REVIEW: Clone Three (The Clone Chronicles Book 1) by Patti Larsen

  When I started reading this book, I was expecting something very different than this.  When I think of anything with the word "clone" in it, I immediately come to the conclusion of something more in the way of robotic than something so completely human, which is what you find in this book.  The world has been destroyed and completely back-peddled in this Lord of the Flies type book.  Kids are in charge of pretty much everything.  Why?  Because once you reach a certain age The Sick takes you and you either die or you come out trying to eat everything around you, sort of like a zombie.  But there are different types of  these man-eaters on the loose where Clone 3 finds herself.  Frankly, this is not a world I could ever even envision having to live in.  It's hard and the children are just accepting of the fact because it is all that they know.  They beat and kill each other mercilessly and live in groups like gangs with a leader.
   Clone 3 has some sort of strange mission and she remembers nothing about how she ended up where she did or what the mission is beyond some glimpses in her memories that she keeps getting sporadically.  The world she remembers is far different than this one.  What she does know is that she needs to find the other two clones out there.  Her journey is a difficult and dangerous one.  Kids want to use her for her strange abilities and most are not nice at all, which she finds out the hard way more than once.  But she does find some friends along the way and in this book her journey is just beginning.

I would give this one a 5 out of 5 stars!!


Blurb:

She must risk everything. She must remember. She must survive.

Clone Three wakes in a decaying city she is sure doesn't match the one she came from. If only she could remember. She has a purpose at least--she must find her fellow clones and the statue whose image is embedded in her mind. But she is lost, surrounded by a dead and crumbling metropolis, fought over by the survivors of an illness that has ravaged humankind.

She must risk everything, including the safety of those who try to help her, in order to fulfill her task.

But is she this crumbling world's salvation... or the source of its downfall?


Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Clone-Three-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B0096SJLAM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1436890016&sr=8-3&keywords=patti+larsen

SNEAK PEEK: Beggar Magic by H.L. Burke (being released in December!)

   Young Leilani Weaver loves the woods.  She goes out there often to play among the trees as the Strains sing to her.  She loves listening to them.  They are a part of every day life in Gelia.  Leilani couldn't imagine having to live without them.  The Strains are kind of like magic.  They can be used to help make bread and start fires, small things like that among the Common people like Leilani.  Her mother taught her never to take them for granted and never use them for things you could easily do yourself.  And you must never use them for evil because the Strains could leave you forever.
   When Leilani meets a Highmost girl about her age named Zebedy, she starts to see how they use the Strains for just about everything, but then again the Highmost are gifted with more magic than the Common people are.  Zebedy has lived a very different life than Leilani.  Zeb has lots of books.  Her family only had two and they were very important.  They weren't just novels to read for pleasure.  The two girls friendship grows and eventually Leilani becomes Zeb's aide.  She figures out though that being in the research manor changes things between she and Zeb.  She is treated more like an aide and her friend gets much more aggravated at Leilani than she ever did before.  And Leilani is suspicious of Zeb's mentor, Brash.  She thinks he is not to be trusted, but Zeb cannot be convinced.  When dead spots start showing up in the manor, the girls want to get to the bottom of it.  Brash won't allow them to, but Leilani is headstrong and doesn't trust him, so she starts investigating anyway.  What she uncovers will be hard for anyone to believe.  It will take everyone working together to stop the mad chain of events!

   Another fantastic book by H.L. Burke!  You can pre-order it right now on Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Beggar-Magic-H-Burke-ebook/dp/B00NYSOVLO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413220697&sr=8-1&keywords=beggar+magic

Balancing Act by Heather Smith (Review)

 Broken.  Broken dreams.  Broken bones.  Broken relationships.  That was all Callie had dealt with for the past year since she had her accident.  Gymnastics had been her life until one fateful night.  Then everything was ruined.  While attempting to try a new move on the vault, without correct supervision, she severely broke her ankle.  She would never compete again.  And that was why everything was broken, including her.  The ankle had healed, but it had a metal plate in it and it caused her a lot of pain when it rained.  After that night, it seemed like her dreams were gone.  Gymnastics and sports were her passion.  And then there was Ty.  Their relationship was over too after everything that occurred.  At the present she was dating Scott, normal and non-athletic Scott.  He was safe and although she loves him in a way, she keeps running into Ty, and it complicates things.  It brings up old feelings that she would rather keep hidden.  Ty challenges her in a way that Scott never will.  Scott doesn't understand her passion for sports like Ty.
   Callie ends up getting a job at the gym doing janitorial work, but it doesn't take long for her to see that the coach cares nothing about the girls and doesn't know her job that well.  This infuriates Callie, but what can she do besides giving the girls some tips to help them when the coach isn't paying attention or there?  These tips get her into an assistant coach position that she reluctantly agrees to.  Its then that it all comes back to her, how much she wanted to be out on that floor.  Now she wants to help these girls become as good as they can be.  But with this new job brings new problems between she and Scott, along with her feelings for Ty resurfacing.  It really is a balancing act that Callie is performing.

   I can really relate to this book because I was in gymnastics for a short time, but it always stuck with me.  I loved it and would have loved to continue, but my parents didn't enroll me anymore.  The sport, when you know just how much it takes to get where these girls are, is amazing!  It takes tons of time to practice and become strong enough to handle the moves that they do.  It is physically grueling and can take a real toll if you don't take care of yourself.  But the book itself was a great read!  Seeing Callie try so hard to keep her feelings at bay was hard because we all know she still wants Ty.  But even Ty has his secrets that he hasn't shared with Callie.  And these secrets can cause a lot of damage.  Then there's Scott, who really cares for Callie, but doesn't understand her as much as he thinks.  He starts realizing that when she begins to work at the gym and hang out with Ty again.  To him this is a new side of her.  In reality it's just who she really is coming to the surface.  It is time for Callie to stop being the victim and become strong again.

*image via Heather Smith

Blog Tour- Balancing Act by Heather Smith

Balancing Act Blurb:

One year ago, Callie Harding was the star of the Redwood High gymnastics team. Now, she’s just trying to forget that her Olympic dreams were stolen from her in one failed landing. Most of all, she wants to forget her first love, Ty. That part of her life is over and she’s sure she has got something good with Scott… even if he doesn’t exactly understand her passion for sports.

But when Callie is persuaded to take on the position of assistant coach of the gymnastics team, Ty and Callie are thrown together almost nightly, and she’s forced to confront her memories of the night everything changed. As things get tense on and off the balancing beam, Callie must find a way to stay strong. But is forgetting her accident – and forgetting Ty – the best way to do that?


About the Author:

Heather Smith is a student of English and History at University of Washington in Seattle. She works as a senior editor at Entranced Publishing, with the Kissed and Entranced imprints. In her free time, Heather loves to ride horses and watch Disney movies. She would like to travel the world one day, and Europe would be her first stop.

Heather's first book "Balancing Act" will be published in 2014 by Entranced Publishing. You can find out more about Heather and what the future holds at the links below.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmithWriter
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Blog: http://startingonthewritepage.blogspo...