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Part One
Alaire Alsop is going to control destiny one day. In the apocalyptic new world, the only safe place is Reef City; a place split off from the rest of the civilization that is still trying to recover from events that happened hundreds of years ago. Inside Reef City, the people have an abundance of food, electricity, normalcy, and the ability to write the future.
Alaire has her entire life figured out and is on the brink of becoming a destiny writer when suddenly her own destiny takes her down an unexpected path. With the help of enemies and a foreign world, Alaire has to work to save her home from an unimaginable fate and the outsiders that threaten peace.
Alaire has her entire life figured out and is on the brink of becoming a destiny writer when suddenly her own destiny takes her down an unexpected path. With the help of enemies and a foreign world, Alaire has to work to save her home from an unimaginable fate and the outsiders that threaten peace.
598 pages, Paperback
Published January 17, 2020
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 21, 2020
Great fictional YA read. This is well written and easy to read. The author does a good job at painting the picture of every seen. It’s like watching a movie unfold. This book is about a young female who is forced to adventure beyond the walls of familiarity and into a hostile zone of unknowns. Mentally and physically she learns to survive and the reader is drawn close to her every move. Can’t wait for the next one!
May 23, 2021
Where to begin.
First, I shall get the sentimental stuff out of the way. This book is not just any other book to me. It is special to me because I know the author and I have watched her pour blood, sweat, and tears into this project over the years. I have read the author's past work, too, not just the published work. I've read her fiction, roleplay work, and listened to her talk about new stories and ideas.
This book is the culmination of an author's dreams and hopes. It's what every young aspiring writer wishes to accomplish someday.
And through hard work and grit, Elizabeth Nevin has done it.
If you haven't already guessed, this is the author's debut novel into the world of YA Fiction. Let's give her a round of applause just for that.
Secondly, she designed the ENTIRE book herself, and published it herself through Amazon!!
Overall, this book is pretty amazing. I gotta admit I was a bit skeptical when she told me she was going to publish through Amazon...sometimes self-published books just have really ugly covers. But have you seen this cover? I dare Harper and Collins to do a better job.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, lets dig into the story itself.
I would describe Part One as a dystopian adventure story. Throughout the course of the book, the reader follows multiple characters on their journeys. However, the main focus of this book is Alaire Alsop, and her quest to first find out what's wrong with destiny writing, then to prevent a war between her city, Reef City, and the outsiders.
The story is set in a post-apocalyptic era where Reef City is the last center of technology and civilization. Pretty much everything outside is like living in the boonies.
Our MC, Alaire, is sent on a destiny outside of the wall. But then the real plot starts, because she finds out that the outsiders want to start a war with Reef.
They've got an ax to grind with Reef because sometimes Reef sends out field workers to kill outsiders, so they kill back, and its a whole issue.
So Alaire journeys to convince this council to not declare war, and she's all:
I got a bit too carried away with the gifs...
Anyways, she goes to Reef to convince them to open up the walls, but it doesn't exactly work out. I am going to stop there because I ran out of steam and I don't want to spoil it in case people are reading this without having read the book (which they probably aren't...I like to flatter myself).
Within the story is a subplot about destiny writing, too. I am intrigued to know more about that in Part Two.
Here are my cons/pros list:
Cons (because who likes reading pros first??):
-The journeying seemed a bit repetitive
-Every character is like tough and mean and automatically dislikes outsiders/Reefers
-Accius was a jerk to his friends. He didn't even make up with them after he shoved them away, just went from that to tramping around outside with them
-I was thrown for a loop when the terms "Newrite" and "Pierzark" were introduced. My superior intelligence allowed me to translate without prior knowledge, but backstory would have been nice
-Taleon got beat up for no reason?? I don't know why he got beat up by his allies...
-Also why was he infiltrating the rebel group if he wasn't going to stop it or tell his mom so she could stop it?
Pros:
-Kickbutt female leads like Elize and Alaire!!
