FORGED By Erin Bowman

April 10, 2024 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FORGED By Erin BowmanForged by Erin Bowman
Series: Taken #3
Published by HarperTeen on 4/14/15
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 384
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Gray Weathersby knows the truth about the Laicos Project, the Order, and the Forgeries—and he knows they must be stopped. But each generation of Forgeries is deadlier than the one before, and now even the most familiar faces—including the girl Gray loves—can't be trusted. To make a stand against the Order, Gray will have to risk it all.

Short and Sweet Review

It’s finally time for Gray and his group of rebels to stop Frank and his army of forgeries. Gray has to be on his A game because the forgeries are becoming harder to detect and they’re deadly.

In this final book of the Taken trilogy we follow Gray and his group as they plan on how they’re going to stop Frank. I feel like this book is a lot like the last book and maybe this trilogy should have just been a duology. Because this book is so similar to book two it felt like nothing was really going on, it was slow. The book picks up towards the end which is when the big confrontation occurs. There was a lot of focus on Gray and Bree’s relationship but at this point I thought that should have just gone their separate ways, I don’t think they were good for each other. I do think that Gray was annoying in this book, it’s like he progressively got worse each book. I really don’t have a lot to say about this book that I haven’t said about the first two books. I wish there was more that went on in this book but there wasn’t and because it was the last book we can predict what will happen.

Overall, the ending of the book was good and I liked it. The book as a whole not so great. I do think the series started off strong but it definitely hit a decline as the series went on.

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FROZEN By Erin Bowman

March 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FROZEN By Erin BowmanFrozen by Erin Bowman
Series: Taken #2
Published by HarperTeen on 4/15/14
Genres: Action & Adventure, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Gray Weathersby has escaped Claysoot and uncovered the truth behind the Laicos Project and the Order's twisted plans. Determined to fight back, his small group of rebels is on the hunt for more answers and more allies—a search that will take them on a harrowing journey across a frozen wasteland, and even deeper into a world built on the Order's lies.

Short and Sweet Review

Gray has recently escaped Claysoot and has learned about the Orders plans. Gray and the small group of rebels he is with plan on fighting back but first they have to make it to find more allies. The group travels across treacherous land and they find answers but it only leads them to asking more questions about what the Order really has planned.

Frozen takes place after the events of Taken. Gray is traveling with his dad, Bree, Emma, and a few others that he met in the last book. Their goal is to find answers and find allies so there’s a lot of traveling going on in this book and also trying to avoid being caught by the Order. In this book we see Franks forgeries be put to use and some of them have infiltrated the rebel group and some of them are so good at pretending to be the person they look like that the group doesn’t even know that there’s forgeries among them. There’s really not going on in this book to be honest, the group is just trying to find someone to team up with that will eventually help them take out Frank and his army of forgeries. Gray wasn’t my favorite character I didn’t like how he would react to things, people were looking to him to make decisions but most of his decisions were pretty selfish and sometimes put the group in more danger. I will say that the love triangle between Gray, Emma, and Bree was annoying and unnecessary. Gray eventually thinks he should be with Bree but honestly them don’t seem like a great couple, when they’re good they’re good but when things go bad they’re both very reactive and not in a good way. The first 2/3 of the book are actually pretty boring but the last 1/3 of this book are when things start to pick up and there’s a lot of action, there’s also a twist that I wasn’t expecting.

Overall, this sequel was okay. I think the pacing could have been better. I’m hoping with how this book ended the third and final book in this trilogy will be better and leave me more satisfied than this book did.

Filed Under: Reviews

VENGEANCE ROAD By Erin Bowman

January 22, 2024 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

VENGEANCE ROAD By Erin BowmanVengeance Road by Erin Bowman
Series: Vengeance Road #1
Published by Clarion Books on 9/1/15
Genres: Action & Adventure, Historical, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 338
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

When Kate Thompson’s father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, the eighteen-year-old disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers and justice. What she finds are devious strangers, dust storms, and a pair of brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, she gets closer to the truth about herself and must decide if there's room for love in a heart so full of hate.

Short and Sweet Review

Kate Thompson is going after the Rose Riders after they killed her father. The Rose Riders were after a journal Kates dad had which revealed the location to a mine filled with gold. Kate disguises herself as a boy and takes off through the west trying to find the Rose Riders and get revenge. On her journey Kate meets Jesse and Will who end up tagging along which complicates a lot of things for Kate.

