The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a wonderfully original setting. If I were to make up a category for this book it would be historical urban fantasy with a touch of horror.

The story takes place in 1880s Russia where the paranormal world, which is represeneted by a plethora of creatures both light and dark, meets the upcoming new age on the eve of breakthrough in modern medicine. It's basically all I love about books but there were a few things that peeved me which prevent me from giving it a full 5 star rating.

The heroine, Katerina Alexandrovna, is the great-great-granddaughter of tsar and a powerful necromancer. She can raise the dead but she is afraid of her power and the consequences it has, her ambition is to get into university in Switzerland or France where she could study to be a doctor, which isn't allowed for women in Russia. I really liked that she had ambitions beyond getting married well. There is romance as well but it is a minor part of the story.

The story revolves around a paranormal plot against the tsar. Katerina with her powers is at the centre of all the players but can't decide who to trust. Throughout the book we learn what is happening in tiny parts as Katerina discovers them.

There were only two things I didn't like much about the book. One was Katerina's distrust of everyone. She considered a lot of people she could tell and quite rightfully decided not to trust, but there were other people she could have told and didn't even consider. This pushed her a little towards the "annoying heroine" category which is unfortunately way too common in YA books. The other thing I disliked was the editing. There were a lot of characters and politicking and jumping between scenes and people. I wouldn't call the book confusing but tighter editing might have kept it easier to read.

In conclusion, bring on book 2! :)



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Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this book. It's one of the most believable dystopias I've ever read. I had a feeling something like this really could happen in the future. I'm not sure if it's the premise or the writing, probably a combination of both. It also had the right amount of adventure and romance I love in young-adult fantasy/dystopia books.

The blurb, while accurate, is a bit too technical and confusing. If I hadn't seen great reviews for this book among my friends first, I may have passed the book up.

This book is set a few centuries in the future where the atmospehere is polluted with a dangerous substance called Aether. In this world there are two types of people - highly technologically advanced Dwellers who live in mostly underground pods. These people, who wear a device over their left eye, spend their lives in virtual realities called Realms. Their lives are touch-free, risk-free. The other group of people are Outsiders, who live in tribes and struggle to survive in the devasted world outside the pods where food and shelter is scarce.

In this world we meet our two heroes - Aria, a Dweller, who is thrown out of her home for a crime she did not commit and Perry, an Outsider whose brother is the Blood Lord of hos tribe and his nephew is fatally ill.

The worlds collide in the story when Perry and Aria, despite being disgusted by each other at first, form an alliance to help each other with their problems - finding Aria's mother and Perry's nephew. Of course, there's romance later on, but it's well-developed and does not overshadow the main story.

In the story two POVs keep swapping, Aria's and Perry's. It works here perfectly, not as a convient look into the head of both heroes. Their different world view comes out immediatelly and it's interesting to see the world from both POVs of a Dweller and an Outsider.



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