-Alaire went through a bunch of character development and I'm so proud
-The epic bridge scene
-The spooky castle scene
-Reef City as a whole. I felt like the author did a really good job of describing it and throughout the book I could imagine it as a real, functioning place
-The Dr. Mira twist. Honestly I just loved Alaire's interactions with Mira
-The family relationship dynamic! Great writing of a dysfunctional family. I loved it
-Relationship between Alaire and Accius
This book could also be praised of what it does NOT have in it, as well! No love triangles, insta-love, or gooshy romance. This author has done better than 70% of the YA authors in the market already.
Overall, a great debut. I am so excited to read more of this author's work in the future.
First, I shall get the sentimental stuff out of the way. This book is not just any other book to me. It is special to me because I know the author and I have watched her pour blood, sweat, and tears into this project over the years. I have read the author's past work, too, not just the published work. I've read her fiction, roleplay work, and listened to her talk about new stories and ideas.
This book is the culmination of an author's dreams and hopes. It's what every young aspiring writer wishes to accomplish someday.
And through hard work and grit, Elizabeth Nevin has done it.
If you haven't already guessed, this is the author's debut novel into the world of YA Fiction. Let's give her a round of applause just for that.
Secondly, she designed the ENTIRE book herself, and published it herself through Amazon!!
Overall, this book is pretty amazing. I gotta admit I was a bit skeptical when she told me she was going to publish through Amazon...sometimes self-published books just have really ugly covers. But have you seen this cover? I dare Harper and Collins to do a better job.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, lets dig into the story itself.
I would describe Part One as a dystopian adventure story. Throughout the course of the book, the reader follows multiple characters on their journeys. However, the main focus of this book is Alaire Alsop, and her quest to first find out what's wrong with destiny writing, then to prevent a war between her city, Reef City, and the outsiders.
The story is set in a post-apocalyptic era where Reef City is the last center of technology and civilization. Pretty much everything outside is like living in the boonies.
Our MC, Alaire, is sent on a destiny outside of the wall. But then the real plot starts, because she finds out that the outsiders want to start a war with Reef.
They've got an ax to grind with Reef because sometimes Reef sends out field workers to kill outsiders, so they kill back, and its a whole issue.
So Alaire journeys to convince this council to not declare war, and she's all:
I got a bit too carried away with the gifs...
Anyways, she goes to Reef to convince them to open up the walls, but it doesn't exactly work out. I am going to stop there because I ran out of steam and I don't want to spoil it in case people are reading this without having read the book (which they probably aren't...I like to flatter myself).
Within the story is a subplot about destiny writing, too. I am intrigued to know more about that in Part Two.
Here are my cons/pros list:
Cons (because who likes reading pros first??):
-The journeying seemed a bit repetitive
-Every character is like tough and mean and automatically dislikes outsiders/Reefers
-Accius was a jerk to his friends. He didn't even make up with them after he shoved them away, just went from that to tramping around outside with them
-I was thrown for a loop when the terms "Newrite" and "Pierzark" were introduced. My superior intelligence allowed me to translate without prior knowledge, but backstory would have been nice
-Taleon got beat up for no reason?? I don't know why he got beat up by his allies...
-Also why was he infiltrating the rebel group if he wasn't going to stop it or tell his mom so she could stop it?
Pros:
-Kickbutt female leads like Elize and Alaire!!
-Alaire went through a bunch of character development and I'm so proud
-The epic bridge scene
-The spooky castle scene
-Reef City as a whole. I felt like the author did a really good job of describing it and throughout the book I could imagine it as a real, functioning place
-The Dr. Mira twist. Honestly I just loved Alaire's interactions with Mira
-The family relationship dynamic! Great writing of a dysfunctional family. I loved it
-Relationship between Alaire and Accius
This book could also be praised of what it does NOT have in it, as well! No love triangles, insta-love, or gooshy romance. This author has done better than 70% of the YA authors in the market already.
Overall, a great debut. I am so excited to read more of this author's work in the future.
August 7, 2020
This was a really fun story, the world building was fantastic. This was easy to get into and it went by too quickly! I am looking forward to the next installment.
December 18, 2020
Thought it was a good book, intriguing, well written, I liked the side characters, plot is pretty good. Would've given it 5 stars, but the characters "Pursed their lips" too hard.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews