Book Birthday Review: Expiration Date by Mardine Perrins

4/5 Stars 281 pages
Published March 9th 2021 by Kat Biggie Press

A fantastic new twist on a futuristic dystopia, Expiration Date is set in a world that still looks very much like our own, but has long moved past it’s population and non-renewable resources problem, as well as the damage that we’ve caused to the planet. It’s moving in an upward direction and back on track to being a healthy world, and it has very slight tech upgrades, such as hover cars and holograms. That being said, it’s all thanks to something that changed the entire world as soon as they started showing up, expiration dates on every single human being born in the last century, telling the exact date when a person will die.

With expiration dates came mass hysteria, mostly because people didn’t know what they were at first. A blessing and a curse, knowing your exact death date can be a huge challenge. But somehow that scared people off from having an over abundance of children. No one knows where they came from or why, but it alone saved the planet from the kind of certain doom that we face in our own world, in real life. People mostly calmed down, and everything has been evolving since then. That being said, is it moral to know exactly when you and everyone around you will die? It won’t save you from genetic problems, and if you end up being sick, or having dementia, you’re still forced to live with those problems until you pass away.

This story follows two sisters, Elisa and Ashlei, and also a man named Claude, as they deep dive into why exactly there are expiration dates, and if there isn’t something disfunctional going on behind them. After  babies start being born with very short dates, I’m talking less than a week of being born, it really kicks into overdrive to really find out what’s going on. And what the three uncover is despicable, and like nothing they could have ever imagined.

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I had a good time reading this book. I thought the plot was very original, and even though the viewpoints of the characters bounced around quite a bit, I didn’t have any problems keeping up. I really enjoyed that we got to see a dystopia in the making, because I think that’s something we rarely get to read about in books like these. If the characters didn’t uncover what was going on, what would have happened to the world? I think it would have turned into one of those dystopias where everyone lives under a dome and people are so heavily regulated that they’re not able to really live. And I thought that was very unique and interesting. The characters were realistic, I had no problems believing that they were smart individuals that could exist outside of the book, and even though it’s not my new favourite, I did enjoy reading it. If you’re into scifi in a world like ours, I think you’ll really enjoy it too.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here.

And if you’d like to keep up with the author, you can here!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

The Sensation (Salvi Brentt #2) by Amanda Bridgeman Review

5/5 Stars 400 pages
Published October 13th 2020 by Angry Robot

Has it really been two years since the first book? I absolutely loved that one, and my opinion hasn’t changed about the series with this one. From the second I started it, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to put it down until it was finished, and that’s exactly what happened. I really had trouble reading other things while my phone was charging, and that’s exactly what I love about this series. It worms its way into your head, and once you’re in, you’re not getting back out. Kind of like the subject matter in this novel specifically.

Salvi Brentt is back, and even though she’s been put on a desk job for the time being, she’s sick of it, and all the therapy she’s been having to go through since the events of the last book. But that’s about to change, because her therapist is just clearing her to go back on the street, and start the job that she loves all over again. Only with a new partner. This time, however, it’s not about The Subjugates. It’s about people going missing, and occasionally, turning up with their bodies horrifically carved into. It’s about the club scene, and the drug scene. And most of all, it’s about control, and in some cases, the lack of control.

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At around four hundred pages, this solid novel never even gives you a chance to breathe once you’re in it. It’s a rollercoaster that just keeps going up. And then at the end, it finally goes down. Just not in the way you’d expect. It’s one of those that I’m just hoping and praying I’m not going to have to wait another two years for the next one. I love Salvi so much, she’s so strong and she has such a rich backstory that we’re just beginning to learn about. She’s everything you could ever want to be in a person, and she knows it. And I just think she’s the perfect character to tell stories like these.

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The thing that I love the most about these books, is how much it reminds me of one of those crime scene investigation shows, not only in the way the events are laid out in front of you, but also in the way that the characters interact with it, and each other. I really feel like I’m watching a tv show when I’m reading these books, and I think that’s a very hard thing to do. I can’t get enough. And I love the little scifi twist that’s put in. The author writes an intricate web, until you have no way of knowing where to look, who’s to blame, and can’t possibly guess what’s going to happen next, and then it’s all destroyed in the last ten percent of the book, and you’re left thinking, how did all of that happen so fast and I didn’t get lost? And what’s going to happen next?

If you’re into scifi, and you’re into mysterious detective books, than I highly suggest you give this series a chance. At only two books, I have a feeling that this is just the beginning, and I’m really stoked to see what Salvi gets herself into next time, while she’s just trying to make the world around her act right, and save lives.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here through my Amazon Associates link!

