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Merrie Destefano

Autor(a) de Afterlife

21+ Works 344 Membros 27 Críticas

About the Author

Séries

Obras por Merrie Destefano

Afterlife (2010) 148 exemplares
Feast: Harvest of Dreams (2011) 62 exemplares
Lost Girls (2017) 37 exemplares
Valiant (2018) 19 exemplares
Fathom (2012) 13 exemplares
Shade (2018) 11 exemplares
The Plague Carrier (2012) 6 exemplares
Secret Santa (2021) — Autor — 5 exemplares
Dawn (2018) 5 exemplares
Dusk (2018) 5 exemplares
Waiting For Midnight (2012) 4 exemplares
Fairytale Christmas (2017) 3 exemplares
Cursed (2011) 1 exemplar

Associated Works

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA

Membros

Críticas

Full Review on my blog!
3.5 - 4 Stars
*a copy was provided by NetGalley*

Sci-fi, aliens, time travel, and futuristic things. Yes, YES, and YEsss. All things I love. But this, I liked it just enough, that it fell short of great.

Valiant is different and unique in its own way. A very quick, action packed, fast paced read. It definitely will grip you from the start. I'm excited for when it actually does come out.

Although the beginning of this book felt VERY rushed. A LOT happens in the first few pages that as a result, there is very little context given for the characters and the state of the world. But as the story progresses we do get a bit more of this.

Some times it was difficult to keep up with, there's just so much going on. I love the story, just wish it was told a little differently, I don't know why but it feels like the story is being told in such a way that everything is scattered, and you have to pick up the pieces and just make sense of it on your own terms. I mean between the alien invasion, time travel, portals, military conspiracies, romance, etc. I feel like the story could have been richer if there had been fewer of these elements.

Honestly, I just wish there was more explanations, descriptions, development, and maybe a bit more world building. But it's literally, Action, Action, Action. Hardly any character development.

Also, in a way, it reminded me of Venom , with the whole 'aliens on earth' or 'aliens trying to invade earth' thing, and this quote from the beginning of the book is a pretty good description of what I mean.

"A Xua can leave a host’s body and possess another person if it wants, but humans weren't built to withstand it. Our insides get ripped to shreds. Sometimes you can even see the claw marks on the body, torn apart from the inside out. Sometimes it’s a full-body explosion."


Mhmm, similar in ways but, different.

The bit of 'romance', I wouldn't even call it that, it was literally Justin & Sara having known each other in school for however long. There was no real build up, just Sara saying 'I love you' to him, when she thought he was dead/dying or whatever.

“You have to stay alive, Justin,” I whisper. “No matter what. I love you.”

AND THEN THE NEXT DAY.
He cups my face in his huge hands. “I heard what you said last night,” he whispers, so softly no one else can hear him. “I love you, too.”

Their relationship did develop a bit but, in an unnaturally fast way, imo.
“I was worried I would lose you, too,” he confesses as he lifts his head. He cups my face in his right hand. “The Xua took your brother, but he might not be dead, Sara. You said those doorways go to different timelines, right? Maybe he’s with Aerithin. Or maybe Aerithin will still come back—”


Also, the 'skin site' thing was a bit confusing. It seems like it's some kind of identification thing/something phone-like where you can call people? listen to music? listen/watch the news? -some kind of 'new' fascinating technology that everyone is crazy about; like when a new version of the IPhone comes out. Or something like that, not 100% sure, unless I'm missing something? - so I went back to my kindle and literally searched 'Skin Site' and it's mentioned A LOT, I'm realizing now, it was described a bit, but still really 'confusingly interesting'. I'm not going to give too much more away, though.

I feel like I'm just rambling on now....

I'm really hoping there will be a sequel, because I like where this story is going. I feel like if the story and universe was expanded on, it could be the next big sc-fi series/book. BUT only if universe was expanded on, like back story on the aliens, Justin, or any the other characters.
If you enjoy action-packed YA science fiction, then I highly recommend it!

NOTE: All quotes taken from this uncorrected copy are subjected to change in the final edition.

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… (mais)
 
Assinalado
AnaCarter | 2 outras críticas | Feb 14, 2023 |
This is a short & sweet book with some good tips and reminders. Some the quotes in the book will be great as touchstones to remind me of things I have learned.
 
Assinalado
ca.bookwyrm | Jul 1, 2021 |
*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

We start with the banishing of the faery from Ireland by the Milesian. Then see through Eire's eyes and mind that the fair folk are dividing, and she's losing standing with her people. But, Eire will find another life years from now.

