Twenty years ago, the robots designed to fight our wars abandoned the battlefields. Then they turned their weapons on us.

Only a few escaped the robot revolution of 2071. Kevin, Nick, and Cass are lucky —they live with their parents in a secret human community in the woods. Then their village is detected and wiped out. Hopeful that other survivors have been captured by bots, the teens risk everything to save the only people they have left in the world—by infiltrating a city controlled by their greatest enemies.

Revolution 19 is a cinematic thriller unlike anything else. With a dynamic cast of characters, this surefire blockbuster has everything teen readers want—action, drama, mystery, and romance. Written by debut novelist Gregg Rosenblum, this gripping story shouldn’t be missed.

Oh my gosh, guys, I loved this book SO. MUCH! It’s a dystopia about robots who basically take over the world. Some people escaped to the woods when the robots first took over, and they lived in secret communities. Revolution 19 focuses on three teens in particular, Cass, Kevin and Nick. After their community is destroyed, the three teens take off to the city to find their parents.

Once they arrive in the city, the teens realize they have a much bigger problem than they first realized. They’ve never seen money, they don’t know how to pay at restaurants…they basically don’t know the rules. All they know is that every single person that lives in the city has direct communication to the robots…and the robots are swarming the streets.

Thankfully, Lexi, another teen who lives in the city, realizes what their problem is and who they are. She takes them under her wing and lets them stay in her house with her family. From there, relationships bloom, lives are put in jeopardy, and the teens must stick together while they try and find a way to save their parents and destory the robots.

First I want to start out with the world and the characters. Rosenblum created such a unique world (honestly, it kind of reminded me of I-Robot with Will Smith), and I was blown away with how much dedication and detail he put into the book. Robots are not something that I have read much about, and I was impressed that they actually scared me! The robots weren’t friendly little creatures. They were intense bullies who would zap you into oblivion without a second thought.

The characters were amazing and supported the story line very well. I especially loved Cass and Farryn. Let me say it again….I LOVED THEM! Farryn was oh so gorgeous, and Cass just delivered the spunk and uniterest when it came to him. I cannot wait to see more from them in the second book.

The brothers, Nick and Kevin were also amazing, but I really loved Nick’s time in reeducation. I felt that that section of the book really developed the story. I have to say that I was a little nervous that Revolution 19 wouldn’t have the correct amout of fear and action, but I was wrong. Revolution 19 was packed with so many twists and turns that it left my head reeling.

I would honestly encourage everyone to go read Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum. It was an action packed page-turner that I will not forget for quite some time. Gregg Rosenblum produced an outstanding debut, and I cannot wait to see more from him in the future!

Pages: 272

Publisher: HarperTEEN

Publication Date: January 8th, 2012

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “Piece of cake,” said Kevin. “Nick was the muscle, I was the brains, and Cass played dodgeball.”

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.

I love dystopia books, and I was not let down with Gravity by Melissa West. The book is about this unique world set several years in the future where aliens and humans sort of co-exist. The aliens are allowed to come to Earth at midnight each night to “take” from each human. The main character, Ari, peeks during her taking one night and realizes that the alien above her is her classmate, and number one competition, Jackson Locke.

As the story progresses, Ari and Jackson begin to work together to create peace for both humans and aliens alike. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite the way they planned and soon Ari learns about some of the horrifying things the humans are doing to the aliens behind closed doors. And to top it all off, Ari is now experiencing new….abilities. By the end of the story both Ari and Jackson have some very tough decisions to make about who they’re aligned with and who they want to be.

Gravity can be summed up into 3 different words and sections; interesting, lacking and amazing. The beginning of the book was very interesting. There was just something really cool about aliens and humans coexisting, and I liked it. I did find the taking process to be a little creepy, but I felt that there needed to be a creep out factor where aliens were concerned.

The middle chunk of the book fell a little flat for me. It started to lose the spark that captured me in the first place. I wouldn’t say that the book got boring or bad, but I did almost put it down. I wanted a lot more, and I was worried that the book was about to tank.

The ending of Gravity was so amazing that I stayed up late into the night sucking down every single word. I don’t know how Melissa West pulled out from that middle funk she created, but she did. The ending was AMAZING! Seriously, I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved the ending of this book.