And if you’d like to keep up with the author, you can on Twitter here!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing great.

The Pairings by Ramona Finn Review

Though I have a lot of books by author Ramona Finn, I’ve never actually followed through with reading any of them, until this one. Coming into the author’s work with a completely fresh mind, having just finished a comic book and before that, a non fiction cookbook, I was excited to get back into a topic that I just love, which is a good dystopia.

4/5 Stars 325 pages
Published November 3rd 2019

This one, however, is a little different than the other’s that I’ve read about. Not as completely technology driven, this world is one where you trust the government because you have to. They are, after all, saving you from virus zero with many, and trust me when I say many, vaccinations. I’m talking daily injections.

 

The story is following a girl named Lora in first person, a high school girl who lives with her single dad. Not always easy, but what she has to do. All her life they’ve been working towards her pairing, an event that every 18 year old goes through where they’re basically graded for their immune system, and shoved into an arranged marriage. That is, until she actually is paired off. Suddenly, her father has a change of heart, and Lora thinks that’s unfair. Because she’s going to be successful in her level one pairing, now her dad wants her to reject it and stay home with him? She’s not going to have any of that.

 

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So she continues on with her pairing, and her new life as a level one. Fancy dinners, nice clothes, the works. That is, until she realizes that something’s up. Her paired partner has crippling headaches, and his mother is an absolute nightmare when it comes to his twin brother. Turns out, one of the twins has been subject to mind control through purposeful memory loss, and the other is a rebel. And I’m not talking a teenage rebel, though he is a teen. I’m talking full out plots against the overbearing government kind of rebel.

 

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Lora’s faced with a decision. Melt into her new life, or rebel with the other twin, and find out what really happened to her mother. Not that she’s able to really choose between those, this book was an exciting adventure and one I look forward to reading more about. Though the whole New California thing reminded me of Fallout New Vegas more than anything, I was able to move past that and really enjoy reading this book. Lora is a strong female lead, and the world she lives in, although in the future, isn’t really that hard to imagine, and isn’t really that different from our own world, aside from the security and memory loss technology. I’d say definitely check this book out if you’re looking for an action packed story, and a new author to read!

 

Here’s a link to the book if you’d like to grab a copy.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts below.

Hope you have a good day!

Get “Sentinel” (The Sentinel Trilogy #1) by Jamie Foley on Sale Now!

I just love my cat so much you guys

 

Anyways, here’s the next cheap book I’ve found and need to get.

“Sentinel”, has a very interesting cover to me. It just screams the genre that it’s in, young adult dystopian/futuristic fiction, which is just what I love. You know the drill. This is another book I can’t wait to check out.

Originally published in 2013 but re-released in 2016, the description claims that: “The meteor storm wasn’t such a big deal until a comet landed in the middle of the road. Now Darien’s car is wrecked, his sister is bleeding out, and the only medical aid is at the reclusive Serran Academy.

“Some say the Serrans have blood-bonds with angels. Some say they have surreal mental abilities. Some say the gods grant them elemental powers.

“But when the Academy is targeted for harvesting, its secrets—and the collapse of modern civilization—are the least of Darien’s worries.”

 

This book holds a solid 4.1 stars across 49 reviews on Goodreads, and that just makes in even more intriguing. Have any of you read it yet? Do you find it as interesting as me? Let me know in the comments!

 

If you’re interested in the book, it’s available here for $3.91.

Here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with them.

 

Thanks for reading!

Babylon Twins by MF Gibson Review

Babylon Twins is a hilariously strange book following a set of twins named El and Clo, who have lived in the forest of an apocalyptic future earth for the past ten years, with their mother and little brother. The story is told through the views of both twins at the same time. El and Clo also have their own secret twin language that they speak throughout most of the story.

 

I have to say, that the cover and description of the book really doesn’t tell you too much about what’s really inside of it. Though the book is really, and I don’t say this lightly, weird, it’s so weird that it just makes me kind of love it. The twins go through their daily life until one day their mother just leaves, leaving them alone without really telling them why. This drives them to try to survive in the forest themselves, until things other than robots begin attacking them. This is when they leave the forest and venture out into the cities around them.

