Broken City by D.D. Chant - Book Review

Broken City by D.D. Chant is a post-apocalyptic novel. Financial ruin forces the world into tribes fighting amongst themselves for survival. Deeta, the main character, has quite the adventure that opens her eyes not only to the world she has been kept hidden from, but also to love.

This was one of those wild rides where I felt like I needed to close my eyes and simply hang on for the pleasure of it. The story didn't really get going until almost halfway through, but at that point I didn't want to stop. The characters were very engaging (I absolutely love Deeta's sister Jan, she is a hoot!), the world was intriguing with its history and murder plots and all-out war, and the love story was so natural I couldn't help but smile when they finally, finally kissed.

But (and this might be a big but) my editor's eyes could not get past a lot of things. There were typos, forgivable, but then there were run-on sentences. I think I actually found an instance of too much showing. I was drowning for such a long time in the non-information that I almost gave up.

I am so glad I didn't, because once I turned off my brain and just enjoyed the ride I really liked it.

I received this book from the author for review.

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer - Book Review

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer is a young adult post-apocalyptic science fiction. A comet's dust turns the sky purple, and space germs kill everyone who is past puberty. The world is left with a few scientists who were quarantined, and thousands of kids. On an island off of Maine, a group of kids bands together to survive.

The high stakes and constant motion just kept building throughout the book. I didn't want to stop. The idea was what really intrigued me, but the personality and writing really hooked me. It's written in third person so we can bounce from character to character. I liked that, but I also think it could have benefited from being first person for the emotion. Still, a lot of moments had me gripping my seat in anticipation.

The characters are all very solid and real. For the story revolving entirely around children, it didn't feel childish or silly at any point. A lot of science and knowledge was thrown in because of one nerdy character; hope and love and worry were projected by another. They all had their roles and were connected to each other in simply beautiful ways.

Scott touched a few times on the fact that these thousands of children would one day have to procreate in order to keep the race continuing, but it was never weird or wrong. There were still twelve-year-old crushes, not intense love you wouldn't expect from pre-teens, and every once in a while someone would mention it but they would just continue on as if it wasn't said.

The beginning of the book threw me a little. The timing seemed strange, but once I got into the flow of the writing and the comet dust fell into the atmosphere, curling its way around the moon, I couldn't stop.

I received this book from the author for review.