Once by Anna Carey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been unable to truly invest in this YA Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic series, so I won't continue on and read book 3. I kept reading after book one, because I thought the premise showed a lot of promise. Unfortunately, I had to force myself forward with book two. It's not because there's something wrong with the story, so much as that I can't seem to forge any real interest or emotional connection with the story.

It's not bad, but it's not captivating. I don't want to live inside the world, and there isn't a single character I would be interested in meeting or befriending. In fact, the characters who seem to have the most potential to be fascinating seem to play the smallest roles in the story. I don't dislike the characters. I'm just completely indifferent, which is always a bad sign.

I was hoping book two would find the depth of intrigue and emotion that book one lacked, but it didn't for me. I will confess I could be partly to blame for reading this series when I wasn't in a great frame of mind for reading, but if it had been the right book for me, it would have sucked me in and blocked out everything in the real world that was weighing on me.

Pages: 384

Eve by Anna Carey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was probably a 3.5 for me. It gets the extra 0.5 for being post-apocalyptic and dystopian, which typically appeals to me. I didn't realize that was what kind of story it was when I picked it up. I read it purely based off someone else's recommendation, with no background on the story.

Basically, the majority of the world succumbed to a plague, and Eve grew up in an all girls boarding school that informed her about how good the king was. It turns out he isn't, and Eve escapes into the wilderness to try to avoid a terrible fate.

It gets less than my typically enthusiastic 4 and 5 star ratings, because I was never fully drawn in by this story. I found one of the side characters to be far more interesting and believable than the main character, enough so that I almost wished the series had been about her, instead. I think it would have been far more interesting.

I was also a bit bored with what felt like insta-love, but it could just be that I wasn't a very attentive reader of this book. It's possible all the chaos in my life and mind distracted me from ever really settling in to the story. However, the concept itself is fascinating, and I wonder if the story has potential going forward, which is why I declare it a 3.5 and might continue on with the series, when typically, I wouldn't continue on for any book rated lower than a 4.

YA Post-Apocalyptic/ Dystopian
Pages: 352