 

This launches the characters into an adventure that almost reminds me of a fever dream, now that I’ve finished it I keep thinking about it like, did that really happen? Full of robots and tentacle monsters and crazy people in general, this book isn’t something I’ll forget about anytime soon. It’s hilarious and kind of cute, and super descriptive in all the right ways. Before the end of the world, the twins were eight years old and fighting kids at school. Now, as eighteen year olds, they have to figure out their live all alone, as almost insane things happen around them, and they’re just trying to figure out what kind of women they need to be.

 

The book is available here.

Thanks for reading!

Free Science Fiction Book

Scrolling my inbox tonight, I saw there was an interesting looking book offered on amazon from the Discover Sci-fi Weekly newsletter, for free! So of course I grabbed a copy. The book has a really interesting cover, and that’s what caught my eye first.

I hopped on goodreads to read the synopsis there, and it claimed that it’s 3.76 stars on average, and although the reviews are mixed, I’m excited to check it out. After all, the hook is simply “In the year 2432, humans think they are alone in the universe. They’re wrong.” 

If this is something you want to check out, or even just if you want something to read, it’s free for a limited time worldwide, so you can get it here and see if you like it! I’m sure you’ll see my review on it pop up sometime in the future!

Thanks for reading! I like posting these, let me know what you think of them!

 

 

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin Review

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin 5/5 Stars 492 Pages Published March 19th 2019 by Ink Monster, LLC

Though Goodreads tells me I’ve read the second book in the author’s other series, Becoming Alpha, I don’t remember it and so I’m going to count this as the first book I’ve read by the author. Very different from her usual books, Off Planet follows a girl named Maite as she goes through life a halfer, half alien race called Aunare, a humanoid species that glows when feeling any exaggerated emotions, and has intricate glyph tattoos all over their bodies. This is one book I can’t wait to get a copy of for my bookshelf, and can see myself reading it again, I just love it so much. Now I know that I need to really check out other books by the author.

 

The story begins with Maite teaching a martial arts class, after all, she’s a girl who knows how to survive, and reminds me a little of a doomsday prepper. That being said, it’s only fair that she be prepared with the kind of world she lives in. She never forgets to tell her class that the macho company SpaceTech won’t ever save them, and doesn’t care about them, because it’s important for everyone to know what she does. Her best friend, Roan, is her teacher’s assistant, and works hard daily to make sure that no one finds out what she really is.

 

After getting an implant, something every human has, she comes to the conclusion that she’ll never be able to truly blend in, because her alien side is stronger than her human side, and the implant drives her insane. She’s been living on Earth since she was a kid, but it’s getting harder and harder to hide her true self as the years go by, and now as a nineteen year old, she must have the implant or SpaceTech will kill her. After all, everything wrong with the world is blamed on aliens.

 

When she gets home however, there’s someone waiting for her. The interplanetary police force shows up, and when she tries to escape and go to work for the night, a man sexually assults her before he arrests her. She manages to take off and call Roan for help, but it’s too late, as she’s not only caught, but sentenced and imprisoned. This leads her to an off planet work camp, and after a traumatic time in cryo, she realizes that the judge and people higher up in SpaceTech really have it out for her, when she’s assigned to a cooling job designed for bots on the surface of a planet dubbed Hell.

 

Overall, I think this might be one of my new favourite books, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the series. I loved how the characters acted around each other, and they really stayed true to who they are, even in impossibly tough times and conditions. I really enjoyed imagining what the aliens really look like, and hope to see more of what they are and where they’re from in the future. I recommend checking out this book if you love books like Death of Clone, which also takes place on a place called Hell. My favourite character, without a doubt, being Maite.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with her.

Thanks for reading!

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling Review

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling 4/5 Stars 352 pages
Published April 2nd 2019 by Harper Voyager

With a beautiful and mysterious cover, The Luminous Dead pulled me in with comparisons to The Martian, and Annihilation, both books I loved. Inside the cover is a story that jumps right into the action with Gyre in third person, wiggling through a crevice. I had no idea what I was stepping into, and this is another book that once I started, I didn’t want to put down until I was finished.

 

Gyre had assumed that there would be a team with her on this expedition, and that she would enter through a mining camp before going underground. Both assumptions were wrong. Basically alone except for one voice through a com that barely talks to her at first, her suit is her new skin, she won’t even be able to take it off to sleep for the time that she plans to be underground, over a month. She notices something strange, however, and that is that someone’s been in the cave, had access to the old camps inside and recently. At first she spends her time carrying equipment down from the surface to the first camp, but that’s when the mystery begins to form around her.

