Thursday, December 27, 2012

Gravity by Melissa West ~ Review

Add to Goodreads
Source:  Received eBook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

From Goodreads:

In the future, only one rule will matter:

Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.


My Thoughts:

 

5 stars - Unexpected twists and tuns make this fast read awesome

When I first read the blurb for this book, I was interested.  I had an idea of what I expected but this book wasn't what I expected at all.  It was far better.  Ari is a strong, thoughtful and well trained girl living in a world where positions of leadership are inherited from parents.  In line to be the next commander, she trains daily to fight and think so that human will be safe from the aliens threats.  But she's torn between her loyalty to humans, especially her father, and the need to save them all from their own arrogance.  It's  a battle she wages a lot and may have never really won.  But she does start to see that nothing is as it appears.  She wonders who is right and who is wrong?  Who should she trust and who should she fight?  Are the feeling she has for this boy returned or is it all a game he's trying to win?

As some things are answered, more questions develop.  Ari tries to make the best decisions she can in the current circumstances and I was very happy that she had a sense of right and wrong that went beyond loyalty.  I really did like her.

As for Jackson, I'm still wishing there was more of him in this book.  Don't get me wrong, he was around a lot and I really love him.  My faith is totally behind him but I didn't learn enough about him to satisfy me.  I want more.  He's gorgeous and alien.  He has responsibilities that he doesn't always want to have.  He fights the feeling he has for Ari, more to protect her than anything else.  He doesn't always do a good job with that fight.  He has all the things I like in a guy but I really need to know more about him.  I hope that book 2 gives us much more Jackson.

The story itself was a roller coaster ride jerking and swinging around a course that was both exciting and emotional.  It builds a dystopian world that was repaired by aliens after a devastating world war. Full of incredible technology and brutal unfairness, the wealthy have much and the poor are given but little.  The mystery of the aliens and their true plans are hinted at but may have only begun to become clear in this first book in The Taking series.  It was odd how the humans both fought against and cooperated with the aliens.  I found it much like the enigma of modern politics.  Intriguing, baffling and utterly captivating, this story had me flipping the pages trying to figure it all out.  Do I have the answers, now that I've finished the book?  Not really.  What I do have is a long wait for book 2, Hover, which isn't out until August of 2013.  You can bet I'll be reading it right after that date because I really need to know a few answers to some questions that are driving me nuts.

If you like YA and sci fi then this book needs to be the next one you pick up.


7 comments:

  1. I'm glad you liked this more than I did! I found it very predictable, and the main characters were rather blah. I'll definitely be reading Hover, though, because I love the aliens!

    Great review, Valerie :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am glad you liked this book that much
    It has been getting a lot of hype from the blogging world.
    So I think i will add it to my TBR and to-buy list :P
    GREAT review, Valerie
    Your reader,
    Soma
    http://insomnia-of-books.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've never even heard of this book, but it sounds awesome!! The way you describe it as a roller coaster ride has me really excited now. I definitely have to check this out now! Great review :)

    -Jessica (Peace Love Books)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved this books too!! I am totally dying for the next book. I need more Jackson too!! I want answers also. It seems a lot was left unanswered, but not to the point where it was too much and bothered me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I also wish there had been more Jackson (ahh another Jackson to love) and am very curious about his family. Aug 2013?!? UGH. Shoot me now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I know so many people have liked this, so it does intrigue me, but I'm not a sci-fi fan. Maybe someday.

    ReplyDelete