Tuesday 3 May 2016

True Born by L.E. Sterling - Book Review

True Born
By:  L.E. Sterling
Published:  May 3, 2016 Entangled:Teen
Genre:  Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy
Pages:  304 Hardcover
Source: Purchase from Amazon $5.99
Welcome to Dominion City.
After the great Plague descended, the world population was decimated...and their genetics damaged beyond repair.

The Lasters wait hopelessly for their genes to self-destruct. The Splicers pay for expensive treatments that might prolong their life. The plague-resistant True Borns are as mysterious as they are feared…

And then there's Lucy Fox and her identical twin sister, Margot. After endless tests, no one wants to reveal what they are.

When Margot disappears, a desperate Lucy has no choice but to put her faith in the True Borns, led by the charismatic Nolan Storm and the beautiful but deadly Jared Price. As Lucy and the True Borns set out to rescue her sister, they stumble upon a vast conspiracy stretching from Dominion’s street preachers to shady Russian tycoons. But why target the Fox sisters? As they say in Dominion, it’s in the blood.

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True Born started as a Wattpad phenomenon, leading to publication with Entangled Teen, so I was curious to read this dystopian about a plague that separates humans into three camps, Splicers, Lasters, or True Borns. I charged through this in one day.

Lucy and sister Margot, privileged daughters of the Chief Diplomat of Nor-Am, are the focus of high interest for something unexpected found in their blood. By 18 everyone is supposed to know what category they fall in according to their blood and the girls’ 18th birthday is approaching. For much of the story we see that there’s something different about them though the truth is very long coming.

I liked how the connection between Lucy and Margot, once conjoined twins, is done, and the curious attraction between Lucy and Jared who is part of a crew assigned to protect her. He’s a shifter. Their relationship develops slowly which I thought was nice.

I also like the theme that humans as a whole are evolving beyond their historical limitations (“Evolve or Die”) unfortunately via the insult of a challenging plague that wipes out something like half of the population.

Some of the story seems a little uneven as if you can feel editing bits here and there and I felt some of the cutesy language feels out of place “…her hair smells like sunshine….”. Some parts of the story are written in a curious ‘now’; i.e. ‘…Jared describes his life in the big house…”
The novel is an unusual mix of Mission Impossible exciting action, with shape shifters dystopian elements and sci-fi genetics hacks. The end is a nice lead in to the next book without too much in the way of cliff-hanger blues.

This is easy, fast reading and I found myself wanting to see what was happening next. The story line is interesting and I liked the blood theory, though putting it together came out a bit mixed. Starting price at $5.99 is a little steep for this first pub; I’d wait until it comes down before trying but a good read for dystopian lovers. 4 Stars!

You will find author L.E. Sterling at these web links:

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