Undying

I received a free copy of Undying from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, the story of Undying was good. It was interesting throughout. I typically ready fantasy and contemporary, so reading something of pure science fiction was a change. There were two main things I didn't care for in the book. I am not a fan of toture and intensive pain. The first third of the book was filled with these types of scenes. I also did not like how many grammatical errors were in the book. It made reading some of the scense challenging at times.

[Clipinchick]

I received this book for free from the author/publisher in response for an honest review of the book. I have not had the opportunity to read this book at this time. I will add my
review of this book once I have read the book. Thank k you for allowing me the optometrist review your work. I look forward to reading this book.

[❤ AudiobookRomance ❤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

good world and character building

Undying is a Sci-Fi Drama by Corina Bishop.

Read by Laura Jennings

Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins

HEA (Not to me)
Cliffhanger (I would be upset if this is where it ends)

This is not currently listed as a series, however, the ending leaves it set-up to be such. Some reviewers expressed their feelings to the ending as being able to count it as a good enough to be a standalone, but I am not one of those people.

If you have a tender heart like me, you may want to skip this one.

♥ Story ♥

If you like Dystopian series like The Blaze Runner and Hunger Games then this is the book for you. This has good world and character building but it is not for me. It's the reason why I can't watch Walking Dead with my husband. I hate getting attached to characters only to have them ripped away.

I myself try to avoid having my heart rip out through my gut. That being said, it takes good writing and narration to be able to evoke those feelings in a reader. I had so much tension inside me listening to this that I wanted to vomit in the midst of my tears. Call me a baby and say I'm too soft, I know that I am!

Audio Sample from Audible

Ebook Sample from Kindle

♥ Author ♥

This is my 1st read/listen by Corina Bishop. This is her only audio title. She writes memorable characters that I don't feel like I got a good enough chance to enjoy. I would be hesitant to listen to any other works as this author likes to make me cry.
Corina Bishop has 01 title listed on Audible.

♥ Narrator(s) ♥

This is my 1st listen by Laura Jennings and she did such a good job she made me cry. She really got the emotions of the scene across to me. I would and want to listen to more by her. She has 126 titles to her name, so I will have lots of opportunities!
Laura Jennings has 126 titles listed on Audible.

Ebook obtained through Kindle Unlimited
Audiobook obtained for free at my request and I am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review

More Reviews @ AudiobookRomance.com

[Lavender]

Placeholder

I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways.

[Cathi Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm usually more of a fantasy YA reader. Undying falls firmly in the sci fi category which is generally hit and miss for me and as the book started I had my doubts that I would stick with it. Because the book opens with Sentra waking, it doesn't start with a pop of action. But I stuck through the first chapter (which included important information you need as the reader) and I was hooked.

Those of you who follow my reviews know that I will speed through a book I love. This was the case with Undying. Corina Bishop does a fantastic job of weaving an action filled adventure with enough twists and turns to keep you turning the page (or listening in my case). I was completely invest in Sentra's story - would she be reunited with her family? Who could she trust? Did she have friends? What was her purpose? Would she be successful on her first mission? And would her spirit be broken?

A fast-paced novel with a protagonist who is utterly irresistible, I STRONGLY recommend you check out this novel.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
Full disclosure, I have been given this book to review by the author. However, this does not change my opinions or feelings whatsoever.

Quick review: I really enjoyed the story! I think the characters and plot were well written and once we got over the info dump sections in the beginning you really get hooked into the story. I did have a big issue with the amount of editing and grammatical errors and overlooks. The beginning especially, but it does carry on throughout the entire book. I think with a couple more editing sweeps through Undying it could easily be a 4-5 star rating book. The characters were well developed, the story was interesting and the writing is well done despite the errors.

Full review: http://heathersreadinghideaway.blogsp...

[Laura (Books, Interrupted) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book on Audible from the author in exchange for a review. This isn't my usual genre that I gravitate towards and perhaps that's why I'm giving this a 3 out of 5 stars. I say that because I had a hard time staying interested in the storyline, yet at the same time, the mystery of the unknown is exactly what kept me listening.

Eventually I did come to like and empathise with the main character instead of being annoyed by her.

Full record on my blog to come soon.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

There are so many spelling and grammar errors in this book, it's unreadable. I got through two chapters before I gave up out of disgust, and from the very first page I found myself highlighting errors and correcting them because I was so irritated by them. It completely detracted from whatever plot there may have been, and there was no way I was forcing myself through over 400 pages of it. As I also stated in my last review, lazy editing like this is the reason so many readers refuse to read self-published books. Don't waste your time.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this Kindle book in a Goodreads Giveaway a number of years ago. I wish I had gotten to it sooner.

As I started reading it sounded like this was basically a Wolverine origin story, but as the layers of the story reveal themselves I couldn't have been more off. Pacing and story are great. Characters run the gamut from love them to love to hate them. All in all something for just about everyone.

[Samantha Piasecki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corina Bishop has a very creative mind when it comes to developing a story line that has details to connect her characters journey from the beginning to the end. At the beginning of Undying, readers are able to make a quick connection with the main character Sentra. In my opinion this story would attract those who enjoy books that are futuristic/Science fiction. I do not care for a space, end of human race setting, but Bishop grabs your attention and gives you a desire to know what happens next. I did receive a kindle copy of this book in a give away. I am not sure that I would have pick this book off a shelf based off of the description, however I am extremely pleased that I got the opportunity.