I read so many books, about one per week, with Kindle Unlimited, and so I thought I should be posting my reviews on my blog for my followers and other bloggers to see. So, this is the first of my Sunday weekly reviews to come.
This week's review is of THE COLONY.
The Good:
I loved the beginning. I really like how the author develops the main two characters. I really like how we think at first this is going to be like many other dystopian stories, with some virus that spreads and kills humanity and the rest have to figure out how to live, but turns out the storyline is different. I very much enjoyed the "rules" the main character has on her arm, and the almost non-stop action scenes, as well as the undertone of romance between the two main characters that never turns into a full-blown sex scene. I really enjoyed the big reveal and the connection to the oil, and to the metal bugs. I was not expecting it. The editing, for a self-published book, is decent.
I am interested enough to order book two on Kindle Unlimited. Fortunately for me, I have that option with KU which is great because if I don't like something I can easily return it and check out another book in seconds.
The Bad:
While I enjoyed the descriptions at first of our main heroine having lemon sized lumps in her throat, and then all kinds of variations in her throat as tension builds, I think midway through the book the descriptions becomes overdone and the author should have used other descriptors to reveal the stress in the main character. I felt the first half of the book was strong and the second half was mediocre. Not to say it was not good, it just became more of the same.
I felt it very improbable that the "third" character toward the end and inside the army base would not have been behind bars, and would have been able to roam around at will, enabling her to free our main heroine. That scenario really should have been thought out better and should have been harder. I thought some things were obvious, like when we learn our main characters are left handed. I feel like the characters should have been able to connect the dots faster than they did, but they are only teenagers so maybe I'm expecting too much from them. There are other points which seem to be repeated, and yet no dots are connected. It made me feel the characters are not so smart. I thought there were too many action scenes by the middle point, and midway through the book I wish there were other scenes, perhaps diving deeper into the characters as they talk on a sofa, or over grass. Maybe, an awkward kissing scene? Or even an emotional breakdown scene.
All in all, this was a decent story. At first I'd say about a B+, and with the reveals, a strong B+, but by the end, I'd have to go with a B-.
If you enjoy dystopia, particularly YA dystopia, with a twist you may not see coming, then I recommend THE COLONY by KATHLEEN GROGER.
Your review for this week was brought to you by M.Black, author of EXOTIQA, Simulation, Animal Graph, and Quantum State.
*Contest: For commenting on this blog post you can win a FREE ebook copy of any book I've written. Just comment and a random winner will be selected by this coming Sunday.
