Their Fractured Light - by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Title: Their Fractured Light
Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Published: 1 Dec 2015
Series: Starbound #3
Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis:
A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness for their planet, and protect them from destruction. Some say Flynn’s a madman, others whisper about conspiracies. Nobody knows the truth. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were rescued from a terrible shipwreck—now, they live a public life in front of the cameras, and a secret life away from the world’s gaze.
Now, in the center of the universe on the planet of Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players, who will bring the fight against LaRoux Industries to a head. Gideon Marchant is an eighteen-year-old computer hacker—a whiz kid and an urban warrior. He’ll climb, abseil and worm his way past the best security measures to pull off onsite hacks that others don’t dare touch.
Sofia Quinn has a killer smile, and by the time you’re done noticing it, she’s got you offering up your wallet, your car, and anything else she desires. She holds LaRoux Industries responsible for the mysterious death of her father and is out for revenge at any cost.
When a LaRoux Industries security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate attempts to infiltrate their headquarters, they’re forced to work together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to take down LaRoux Industries, and neither trusts the other. But working together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is so desperate to hide.

I listened to this as an audiobook and followed along in my physical book. In the physical book, the words of the whispers are sometimes on opposite sides of the one page as if it was two of them speaking and you can see the whispers and Lilac have a conversation. But in the audiobook, the whispers' voices are quite creepy along with the background sounds of it, and at the end you get to hear the Butterfly Waltz.

"I probably could have stripped naked and laid down on his desk and he would've just moved his monitor so he could see over me."

The cover of this book is beautiful too. I absolutely love her dress on the front cover of this. And if you look closely on the front cover, you can see he has a tattoo just above his elbow.

The interaction between Sofia and Gideon was quite good. I like how their partnership changed as the book went on too - from enemies, to co-conspirators, back to enemies, before reaching friendship and (hopefully one day) a relationship.

Six lives, six threads. We shall see what fabric they weave.

Spoilers!

My guess that Sofia was Towers was sightly off, but I think I'd still call that a win.

I cried when the Daedalus ship crashed to Corinth and Tarver was crying as it fell with Lilac on board - in denial of what was happening in front of him.

Her hands slide up inside my T-shirt, finding skin, and my brain starts to shut down higher function so I can concentrate on getting her shirt off without breaking the kiss for more than a couple of seconds.

When Lilac tells Tarver that she held on so that she could come back to him I also ended up crying. I can be such a sap when it comes to books sometimes.

Another moment I started to cry? When Sofia was with Gideon at the end and she was thinking about what story she should tell the Collective and she thinks about the Butterfly Waltz.

Gideon: I still like yours better. The one with the lights and fringe.
Sofia: The one that got shredded and full of holes because I was wearing it during a spaceship crash? I think there's more dress missing than there.
Gideon: Why do you think I like it? 

End Spoilers!

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All books in this series:

    1 | These Broken Stars
 1.5 | This Night So Dark
    2 | This Shattered World
    3 | Their Fractured Light

Life's Rainbow

It was a rainbow.

It was red. The colour of a rose, a strawberry, an autumn leaf. The colour of a sunburn after laughing and playing in the sun all day. The colour of an oversized bow in a little girl’s hair.

It was orange. The colour of a marigold, a penny, a maple tree. The colour of a pumpkin on a front step at Halloween. The colour of orange juice through a straw while unwell.

It was yellow. The colour of a bright and shining sun, a polka dot dress, sand at the beach. The colour of butter as it’s spread on some bread. The colour of a lemon as it sits in a fruit basket.

It was green. The colour of trees, a frog, a cactus. The colour of freshly mown grass just before it rains. The colour of a lime slush drink as it gives you a brain freeze.

It was blue. The colour of a cloudless sky, a robin’s egg, juicy blueberries. The colour of a warm blanket on a rainy day. The colour of the overalls on a little boy.

It was purple. The colour of grapes, a butterfly, a violet. The colour of a chocolate bar wrapper as the goodness inside was eaten. The colour of paint as it’s rolled onto the wall.

It was a rainbow.

Until it wasn’t.

It was purple. The colour of bruises on the little boy’s arm and cheek from where he had been abused by his parents. The colour of the robes of a pastor as they molested a child.

It was blue. The colour of depression that had been left alone too long, turning them to suicide. The colour of a car as it came hurtling towards a motorbike, crushing the rider.

It was green. The colour of jealousy as they find out their partner is cheating. The colour of the vomit as someone forces themselves to throw up to stay thin.

It was yellow. The colour of the sky before the smoke as the bomb went off. The colour of the alcohol as it consumed the little girl’s parents to the point of no return.

