GoodRead - Roar And Liv

Earlier this year, I read (and thorough enjoyed) Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. So when the news came out that a eNovella prequel was going to be released, I was kinda excited. But the UK publisher didn't reveal that they were going to publish this till a few weeks before its UK publication. Hence me going "PREORDER!" then waiting at my kindle...

So, Roar and Liv. This is the story about Roar, who finally finds a home within the tribe of the Tides. His best friend, Perry, is more like a brother to him and Liv, Perry's sister, is the love of Roar's life. But when Liv and Perry's elder brother (and Blood Lord of the Tides), Vale, returns from trading with another tribe and makes a decision that turns Roar and Liv's worlds upside down...

Now, this is very different from Under the Never Sky. There's no Aria in it nor do we see the Perry that we meet in Under the Never Sky. And, also, this didn't feel much like a dystopia novel. This felt more like a love story between Roar and Liv, and see if/how their love will survive after Vale's decision. And the fact that this novella was told from Roar's point of view (and not in third person like Under the Never Sky), made it very different. Instantly, you felt that connection.

If you had read Under the Never Sky, you knew where the relationship goes, but if you haven't, you hope that they will find a way to be together.

The only thing some people will find is that, if you are reading this before Under the Never Sky, that Roar doesn't explain the Aether storms. This is explained in Under the Never Sky (I believe Aria explained it to us...) but it's not explained in Roar and Liv, so I can imagine some people reading this and going "Huh?"

Now, as you guys are probably aware, I do love eNovellas. Not so much a fan of the prices. This was £1.49. While I loved reading this (I had to FORCE myself to read this over several days as I could have so easily read this in one go), I'm not 100% certain most of you guys will buy this on its price. If you're a fan of the series, you would buy it without pausing for thought. If you're new to the series, I would suspect you would pause and think over it before clicking the "Buy" button.

But I loved this eNovella. I really did. I only wish Roar's story was longer as I could have SO EASILY read more about him and Liv (write another eNovella from Roar's point of view, Veronica Rossi! PLEASE!), and the teaser chapters from Through the Ever Night made me very excited. I can not wait to see where Veronica take us next year!

GoodRead - Under The Never Sky

Before I go into how I discovered this book, I just want to talk about the cover. AREN'T IT PRETTY?! I know I'm not a great lover of pink but this cover is just whoa! I'm not a great lover of the US cover (sorry US publisher) but as we should all know by now, never judge a book by its cover (no matter how pretty it is)!

Anyway, I think I heard about this book at the Atom Books Bloggers Event late last year and, while I think I heard of this before the event (Twitter, maybe?), it wasn't till the Blogger Event that I went "Oh, this sounds up my street!" as this has been described as a mix of The Hunger Games meets Matched, and as I really like both these series, this got high on my ALREADY-HUGE To Be Read pile of books.

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of the Reverie and has never thought of the world outside. Until her mother disappears. And after an terrible incident, she is thrown out into the outside world - the Death Shop - where the dangerous electric Aether storms might kill her. If not the storms, then the Savages might...

Outside the Reverie, an outsider called Perry breaks into Reverie to get life-saving medicine. But after the incident, his nephew has been snatched and Perry, blaming himself, goes to save him...

Two characters, two stories, and yet (of course) they meet. They mistrust each other and yet, they need each other...

Before I go any further, I'm pretty sure you guys have read other reviews from my blogger pals and they, mostly, have said the first 100 pages is a bit hard to get into. But, if I'm honest wiith you, I didn't have that problem. I fell straight into the story and like the all the build-up and showing us how different Aria and Perry's worlds are: Aria with her world of technology and Perry with his outside world. I always liked it when, later in the book, they both had to switch worlds and have to copy with that.

This is a dystopia novel, but this didn't feel like your typical dystopia novel as this was mostly set in nature, and for some reason, this was interesting for me to read. I hope that in the next books in this trilogy (yes, ANOTHER dystopia trilogy!) will explain the Aether storms and how they got worse, forcing the world to split between living in Reveries or braving it.

However, this book isn't perfect. There were times I read this and I felt it was a tad flat or it didn't feel right. Like it lost a step (but for me, this was near the end of the book, not the beginning). Also, one twist was revealed and I felt that it was a bit flat. However, the events that followed and were linked to this revelation was played out quite well, but it felt like there was no clues, leading us up to that point so we can go "Oh! THAT's why!"

I do like this book, and I will be interested to see what happens in the sequel, Through the Ever Night, and how Warner Brothers turn this into a movie (they got the movie rights to the WHOLE trilogy). I do hope for more in the next book but we shall wait and see...