Monday, April 7, 2014

Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

Synopsis
Divided by day and night and on the run from authorities, star-crossed young lovers unearth a sinister conspiracy in this compelling romantic thriller.

Seventeen-year-old Soleil Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller prohibited by law from going out during the day. When she fakes an injury in order to get access to and kidnap her newborn niece—a day dweller, or Ray—she sets in motion a fast-paced adventure that will bring her into conflict with the powerful lawmakers who order her world, and draw her together with the boy she was destined to fall in love with, but who is also a Ray.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide, Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights, and a fast-paced romantic adventure story.
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It was alright. Honestly, I’m left a bit confused. I was expecting to feel so much more. There was so much potential here and unfortunately none of it turned into anything significant. I turned the last page and found myself just staring at the wall thinking, “Hmm… alriiiiiiight… Next book!”

I have mixed feelings about this book and I’m really on the fence. 

~Spoiler Free Review~

Writing: Meh. Elizabeth Fama by no means did a bad job, but I don’t feel she did a great job either. I will say that I appreciated the speed of the book. There is nothing worse than a book that drags on and this book moved from one thing to the next very quickly. One thing I noticed that bothered me however was that Fama could get a little repetitive. Example: she described things as “just like in the movies” multiple times. This is not descriptive enough for me as a reader.

Great writing for me is when I am so enthralled by a book that I will pick up anything that author writes and follow their work religiously, not the case yet for Fama. That being said, I am curious enough to maybe pick up some of her work as she develops as an author with time. I REALLY do believe this book had some genius ideas just not the know-how to properly execute the supporting information.

World: I’m not sure what was accomplish here. The book has a distinctive dystopian vibe to it however it’s supposed to an alternate course in history to a modern Chicago after a flu pandemic? This just didn’t compute properly across the pages for me. It seemed kind of random and not very well thought out. Maybe? I don’t know…

Characters: Soleil is a very impulsive and sassy individual. I think she could have been better developed but she did her part. Not a memorable character for me though. Honestly, I liked her attitude but found her to be a little dense or nonsensical. D’Arcy was, meh. He was weak and not desirable at all in the beginning and then he became acceptable towards the end. He was neither here nor there for me. Not a fan of their romance really as it felt like it was just kind of thrown in. The romance did nothing for me.

Plot: The quality of the plot is really where I think the book struggled most, which really, isn’t this the most important part of a story? There is a dystopian tone that was mediocre. There is a forbidden love that didn’t feel so forbidden. There is a kidnapping that was really poorly executed. There is a heart wrenching family past that unfolds but didn’t wrench at my heart. I will say though that it did have a fast pace and was not too predictable.

Overall...

(Sigh) 

I am really struggling here. This is not a bad book and I feel like I’m being very hard on it but I was just expecting so much more. There is something missing here, I didn’t FEEL anything while reading this book. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to NOT recommend it either. If the synopsis sounds interesting to you then I say give it a try! Probably along the 2.5 star range for me but I was feeling generous (mainly because I love the cover) so I rounded up.

You don’t need to 'matter' in the world, because you already matter to the only person who counts.” 

I liked it, kind of...
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