And for the second and last part of this first Friday Reads of the year, another ARC review. I'm very glad I got an auto approval for Strange Chemistry on NetGalley cause they surely don't disappoint!
This is also another book for my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge, I'm starting this one strong it seems!
The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Almost Girl is a fantastic science fiction story, and one that I really needed to read. Clearly the people at Strange Chemistry have a knack for getting fantastic original books to publish!
Parallel universes, kick arse soldier girl on a mission. That's the basics of what this book is about, but there is so much more in there!
Riven is not a very usual character. She's tough, she's trained, a total soldier and is so focused and driven that it might take a while to warm to her even while you are rooting for her to kick someone's arse!
I find it very hard to try and summarize the plot in a few lines without entangling myself and maybe even give away some spoilers. I would even recommend not reading the full Goodreads summary. The less you know going into the book, the better you will enjoy turning pages trying to figure out who you can trust and what is really going on.
The Almost Girl is full of science, but not too full of complex terms even when the discussing some specifics on genetic therapy or quantum physics to explain moving between universes. I don't think it'd put anyone off this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm a huge fan of science fiction.
The characters are so well done, and so complex. There's much more to Riven than even she allows herself to see, and throughout the whole book we keep on peeling layer after layer. Caden finds himself in the middle of a struggle he could never even imagine and proves that he can be an asset and not only Riven's mission.
There are quite a few twists, some really unexpected, some that will have you confused for a while and others that you will kick yourself for not seeing coming. Others won't be exactly unexpected but will be fitting to the story.
There's romance in this book, but from the slow burning category, otherwise it wouldn't have been fitting for the characters at all. It was well done and it's very interesting to finally see Riven somewhere were she feels out of her element, she really is not comfortable at first dealing with emotions at all!
There's science, there's intrigue, there are battles, betrayals and unexpected allies. It seems that this book as a bit of everything mixed in a way that it works brilliantly.
The ending has a cliffhanger but one that has the characters making the choices that leave us with the start of another journey, and not the kind where things happen to them out of their control, so I'm quite excited to read the final book of this duology!
Very well deserved 4 stars for this one!
View all my reviews
This is also another book for my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge, I'm starting this one strong it seems!
The Almost Girl by Amalie HowardMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Almost Girl is a fantastic science fiction story, and one that I really needed to read. Clearly the people at Strange Chemistry have a knack for getting fantastic original books to publish!
Parallel universes, kick arse soldier girl on a mission. That's the basics of what this book is about, but there is so much more in there!
Riven is not a very usual character. She's tough, she's trained, a total soldier and is so focused and driven that it might take a while to warm to her even while you are rooting for her to kick someone's arse!
I find it very hard to try and summarize the plot in a few lines without entangling myself and maybe even give away some spoilers. I would even recommend not reading the full Goodreads summary. The less you know going into the book, the better you will enjoy turning pages trying to figure out who you can trust and what is really going on.
The Almost Girl is full of science, but not too full of complex terms even when the discussing some specifics on genetic therapy or quantum physics to explain moving between universes. I don't think it'd put anyone off this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm a huge fan of science fiction.
The characters are so well done, and so complex. There's much more to Riven than even she allows herself to see, and throughout the whole book we keep on peeling layer after layer. Caden finds himself in the middle of a struggle he could never even imagine and proves that he can be an asset and not only Riven's mission.
There are quite a few twists, some really unexpected, some that will have you confused for a while and others that you will kick yourself for not seeing coming. Others won't be exactly unexpected but will be fitting to the story.
There's romance in this book, but from the slow burning category, otherwise it wouldn't have been fitting for the characters at all. It was well done and it's very interesting to finally see Riven somewhere were she feels out of her element, she really is not comfortable at first dealing with emotions at all!
There's science, there's intrigue, there are battles, betrayals and unexpected allies. It seems that this book as a bit of everything mixed in a way that it works brilliantly.
The ending has a cliffhanger but one that has the characters making the choices that leave us with the start of another journey, and not the kind where things happen to them out of their control, so I'm quite excited to read the final book of this duology!
Very well deserved 4 stars for this one!
View all my reviews
It's unreal how much faith I have in Strange Chemistry people. They can do no wrong! So of course I knew I wanted to read this one from the start, and as a huge fan of sci-fi, I'm certain I'll adore it.A mix of so many interesting thigs will surely work fabulously.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts.
Agreed! I'm so so happy I got the auto-approval on NetGalley!
DeleteI can't wait to hear your thoughts on this one, Maja!
The mention of any sort of cliffhanger automatically makes me nervous these days, but I still hope to give this a try! I really like the sound of it, and agree that the Strange Chemistry crew publish a lot of original books. Plus a slow burn romance is my favourite kind. Thanks for the helpful review, Pili! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sam! This is not a bad cliffhanger, it is not exactly a finished story cause it leaves you hoping for what might happen next, but it's nothing like the cliffhangers from The Dream Thieves or The Iron Traitor!
DeleteI haven't heard of this one but you can bet your tush I'm going to be reading it! What an AWESOME review! I'll be ordering my copy ASAP. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Octavia! I can't wait to hear your opinion on this one!
DeleteI wish I had requested this one, but alas...I did not. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and I'll be adding to my TBR list. Great review Pili
ReplyDeleteI had my doubts at first, not about the book itself but about getting more ARCs, but I'm very glad that I did!
DeleteThanks, Kristen!