I also really enjoyed the characters of Gravity, especailly the characters of Ari and Jackson. I really appreciated how West made Ari stick to her original character. That probably makes no sense right now but let me explain. Ari’s father is the current commander, and Ari is already destined to be the future commander. By cooperating with Jackson, Ari had to turn her back on her father and her friends and cooperate with the enemy. Some authors would have made Ari completely okay with that decision, but Melissa West really made it a challenge for Ari. There were times that I was really unsure which direction Ari would take, and I loved not knowing exactly what was going to happen.

Jackson was such a sweetheart! Yes, it was a little creepy that he was an alien, and I didn’t really understand how the aliens could have human bodies, but I loved him! He was strong, hot, and he seriously cared about Ari. He wasn’t over the top mushy gushy and he wasn’ta complete jerk either. I really enjoyed his character!

Now, as much as I enjoyed the ending of this book, I’m a little nervous about the second one. Because of how Gravity left off, the second one will either be really good or really stupid. This really concerns me because of how invested I now am with this series. I’m hoping that the second book will be great. It has such potential and could possibly be a five star book. The book could also tank by incorporating too much alien weirdness. Regardless, I’m going to be checking it out.

Dystopia lovers will really enjoy this book. I would encourage readers to stick through the middle section of the book because the ending is so worth it. Sci-fi fans will also get a kick out of this book since aliens make up a large majority of it! I can’t wait to read more from Melissa West and to hear what you guys think of Gravity! Happy reading!

Pages: 400

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Publication Date: December 18, 2012

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “There is a lot of gray between life and death. Life isn’t worth living if you aren’t with the ones you love.”

My name is Beatrice. When I was born, I was blessed with the Sight. I was immediately removed from my parents and enrolled in the Institution. At the age of twelve, I had my first true vision, earning my raven’s wings. And when I turned seventeen, one of my visions came true. Things haven’t been the same since.

The Institution depends on me to keep the City safe from our enemy, the Dreamcatchers, but I’m finding it harder to do while keeping a secret from everyone, including my best friend Gabe. It is a secret that could put us all in danger. A secret that could kill me and everyone close to me.

But the enemy has been coming to me in my dreams, and I think I’m falling in love with him. He says they’re coming. He says they’re angry. And I think I’ve already helped them win.

After being snatched away from her parent’s at birth due to the fact that she is a seeker, Beatrice has been raised in the Institution. This is a place where all seeker’s are sent to. Their vision’s help keep the city at peace and keep their enemies, otherwise known as the Dreamcatcher’s, at bay.

All of sudden Beatrice starts receiving a series of weird visions and dreams. Turns out, a Dreamcatcher has invaded her mind, and now she must figure out what is right and what is wrong with the world that surrounds her. Follow Beatrice and her friends in a fight to figure out their true purpose in life.

Luminosity had a great concept and well developed characters that I was instantly intrigued with. The cover and title are gorgeous, which also helped reel me into the story. I’ve always been a big fan of stories that are set in some unique, paranormal school, and I was really hoping that Luminosity would have a similar feel to Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series. Unfortunately, I found Luminosity to be very slow. I didn’t really make a connection with any of the characters, and I was just hoping for a little more.

At one point in the story it sort of felt like a bad rendition of The Hunger Games. I wasn’t very comfortable with a bunch of kids shooting at others to kill and being shot at in return. Not only that, but those scenes didn’t carry enough power to capture my full attention. If characters are going to be killed or injured, I want to have an emotional connection with that scene. In this case, I just continued to read and flip pages.

I found Beatrice’s relationship with Echo to be very……weird. I didn’t really understand it. The whole thing was confusing, awkward and boring, and I really just wanted to eliminate him from the storyline. I also found it very weird that there was a race out there who could kill people by just touching them. It just was not something that I was interested in.

The characters of The Keeper and Gabe were also very difficult for me to connect with. I found The Keeper a little too crazy for my taste, and I very much disliked the romance between Beatrice and Gabe. It made it very difficult when I didn’t have a love interest that I liked in this book. Romance is a key factor for me, and I have to connect with both of them. Unfortunately, I didn’t.

Stephanie Thomas has a similar writing style to Alyson Noel and C.J. Redwine. If you like those authors, there is a huge change that you will like this book. I just couldn’t connect with the storyline or the characters. Luminosity really did have great potential, but it fell a little flat for me.

Pages: 296

Publication Date: November 13, 2012

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “Everything is starting to unravel into a pool of nonsense. And standing in the middle of the pool is Echo, handsome and tall, pleading with me to save him. Save us.”