Welcome back everyone, to give you a break from all the romance tours Rachel lured me into, I have a YA fantasy book on tour with The Write Reads.
As some of you may know, I’m not really a fan of YA since most of them have these annoying teenagerish things that just annoy me in my old age. Kristin’s first two books had me hooked and broke the mould of YA books.
Because of that I thought I’d really enjoy Rise of Gaia. And for most of the book I did.
Yet I found that with roughly a quarter of the book left I was getting those typical YA feels.
This isn’t a bad thing! Not by any means! It’s just not my cup of tea.
We have, what sounds like, a small town in Oregon where a 17-year-old starts experiencing unknown hallucinations and begins her quest to find out what is happening to her. As we go through this process of discovery, expansion and growth and making new relationships everything feels quite mature and well thought out.
Terran feels like a very mature 17-year-old, in that she seeks out help, she seeks out support and she doesn’t isolate herself when things start going weird. While she’s doing this, we learn more about the poison mankind has been spreading through the earth.
The way Kristin describes this sickness and it’s spread is amazing. It captures your attention and makes your heart bleed for what our one and one planet is going through. So much so that when I went to my local shopping centre and found they’d cut down one of the only trees in the car park my first thought was “Why would you cut down one of the only bit of greenery? Don’t you know how much we need that!”
For a YA book that weaves in fantasy and a strong message of the impact to the environment we’ve had, it’s amazing! I just found myself getting lost in the last part of the book coz of the typical YA feels that I personally don’t like. Any fans of YA and fantasy will LOVE this!
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review; I might not be releasing a review on Monday, but I will be reviewing Erotic Fiction? by Hannah Lynn on Wednesday. Continue to read further down to find out about the author.
Author Bio
Kristin Ward has loved writing since middle school but took thirty years to do something serious about it. The result is her Best Indie Book Award-winning novel, After the Green Withered, followed by the sequel, Burden of Truth. She lives in a small town in Connecticut with her husband, three sons, and many furry and feathered friends. A SciFi geek to the core, she is fueled by dark chocolate and coffee and can be heard quoting eighties movies on a regular basis.
10 Replies to “Rise of Gaia – Kristin Ward”
What a very well-written review. 🙂 🙂
Thank you
I’m always looking for new fantasy books and this one sounds interesting and unique in its own ways. I will have to look into it.
That it is! The message definitely came through loud and clear and it really stuck which is amazing
It sounds like an interesting book, even in my old age I tend to be really fond of YA books lol, great review
YA is definitely not restricted to those in that age group. If it’s a genre you enjoy I’m sure you’d love this 🙂
Excellent review! I couldn’t help but notice those typical YA tropes in the first half of the book which bothered me but in the end they didn’t really count. I am also not saying that inculcating those tropes is a bad thing, but like you I think I agree that after you achieve a certain level of emotional maturity, they lose their appeal.
Yeas, I didn’t mind those tropes in the first half since they were well done. But the second half kinda got to me a little.
That is a cool cover! I think I took part in a book tour for this author before. I remember her being very nice!
Yea she had After the Green Withered last yr. Loved it and she was so great to work with!