Saturday, October 27, 2012

Review♥Giveaway: Gravity by Melissa West



Synopsis via Goodreads
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.

Expected Publication: October 30th, 2012
Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Review

Plot + Others
The story starts off with the "Don't ever peak" thing. The story is kind of like East of the Sun, West of the Moon thing with the bear coming in at night and you can't see his face thing. This type of thing repeats in stories such as the Cupid and Psyche Greek myth. But I was really intrigued. I didn't know what would happen next; what is this the "Taking". I was really picturing wishing Dementors-like creatures to just give the typical YA plot a twist. I mean from the synopsis, people can tell that this "Ancient" is going to be the hot Jackson. The "Taking" was a little weird, I didn't get what was going on. There was liquid dripping (what?) and something else. Really all I knew was that a certain taking was happening.

I was a little lost in the first chapter but heck, it was mysterious and that kept me going. I know a lot of other reviews mentioned how they didn't like being pushed into this unknown world and be given little details and they didn't know what certain things were. I agree that it was confusing (as I mentioned above) but I have to disagree with them as well because I absolutely loved the sense of the unknown. I mean if you can't sit through this "mystery", how could you sit through shows like Revolution where you have to probably wait until the series is over to find out what happened to all the electricity and stuff like that? I really hope I am not hurting anyone's feelings, I am just curious. I really found this "mystery" provided the perfect foundation for the lust for information. This leads my imagination on a tangent. I just completely try to imagine all the possibilities that Melissa might be thinking. It was almost like shopping for a set of outfit. You change the top to see if that was what you wanted, and change the shoes, then the bottoms, scanning through all the options. And let's be real here, I really do not want to read 5 chapters building up the story. First, it is cliche, second, it is boring. Does a story really have to start from the very beginning? It just bores me if it did. I want something fresh, and new and Gravity was my savior. Seriously, this unknown just propelled me forward, almost wanting me to question, let me crave the information more and more. This sense of blankness, unfamiliar-ness just made me adore this book. I really just wanted to say that Melissa, I love how you left me clueless

Now to the world building. The world building was great. The training room, which I was totally imagining the training room in Nikita, sounded amazing. The whole atmosphere Melissa created was great. In the kitchen, I felt like I was there with Ari's mom and the food pills. 9%% of the Sydia couldn't afford food and I totally felt it. I also want to mention how I loved the technology of this world. At first I was skeptical but the more I read on, I just fell hard for the technologies.

The plot was fast-paced, action packed with tons of epic goodies. There were secrets, truths, spies, and fighters. I just fell hard for the book. And writing about aliens is just an amazing idea. I only read few books with aliens in it and I really enjoyed this one. The only I had a problem with was the romance. I just didn't like Jackson and Ari together. I don't know why, maybe it was super rushed, cliché, cheesy? I don't know. But I didn't like the romance.

Characters
At first I didn't like Ari. She was the typical YA book girl, clumsy, a little hot-headed, and of course, a little rebellious. But as I read on, like a few more pages, I started to like, no, love Ari. She totally reminded me of Alex from Nikita, who is a total BAMF! If you like Tris from Divergent, I think you will like Ari. Ari could really fight! She fought for the things she believed in (cheesy but actually really amazing). What's more for me was that she fought for her friends (a definite plus). She was a Legacy. Wait, can we stop here and appreciate how cool that name sounds? A Legacy is someone destined for a greater purpose. Ohhhh~ I am not kidding, I loved Ari (perhaps I have been thinking of Alex from Nikita the whole time, ah well, who cares). The only thing that made her a not so good character was the romance. As I mentioned above, I didn't like the romance. Well, I rarely like the romance in books since they are cliché and makes me want to throw the book across my town. But other than that I can't think of reasons to dislike Ari.

Lawrence was Ari's "future husband". He was the president's' son. I really liked this, you know the "royalties" must marry "royalties" thing. Oh course this whole marriage thing was arranged to benefit the whole government system, which like I said, I dig it. As you can imagine, he was the super posh, awesome, talent dude. He followed the rules and was just the "perfect" guy. And yes, he was a Legacy too. I really did like him even though he was not the focus of the book. Shall we talk about the main guy character?

Jackson, well I can understand how readers could like him. He was the typical YA guy that could be a bit of everything. I just felt like this book was really similar (not plot-wise but feel-wise) to Divergent. I mean I totally pictured Tris as Ari and Four as Jackson. He was smart (arch enemy of Ari because of it...which totally reminded me of Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, time to squeaaalll!), and kind. He was popular (oh course 'cause you are gorgeous). Okay, sorry to reference Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun again but Jackson reminded me of Haru. He gave me this feeling of "danger" but also this sweet (almost innocence) feeling. He probably sends some weird alien pheromones through the pages to me because I adored him.

Ari's friend Gretchen loved technologies and fashion. She was your bubbly, fun little friend. I totally want to be friends with Gretchen. Gretchen, let's go shopping!


Overall, I really loved this book. Everything was perfect except for the romance. Therefore, 4.5 (maybe even a 4.75) out of 5 fires.




About the Author


I'm not one of those writers that can claim to have been writing "all my life." I haven't. But I have been reading all of my life. Does that count? Probably not. I'm a Southerner, raised in a tiny town in SC. Then after graduate school, I moved to Atlanta, GA with my husband and daughter.
I have a B.A. in Communication Studies and an M.S. in Graphic Communication, both from Clemson University.  
In addition to all the boring stuff above, I'm addicted to coffee, pretend to like yoga, and am obsessed with shoes. I read frequently, write daily, and adore cooking.
That's about it. Aren't I so ridiculously boring? I need to skydive or something. Hmmm...
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4 comments:

  1. Wonderful review. Glad you liked it.

    Thanks for participating :)

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  2. It sounds confusing, but I think I could enjoy it.

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  3. it does sound a bit confusing, but i think i like it. i like how it starts with him all creeping on her. I will definitely read it at some point. :) i mean aliens? yes.

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  4. Sounds great! Even if I don't win I'll probably be picking it up! :)

    ReplyDelete

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