Eden Is A Place On Earth

Expected Publication:  November 5th, 2013
After Eden (After Eden # 1)
By: Helen Douglas
Bloomsbury USA Children's
ISBN-13:  9781619631304

The day Eden met Ryan changed her world forever.  Actually, not just her world.  Ryan has time traveled from the future to save the world.  In a few weeks, Eden's best friend Connor will discover a new planet -- one where human life is possible.  The discovery will make him famous.  It will also ruin the world as we know it.  When Ryan asks for Eden's help, she must choose between saving the world and saving her best friend's greatest achievement.  And a crush on Ryan complicates things more than she could have ever imagined.  Because Connor is due to make the discovery after the girl he loves breaks his heart.  That girl is Eden.

Grounded in a realistic teen world with fascinating sci-fi elements, After Eden is a heart-pounding love triangle that's perfect for dystopian fans looking for something new to devour.

Review

 

     Talk about a misleading synopsis.  That last sentence especially, when they tell you that fans of DYSTOPIA will devour this book!!!  There is absolutely zilch that is dystopian about this book (other than a ruined future).  And even then, that would be considered more post-apocalyptic and not truly dystopian.  This book is more to appeal to the sensibilities of fans of light science fiction, with fantasy elements (I never quite know how to classify time travel).  Let's just get it out there: Eden is a bit of a Mary Sue.  But while I was reading the book, I didn't really notice.  I liked the aspect of her and Ryan being friends before they got romantically involved.  Probably the best thing about this book for me though was the easy bridging of the cultural/linguistic gap between Britain and America.  Normally if I'm reading a British teen novel, the slang is so overwhelming that it gets in the way of my enjoyment, as I have absolutely NO FREAKING CLUE what's going on!  In this book, it's told straight off the bat that it's set in England, and there are some word choice differences.  But it's nothing that gets in the way of enjoying/understanding the book.  Which was awesome for me as an American.

     That said, this book was mostly focused on romance, possible romance and lack of romance, rather than the time travel aspects/planetary discovery.  Eden does not share her best friend Connor's feelings, so when he starts acting strange when Ryan enters the picture it throws off the entire balance of them being 'best friends.'  But honestly, I never really saw them being best friends in this book.  I got no background or scenes with them together than really made me understand their supposedly close relationship.  If anything, the author seems to go out of her way to make him seem like a complete douchebag.  Connor's attitude seems to be that it's okay to be friends with Eden, but if she decides to be romantically interested in someone it had better be him -- or else that friendship doesn't mean jack shit.  The rest of the group of friends, beyond Ryan & Eden & Connor, isn't really fleshed out all that much and they are pretty much just placeholders who move along the plot of the book without any actual purpose.  There were some sweet things about this book.  I liked when Eden and Ryan planted the apple tree and buried the time capsule.  Also, the conversations about Ryan not knowing what pizza is or who Hitler was were pretty funny. 

     The momentum of the plot was slow for the majority of the book, picking up a little closer towards the end.  The time travel 'cleaner' (aka hitman who takes care of anyone who might suspect anything) wasn't all that surprising in his identity.  The ending in regards to Connor's discovery of the planet he names Eden, which carries a destructive virus, was rather anticlimactic.  It also didn't hinge upon Eden as much as they'd originally thought.  The sweet romantic scene with Ryan and Eden at the end made me smile.  But I spent the majority of the book wondering how the Hell Ryan got this assignment, when he's obviously kind of a bumbling moron.  Whatever, I guess.  It was enjoyable for the piece of fluff that it is, but don't expect much in the way of actual sci-fi in the plot, there isn't really a love triangle, and THIS IS NOT A DYSTOPIAN.  Thank you!  I'd recommend if for a bit of fun, light reading.

 

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

 

*I received this book as part of Around The World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication is November 5th, 2013.*



I'm Awake and Alive

Expected Publication: May 8th, 2012
Revived
By: Cat Patrick
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9780316094627


As a little girl, Daisy Appleby was killed in a school bus crash. Moments after the accident, she was brought back to life.

A secret government agency has developed a drug called Revive that can bring people back from the dead, and Daisy Appleby, a test subject, has been Revived five times in fifteen years. Daisy takes extraordinary risks, knowing that she can beat death, but each new death also means a new name, a new city, and a new life. When she meets Matt McKean, Daisy begins to question the moral implications of Revive, and as she discovers the agency's true goals, she realizes she's at the center of something much larger — and more sinister — than she ever imagined.

Review

   Daisy Appleby has been dead more than once.  The first time she died was in a horrific bus accident, but it allowed testing of an experimental drug called 'Revive' which brought her and almost everyone on the bus back from the dead.  Now, she has been stung by bees (to which she is highly allergic) when she was without her eppy pen.  Daisy was brought back by her guardian, Mason, but it is getting harder each time to revive her.  Now Daisy must start over in a new town, at a new school, with a new name.  But the upside is that this time she begins to feel like a normal teenager - like she belongs.  Will she risk everything to tell her secret to her new friend Matt (who may be more than a friend...)?  And has she been followed by someone?  Is the project in danger of corruption by the founder - the God of Revive?  And if it was Daisy might have to kiss more than her new friends goodbye...  After her latest death, Daisy moves to a new town, Omaha.  She quickly makes a friend of Audrey, a really pretty girl who for no apparent reason appears to be an outcast.  Also, Daisy finds herself falling for Audrey's brother Matt.  But Daisy isn't living a normal life - instead of parents she has handlers named Mason and Cassie.  They're scientists who work for Project Revive, whose job is to monitor her life and the effects the drug has had on her over the years.  But Daisy stumbles onto evidence that God (the man who created Revive) might be corrupt and using the project for his own ends.  When the morality and plausability of the thing keeping you breathing is called into question, where can you turn?  I really liked this book for the depth and wonderful personalities of the characters.  Cat Patrick really knows how to make your heart alternately bleed and then pound for joy.  I expected more from the plot, especially after her debut novel Forgotten had such an effortless way of weaving the plot twists around the character development.  I liked how she dealt with the morality issues, but felt like there was too much plot and not enough character.  That said, I honestly enjoyed the ending and the whole book, never experiencing boredom at all while reading it.  This book is highly recommended, just expect more personal journey than sci-fi thriller.

VERDICT:  3.75/5  Stars

*I got this ARC by chance and luck of the draw (and a truly awesome librarian friend!). No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is expected to be published May 8th, 2012.*