Vengeance Road is almost like True Grit in the sense that Kates dad was murdered and now she’s after the gang who did it. I did like the fact that Kate knew what she needed to do and had her sights set on accomplishing her goal which was kill the Rose Riders with no remorse. Kate meets Jesse and Will as Nate which is her name while under disguise. Anyway Kates dad instructed her to go find someone if he did ever meet his end and that person just happened to be dead but his sons Jesse and Will were very much alive. They convince Kate that she’s going to need help, Kate doesn’t care about the gold just about getting her revenge but Jesse and Will do seem interested in the location of the gold. The action scenes in this book were great, there was no holding back and through it all we could feel Kates emotions. Kate was an interesting character she had tunnel vision but Jesse made her want to reconsider things, it was like an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other and that just caused internal conflict within Kate. Kate is also very combative and at points it was annoying because she was just too darn stubborn. I didn’t like the romance, Jesse was just too into being in charge and having the final say in things and he just wasn’t a good match for Kate. I will say Bowman did a great job with the western dialect and also setting up the old west setting for the book.

Overall, this was a good book. I liked the fact that it took place in the old west and that Kate was a badass heroine. There were great moments in this book and some that fell flat, but I would read the next book in this series which isn’t necessarily a sequel but a companion novel.

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TAKEN By Erin Bowman

January 1, 2021 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

TAKEN By Erin BowmanTaken by Erin Bowman
Series: Taken #1
Published by HarperTeen on 4/16/13
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy & Magic, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Gray Weathersby has grown up expecting to disappear at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. They call it the Heist—and it happens to every boy in Claysoot. His only chance at escape is to climb the Wall that surrounds Claysoot. A climb no one has ever survived . . .

On the eve of a boy’s 18th birthday he will be heisted, this happens to every boy in Claysoot. Gray knows that his time will come soon but after he learns some information that not everything is as it seems he takes a chance and climbs the wall that surrounds Claysoot to see what is outside of a place he’s called home.

Gray is our main character and his brother Blaine is heisted. After Blaine is heisted Gray learns that he should have been heisted too but he wasn’t. Gray decides that the only way he’s going to find out the truth is if he climbs the wall and leaves Claysoot. Emma, Gray’s love interest decides to follow him. When they make it to the other side of the wall Gray and Emma learn that Claysoot was an experiment and that there are two sides AmEast and AmWest and they are at war with each other. Gray and Emma don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into but they learn that they’re going to have to pick a side and fast.

This was a good book, I liked the pace and the characters. The plot twists were great and kept me reading. Gray is a headstrong character and he worries more about the people he cares about than his own safety. I did like the relationship between Gray and Emma, it was sweet, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen with the whole love triangle.

I’m excited to continue with this series. Its a fun, fast paced dystopian novel and the twists will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Filed Under: Reviews

CONTAGION By Erin Bowman

February 13, 2019 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

CONTAGION By Erin BowmanContagion by Erin Bowman
Series: Contagion #1
Published by HarperTeen on 7/24/18
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 432
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

ReviewedbyDani

After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.

When they arrive, they find the planet littered with the remains of the project—including its members’ dead bodies. As they try to piece together what could have possibly decimated an entire project, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.


Short and Sweet

When a distress call is made from a distant planet a search and rescue crew is sent to find out what happened, but when they arrive they find that everyone that was on the planet was killed. Now the crew has to figure out what happened before it happens to them. The rescue crew consists of Dylan (the captain), Lisbeth (a scientist), Thea (Lisbeth’s intern), Nova (the pilot), Sullivan (Nova’s cousin and a mechanic), Toby and Cleaver (Two tech guys). So the book starts off mysterious because no one is sure what happened on the planet Achyls because the distress call was the last form of communication to come from anyone on that planet. No one on the search and rescue crew is really sure what they’re getting themselves into. So we get to read from everyones POV and I guess it was okay but I honestly could have done without some characters, we mostly get Thea and Nova’s POV which was okay with me because they were more interesting but like I said I didn’t like everyone else. Anyway Achyls is a gross planet with one side in the sun and the other in complete darkness. Dr. Lisbeth grew up on Achyls and she has a mysterious past that she doesn’t like to talk about but she knows something about the planet and what may have happened to the other crew that she won’t mention. In the book we do meet one survivor Amos but the group isn’t sure if they can trust him or not. As the title mentioned there is something on the planet the contagion that got the other group, and I will say I liked learning about it and how it affects people. The first half of the book mainly focused on the group getting to the planet and finding out what happened and the second half focuses on them trying to find a way off. I feel like this review is all over the place but so was this book. It was loooong the chapters were looooong and by long I mean long like I’ve never read one chapter and have it take me an hour. Contagion was a good thriller I don’t usually read books that take place in space. I probably will read the next book just to find out what happens.

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Filed Under: Reviews