 

Later she falls while surveying an area, and the voice inside her com, Em, is unexpectedly angry. However, she finds a body at the bottom, and that was something she wasn’t expecting. The body wears a suit just like hers, and when she tells Em that she’s done with the expedition, Em remotely locks her suit and forces her to stay in one spot until she agrees to keep going. That’s when she learns that there have been thirty-five expeditions before hers, and out of the thirty-five, only eight have came out of it alive. This is the beginning of the longest journey of her life.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, and the only thing I have to say that I didn’t like about it, is that if I didn’t read the description, I would never have known that she lied her way onto the project. It jumped straight into the action, and although the description was interesting, I feel like I did miss a part of the book because of it. Everything else, I loved. I do think that the comparisons made are true, this book reminds me of the tunnel/tower in Annihilation, and how alone Gyre was reminds me of how alone Astronaut Mark Watney was in The Martian. If you’re into those two books, I would say go ahead and check this one out.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with them.

Thanks for reading!

Crowded, Vol. 1 by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, & Ted Brandt Review

Crowded, Vol. 1 by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, & Ted Brandt 5/5 Stars 160 pages
Publishing date: March 26th 2019 by Image Comics 

“Crowded” is another graphic novel with a girl who has hair like me, and I’ll never get tired of seeing it. Charlie is known better as “The Million Dollar Girl”, and then later as “The Two Million Dollar Girl”. One of the highest ranking paid assassinations on the app Reapr, which allows people to crowdfund enough money in the hopes that someone will kill her for that money. In the first issue, we see her meeting up with Vita, a female body guard, in a restaurant.

 

Vita’s kind of an uptight type, who goes to bed early, and only works when she feels like she’s prepared. She says that she didn’t say she could sit with her at the table, but Charlie tells her that she’s paying her, and that she should relax. If that doesn’t set the tone of their entire relationship throughout the book, I don’t know what does. Moments later, a man pulls out a gun in attempt to shoot Charlie, but Vita shoots him without even pausing. Charlie tells Vita why they’re there.

 

It started out like any other normal day, Charlie, working her many jobs through apps and just doing her thing. She likes to rent out things she owns for money, like her car and her clothes, but she also does other things for money, like walking dogs and babysitting, and even tutoring calculus. My favourite though, is when an old man books her to hang out and feed the pigeons with him. Who wouldn’t want that job? She hooks up with strangers and sneaks out before they wake up, but that day everything changed. Someone started shooting at her from across the street. And they’re only in it for the money.

 

This book is one that’s exciting from the first few pages. I really enjoyed the colourful art and the story itself, it’s not like anything I’ve read lately. My favourite character of course is Charlie, but also Vita, because they’re so different from each other that really work well together. Of course, how could I not like the girl with hair like me? The story is full of gunfights, explosions, and Vita chasing after Charlie. She often wonders if she wants to get killed, but I think that Charlie just wants to live her life while she still can, especially when there’s a hit taken out on her. I also really liked the different art styles in the variant covers, and between issues. I really liked reading this, and I’m glad I got the chance to check it out. If you think it’s something you would like, I definitely recommend you check it out too.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the creator’s Twitter accounts, if you’d like to keep up with them.

https://twitter.com/xtop

https://twitter.com/RosyTintedSpecs?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ten_bandits?lang=en

Thanks for reading!

Umbra: Dimension Drift Prequels #2 (Dimension Drift 0.2) by Christina Bauer Review

Umbra: Dimension Drift Prequels #2 (Dimension Drift 0.2) by Christina Bauer 4/5 Stars 150 pages
Published March 26th 2019 by Monster House Books

Have you read Scythe and fallen in love with the characters like the rest of us? Then I’m sure you’re ready for the next prequel installment, Umbra. Told first person from Thorne’s point of view, we really dig deep into his backstory, and get to know him and his alien race a little better. I couldn’t wait to check this book out, and I’m glad I got the chance to.

 

With a really interesting looking cover, this mostly alien book is filled with talk of other dimensions, including what it’s like to be the Prince of an alien race. This book begins nine minutes before a version of earth different from the one that Meimi is on in the first book could be torn apart. Thorne’s job, is to find the schism that’s causing the problem.

 

The Umbran people are very similar to humans, with two big differences. Their ability to turn blue, and the tiny cybernetic organisms that make up their very being. A short but interesting read, I’m excited to see what comes in the first official novel of the series, and intrigued to learn more about not only the Umbran characters, but the Human characters as well. I definitely recommend checking out this book if you’re looking for something exciting and different in the realm of young adult fiction, that includes aliens and alternate dimensions.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with her.

Thanks for reading!