It was orange. The colour of the fire as it erupted from the forest, the trees fuelling it on. The colour of the warning that no one listened to.

It was red. The colour of fury and hate as they tore each other apart. The colour of blood as it slowly choked the streets, no one noticing how many lives lost until it was too late.

It was a rainbow.

Eve of Man - by Giovanna & Tom Fletcher

Title: Eve of Man
Author: Giovanna & Tom Fletcher
Published: 31 May 2018
Series: Eve of Man Trilogy #1
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis:

AGAINST ALL ODDS, SHE SURVIVED.
THE FIRST GIRL BORN IN FIFTY YEARS.
THEY CALLED HER EVE . . .
All her life Eve has been kept away from the opposite sex. Kept from the truth of her past.
But at sixteen it's time for Eve to face her destiny. Three potential males have been selected for her. The future of humanity is in her hands. She's always accepted her fate.
Until she meets Bram.
Eve wants control over her life. She wants freedom.
But how do you choose between love and the future of the human race?

I listened to this as an audiobook but kept up in my physical copy.

I love this Fletcher family so much and they are so very talented. I was excited to read this book as the synopsis sounded very interesting, plus I was eager to see how they would write together.

The book was well written and I couldn't stop listening. The narrators also did a wonderful job. I loved the voice of the person who narrated Bram, and the person who narrated Eve reminded me a little of the actress Natalie Dormer who plays Irene Adler in the TV show "Elementary".

My first question was how old is Holly? Eve was the first one born in fifty years, so where did Holly come from? This gets explained as Holly is a hologram type of program with 3 different sets of operators - one set being Bram and Hartman. Hartman also reminded me a little of Ron Weasley in the way that he spoke.

The way that Eve's situation was described reminded me a bit of the royals - having suitable partners chosen for you to pick from, the public watching in amazement and wonder, the tight security measures, the isolation you're forced into... I do feel sorry for the way Connor's first impression went though.

I did love the way that the Drop was described though and made me sort of wish I could jump into the book experience it for myself. In my mind, the Freevers also called themselves that as it's short for "the Free Eve-ers". It might not actually be, but I'm going to keep on thinking that as it sort of makes sense in my head.

The ending was so lovely too. A little cheesy, but still quite cute.

Spoilers!

I teared up at Mother Nina's funeral. She was so loving and kind and shouldn't have died. But she did it to save Eve, who she love like she was her own daughter.

It also makes me sad that Bram was abused by his father, but it also explains the way that he acts around him and also with the way he treats his father during the book too.

Is Bram's Dad using Vivian like Holly's being used? A hologram type of projection program? Or is she actually a real person?

I did have a moment of wondering if Bram's mother was Ben, but I'm still not too sure whether I believe that or not yet.

When I was right about guessing who the informant was, I was quite proud of myself. I'd guessed that it was either going to be one of the Mothers or Hartman. Mother Cardi was the informant and was also married to Frost from the Freevers, who sacrificed himself to save Ernie and everyone else who was in the house - which I also teared up at.

Last question though: Were the little humans in the glass things in the Doctor's lab Eve's babies? And if so, were they all baby boys? I'd sort of like to think so, but I could also be very wrong. It does make me sad to think of all those little beings in glass tubes being prodded and not being laid to rest in one way or another though.

End Spoilers!

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All books in this series:

    1 | Eve of Man
    2 | The Eve Illusion

Across the Universe - by Beth Revis

Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Published: 11 Jan 2011
Series: Across the Universe #1
Rating: 3 stars
Synopsis:
A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship —tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

The narrators of the audiobook did a really good job with their parts as the book alternated between two points of view.

I might have heard about this book once or twice, but not enough to stick in my head entirely. What mainly made me pick up this book was the beautiful cover. The colours and the design of it too.

So I do what any reasonable person would do when faced with a crying girl - I get the frex out of there.

I think we've all felt that that at one point or another too. Angry at the world, sad beyond tears, feeling so alone that you think nobody cares, and feeling like if you made one wrong move then you would completely fall apart.

Across the Universe was written well as you could picture the ship and everything that was happening and the different levels of the ship too.

Because if I wasn't holding on to myself, I think my body would fall apart like a puzzle lifted at the corners.

Spoilers!

I guessed that Orion was the last Elder who had supposedly expired, and by the description of the scar I guessed that his Y comm had been taken out too. I also guessed that he was probably the one pulling the plug on all the Frozens. It turns out that I was right about all of these tings.

End Spoilers!

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All books in this series:

    1 | Across the Universe
    2 | A Million Suns

2.5 | As They Slip Away

    3 | Shades of Earth