Below

by Lee Ryder, Kellie McKay (Illustrator)

"We have been watching you. We know who you are. We know who you love." Essie Lattimer was born with the gift of Healing. Everything changes for her when she is drawn into a dangerous black market society where gifts are used as currency. There's no escaping the world Below....

150 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 28, 2021

About the author

Lee Ryder is a mother of 3 children and one angel. She currently lives in New England. She started writing small works at an early age and was featured in local publications. She studied theater and vocal performance and was featured in several plays. She believes in love at first sight and married her soul mate at age 19. She also has read reviewed and edited other published works. You can visit her at her blog and on her on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MsLeesFanfic...
http://leeryderabfa.blogspot.com/

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book to begin the new year with. Below was an intense, exciting, fast paced story with amazing characters.
I picked it up and read it in one go. I couldn't put it down.
If you love dystopian stories this is right up your alley.
Essie and her fellow 16 year old friends are tossed into a life they knew nothing about. Everything has changed. Growing up Below and not knowing what was hiding in plain site.
Powerful enemies, new found friendships and powers. All consuming love. It's all wrapped up in this amazing book.  I hope there is a sequel because I would snap it up in a heartbeat. 
Lee is a formidable storyteller. This one is one of my favorites of hers. 5 stars,10 if I could.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Below is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Essie who lives in the future where people live underground with oppressive authority to follow compliance. Certain people are born with gifts. Essie is born with the gift to heal she has been hiding her gift. When she has to take a test everyone takes to be assigned a job for the rest of their lives. They find out she has a gift and send her to The Hall of Prophecy where her life will not be the same again.

Essie's gift is rare; as a healer, she is used to her limit every time she heels someone she sees their memories and has nightmares. She is brave and never gives and always helps and cares for the people she loves. I loved this book. It is not something I would have picked up. It has twists and turns self-discovering even though most characters are teens they read a little older because of what they have been through. I love seeing different friendships being made with all these different people who are going through the same things.

There is a romance between Essie and her friend Milo which was cute teenage love. I loved seeing so many different characters come together and fight for their freedom, rights and future.

I would recommend this to someone who wants to read something that they usually don’t. This book was a great read. It had a little bit of a thrill to it. I was on my toes wondering what was going to happen next.

This is a nice dystopian book that took me out of my comfort zone. I watch dystopian shows and movies sometimes but haven’t ever read any. I will be reading more about this author. I love this story. It left me wanting more. 4.5 stars for me I would say this is good to get out of a book slump.

*Received a copy of the book for an honest review*

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story hit a lot of familiar notes from some of my favorite dystopian series. It gave me Mockingjay, it gave me The Darkest Minds, it gave me Enclave. Some of my all-time favorite books and movies rolled into one. My one critique, and this is a big one for me, was the pacing of this little novel. I could easily see this being a trilogy if the key points and characters had been expanded upon greatly. In my opinion, this is an excellent outline for a really great trilogy, up there with my favorites mentioned. But as it was, the pacing was a bit too fast for me. I would still recommend this book to fans of dystopian novels. It’s a good one for sure.

I also HAVE to take a little space in my review to rant on the forced love-triangle portion of this book. Y’all I DO NOT BUY Kieran’s sudden 180° when it comes to Essie a third into the book. He went from fully aloof to EXTREMELY HOT in a second. I know this book runs really fast-paced, BUT I don’t think we needed a replacement love interest turned love triangle, and definitely not THIS guy. Ugh. He’s so bland. I can see how they would become friends, but his behavior towards her on the romantic scale honestly baffles me, and I don’t see a good basis for it other than he’s lonely?? I guess?? Eh, wasn’t for me.

I really hope I get to read a follow up on this story though. That ending left me very curious about how the new regime would leave this little colony under the earth, and what might be at stake for all their futures. Does the dome still exist? Are there people still alive outside of their little colony, and closer than they believed? So many fun things to explore and mysteries to unfold in any further additions the author might decide to tackle next!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the concept but felt that it ended a little abruptly.I wanted more background on several of the characters and more story to find out what happened next, it felt a little unfinished