Sally has a slight accent that fits the tone and place of the story. It's not strong, but slight so to feel the story setting. The nice thing here is there are lyrics of songs for Eire to sing, and Sally does sing them. It's lovely to hear. I'm starting to think my iPod is acting up, but it sounds okay for other stories. At times it sounded as Sally was in a bucket and not near the microphone. Then the next chapter it's back to normal. There were a few small moments of mouth noise, closing or opening lips. There are moments that Sally sounded a different feel to her words than what felt to flow with words afterward or in the moment I would have thought would have fit. But these last two items were limited in listening. The lilt she uses to tell the story feels true to the characters and a lovely addition to the story.

This is a tale of the battle the faery folk have to fight, how it started. Not only do they have an enemy that comes to take their beloved land, but as they travel to exile their people start to divide between the queen who's lost her husband in battle and the man who's stepped up to control the army.

People, immortal and mortal, are not perfect but in terrible times what one experiences steers them to what they will do. Their actions then starts to drive who they are. We start to see this with the faery folk.

Eire is the Queen of Faery in Ireland, and who the story is focused on. When the faery are exiled and the betrayal of one of her own, it brings her to another life she'll live. Yet Eire still has some strong allies and carries a love for her people as she's on the run for her life and her twin boys.

I very much enjoyed the Celtic and faery feel to the story along with events that take place. It feels as the old stories were used to create this story and the world we find them in.

This is a short story but each chapter moves forward for Eire and tells how she comes to where she is in the end. And how she finds love. This story is not a light read. It's deeper with Eire's story and the events that come to pass. Each event important to move the story quickly along. There is also a dark blood magic that is present in the story as well.

The story does bring us to Christmas time, making it a very nice creation for a Christmas story. There's a blend of Christmas brought to an Irish Faery.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
MelHay | Jan 20, 2019 |
Disclaimer: I was provided an e-galley copy of this book from the publisher Entangled Teen via Netgalley. In no way has the author or the publisher influenced my review. All opinions good or bad are my own.

This book was not bad, but nothing amazing either. The problem for me is that a science fiction book has to be truly outstanding for me to love it because it isn’t a genre that I tend to read too often. It isn’t too often that you see aliens and time travel in the same book though, so that really intrigued me.

Sara got on my nerves quite a bit throughout the book. I didn’t love her as the main character, and because of that I felt like I couldn’t really connect to the story. I felt like all of the characters were pretty shallow actually. Like you didn’t really get to know the depth of them which kept me from really connecting with them. I was interested in them and how they fared but in the end I was more interested in the plot.

****** SPOILERS AEHEAD ******

Natalie seemed a little unrealistic. She’s this amazing hacker, smart, and a deadly killer? I know that Sara needed a friend like this, but it just made her character seem a little too good to be true. I knew that the Xua would have a mole amongst her friends and I had my suspicions that it was Natalie. I was surprised to find out that it was actually Billy instead though. Surprised, but it made sense. It made me feel bad for Natalie though.

I don’t why the resistance on earth wasn’t really helping Sara or her team. Why do they keep turning their back on her and escaping? Why do they see her as such a threat? Isn’t she supposed to save the Earth, and that is their goal? But how is she supposed to do that on her own?

Aerithin is an interesting character that I really want to learn more about. Sara describes him as having a regal manner and I want to know if he is a member of the Xua royal family that didn’t agree with going to war and started the rebellion. I understand that he needs things to go along a certain timeline so it doesn’t deviate but why can’t he or his rebels give her more information? It is frustrating and I want to know more. I need answers!

I don’t think Justin is fully possessed, I think his Genetic abilities may save him in the end. At least that’s what I hope because his character is the sweetest of them all and the one I like the most. The romance between Justin and Sara was pretty cute so I hope that everything turns out ok in the end.

Something was always happening, but I felt like the story never really progressed that far. It was kind of confusing that we started off in the future and had to learn about this new Earth and what is happening then and then deal with the alien apocalypse on top of it. Normally I can usually pick up quite quick and move on with the story but this one took a bit of time. I sometimes had to think and ponder about something that was mentioned in this world, even commonplace things because they don’t exist in our reality and I needed to understand how it influences that world and their choices.

It is kind of an interesting loop. What I think has happened is that the people on the Valiant are going to that planet to mine, right? I think they will get there and the Xua live on that planet but those on the Valiant start a war and decimate them. But because the Xua have time travel technology that decide to make a preemptive strike and take out humans first. I’m looking forward to seeing if that theory is true.

I was hoping we would get more answers in this book on why this brother/sister duo are so important to save Earth but I guess that will come in the next book. I’m interested to find out more about Noah as well. While I didn’t fall in love with the first book I have high hopes for the sequel and where we go from here!

Overall this book was a quick and easy read that will tickle your fancy if you love aliens and tons of action. I am intrigued enough in the story that I will continue on with the sequel when it comes out. I have too many questions and I am looking forward to finding out the answers!
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
allthingschristine | 2 outras críticas | Dec 4, 2018 |

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Associated Authors

Estatísticas

Obras
21
Also by
1
Membros
344
Popularidade
#69,365
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Críticas
27
ISBN
20

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