(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt this book worked really well as a sequel to Treasure. It was nice to see a first person POV book actually stick to one POV character… though if I’m honest, I noticed at least one moment where it slipped up – ‘I had no way of knowing, but…’ Yeah. That doesn’t work in a first person book, because if the character has no way of knowing, why is it mentioned? Sorry, pet peeve there.

It was good to see Lily’s character further explored. I didn’t think it was very nice for Clare and Dante to leave her behind in book one, even if it was understandable as to why they did.

It was also interesting to see more of Rose in this book. I wasn’t as grabbed by Ana in this book, I have to say. I had the feeling she really didn’t trust Lily and since I liked and empathised with Lily, I found myself getting annoyed on her behalf.

It was also good to see more of Lily’s mother and also Clare and Dante’s. I think I would have liked to see more of them in the book, though I understood the main focus was more on the children.

I did think this book moved at a very gentle pace, even more so than the first book. I would have liked to see a little bit more action. I am curious to see what will happen in book three, though. There were some conflicts in this book (that helped make the characters more ‘real’) that I would like to see resolved in the next book.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I thought the idea behind this book was quite interesting, but I had a lot of trouble keeping track of the secondary characters. The start of this book almost reminded me of the television series Columbo, where you know who committed the murder but not how. Although this book didn’t exactly give it away, it did seem to reveal more than most. (Though that was contradicted as the book went on later…)

Thorkild and Frank were both, in my opinion, fairly interesting characters, but I was a bit disappointed that the book itself moved so slow. Plus, I couldn’t really say there were many ‘major’ twists. I think there were so many side characters, I got confused with who was doing what at which point. And by the time I got to the end, I’d completely forgotten certain details.

The book was quite detailed and I was really impressed that the authors translated it themselves. I noticed a few instances of strange phrasing, but I’ve read books by English authors with worse spelling and grammar.

One of the problems I’ve noticed a lot with crime books is the incompetence of the police force. Although there were a few instances in this book that kind of came across that way (like sending the guy-just-from-the-academy onto an established case just cause he’s your nephew), I was glad that the police came across as different to that.

It was interesting to see how things were fitting together and I came to a few of the same conclusions that the main characters did. If there had been fewer characters, I think I would have found the book a bit easier to follow. There were some scenes that were really quite effectively done, I felt. It was also interesting to read the interview with the authors at the end.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was a book that reminded me of books I used to read as a child. Even though I read a lot of grown-up books then, I enjoyed reading books aimed at my own age as well and they still have a special place in my heart.

I really liked the concept behind this book, especially since it’s something I could easily see developing in reality. I especially liked the use of the Bible as a learning tool and the whole idea of Seed Savers.

I found the three main characters really easy to empathise with and I felt that their attitudes and actions really fit with their ages, as well as what they could do.

Probably unsurprisingly, I also really liked the religious aspects and use of prayer through this book. I also particularly liked the sense of community the Seed Savers had and how they helped the other characters.

It was really interesting to see seeds and their properties explained to the children, even if I felt that there were a couple of contradictory parts and that not all of the build-up was fully explored. Although there was quite a lot of explanation going on, I liked how it was handled and felt that the action later on worked really well.

I do have the next two books on my Kindle and definitely intend to read them soon. If you like this kind of genre, I think this is worth reading. It’s written fairly simply, but it’s a nice, easy read where the characters have true relationships and faith.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

So, having read and liked the first book in the series, I was fairly happy to read this one when the author offered me a copy. Although it’s been a while since I’ve read the first book, I quickly got back into the world.

Although this book did have my hated dual first-person characters, I didn’t find it as irritating as I do with most books that switch first person POV characters. Adah and Will did both have their own voices most of the time and I liked them both as characters. Although I didn’t really like all of the romantic tension, it was mostly bearable and I probably hate it so much because of how truly cliched love triangles (or squares) have become.

I did find both of the main characters to be really well-rounded and I felt that they both came across as real, human people, rather than just characters. I liked the fact that they weren’t ridiculously over-powered, particularly in the case of Adah. And that they made mistakes and were affected by various things.

I would have liked to see more of the other GEOs’ abilities. I felt they could have been explored much easier. Also, after a while, the others kind of kept merging together. They weren’t given as much of a ‘voice’ as some of the others.

It was nice to see some of the characters from book one, as well as to meet new ones. I thought it was good that the author didn’t shy away from violence, or from killing off characters when it was appropriate.

I appreciated the fact that some attempt was made to humanise Harrison by the end of the book, but he still didn’t reach the interesting villain part, even though his exchange with Will was pretty interesting. I was disappointed by one of the things that was revealed with a particular character, though.

This book was clearly left open-ended for a follow-on and I think I’d definitely like to read book three at some point in the future. There are some similarities with other young adult dystopian fiction, but I honestly feel that this one can stand on its own.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did find this book to be a bit difficult to read. Although it was mostly well-written, I found the different first-person perspectives to be quite distracting and they changed so much, it was hard to fully relate to any of the characters. Although they were interesting, I did find it difficult to empathise with any of them.

The relationships were interesting ones, but the amount of love triangles did make my head spin a bit. I felt the author did a good job of showing the conflicts in the 1212 portion of the story, but it didn’t feel as strong with Alisha’s story.

I wasn’t expecting this book to be as dark as it was. It was interesting to see the parallels between the two different storylines, but I was a bit disappointed as to the explanation of the parallels.

This book was mostly well-written, with only a few errors that I noticed. I did also spot the barefoot thing, but it wasn’t made as big a deal as it was in the other book. It was also good to see a reference to the events of the other book, too.

I think I would have been able to connect better to the characters if there’d been less first-person POVs. I felt some of those weren’t necessary to include and it did make it hard to connect with them. I’m not sure I’d read this book again, but I found it interesting and entertaining to read the first time.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve read quite a lot of apocalyptic books by now. Even though I felt like I was missing a lot of the story that occurred previously, I still felt this book was quite easy to read. I wasn’t sure of all of the details, but the characters were easy to empathise with and I felt that the relationships came across really well.

It was interesting to see how different people dealt with society’s collapse, even if I wasn’t completely sure exactly what had caused the society to collapse. I really liked Ben as a character, though I felt that he probably cheated death a few too many times. Actually, so did one of the other characters.

The relationships that formed between the characters were really well-written and I particularly liked Lucy as a character, too. She was a really sweet little girl and I was happy to see the way she was looked after by her whole family.

There were quite a lot of awful scenes in this book as well as the sweeter ones. I found it tense enough to keep reading to find out what would happen next, but there is an awful lot of violence in this book… and a lot of characters who really aren’t very nice and who take advantage of the state the world’s in.

But it was good to see there were still nice people in the world, too. I’d probably look at more books by this author at some point in the future.