Category Archives: New Adult 18up

Review: Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee

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zeroboxerZeroboxer
Fonda Lee
Flux

Seventeen year-old Carr Luka is rocketing his way to the top of a hot new sport. Zeroboxing takes place in an enclosed arena, the Cube. Opponents face off in hand-to-hand combat in zero gravity. Winning fights is the only thing that will save Carr from being sent back to earth to work clubs as a low-rent fighter, scraping through the muck of poverty. When an opportunity to become an elite Zeroboxer, a poster child for the sport complete with endorsements and his own marketing team, Carr seizes the opportunity with both fists. His exotic Martian marketing manager steals his breath and then his heart. Just as his dreams of stardom and a glorious future seem to be within his grasp, a stranger corners Carr with a devastating secret, one that will shatter every one of his dreams and ban him from the only life he’s known. Carr must choose to bury his secret or forsake his dreams.

Honestly, I was a little nervous about reading this book. Its sci-fi elements intrigued me, but I’m not a big fan of boxing as a sport, so I wasn’t sure if the terminology would be confusing or the topic uninteresting. Plus, boxing in space? How does that work?

However – Lee totally delivers. It’s like Ender’s Game style training matches meets boxing. I loved it. Lee’s clear writing paints great visuals of the boxing matches and really drives up the intensity of those scenes.

In addition, there’s a complex story world in which Mars has been colonized and is now occupied by humans who are genetically altered for life on the red planet. Generations after the colonization, deep animosity exists between Martians and Terrans (people from Earth.) Which really seems so true to human fallibility: both groups came from the same people, but now their differences divide them. Really fascinating stuff.

Lee also explores the morality of gene therapy and genetic manipulation. We’ve seen this where it comes to clones and soldiers, but how cool to bring these issues to the sports arena. If someone is genetically enhanced, does that offer an unfair advantage in sports competition, the way that the use of steroids does? Great theme.

All-around, this was a deeply thought-out, well-executed story. Though Carr is seventeen at the start of the novel, to me it reads more like new adult than young adult literature because of the issues Carr faces. He’s a career man, not a student, living independently and making all adult choices. High school aged readers would probably still enjoy the story.

Language Content
Extreme profanity, infrequent use.

Sexual Content
Kissing and brief references to sex – commenting on past experiences and brief description of present sexual situations.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Carr fights several other zeroboxers during the course of the story and KO’s one very rude civilian. Descriptions of the fights are not super gory – you definitely know what’s happening, but there’s not a lot of glorification of the injuries or pain or anything like that.

Drug Content
Carr attends some pretty wild after-parties following victorious fights. Usually he doesn’t drink alcohol and avoids a lot of the crazy stuff, so there’s not much description there. He does lose it and get drunk alone one night, but regrets it later.

Review: It’s Addicting by Laura L. Smith

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It’s Addicting
Laura L. Smith
Status Updates
Published April 23, 2014

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Palmer, Hannah, Claire and Kat begin the spring semester ready for any challenge. Kinda. Palmer wants to be among the elite writers of the university magazine, but she can’t seem to break into the group. That is, without a glass of Moscato in her hand. After years of being the supportive best friend to the girl who could have any guy, Hannah finally has a boyfriend of her own. When a chance to see Germany with her guy arises, Hannah really wants to go, even if it means missing the spring break beach trip with her roomies. Surely Palmer, of all people, will understand?

Claire and Kat almost have their own secret code. After the trauma Claire endured in France and Kat’s unexpected loss, they seem to sense the things that trigger the other’s grief. Counseling has helped Claire make progress toward healing, but when her mom flakes out and forgets to pay for, well, everything, Claire is stuck. Trying to break through her mom’s hyper haze isn’t working and though Palmer offers to pay for everything, Claire doesn’t want to be a charity project.

Running is the only salve to Kat’s wounds. Everything seems to remind her of her brother, but he’s gone. With pressure to perform on the soccer team building around her, Kat’s only escape is to work out until she’s too tired to feel anything. More and more, though, she finds herself alienated from those she loves most.

Smith really captures the beat of college living and the relationships between the girls and other students on campus. Hannah’s first-boyfriend experience will resonate with many as will her battle for balance in her relationships with her new love and her old friends. Palmer’s personal drive and her vulnerability to alcohol are well-explored without glorifying what she’s doing. Consequences follow her choices to drink.

Claire’s story offers a whole different perspective. As the functional one in her relationship with her mother, Claire struggles to maintain a healthy distance from her mother’s unhealthy behavior, something she’s never managed to do in the past. Her friends rally around her as a supportive community and a great message of hope.

Smith has been hailed as a brave voice, telling it like it is, and fearlessly digging through some of early adulthood’s tough issues. In the third novel in her Status Updates series, she lives up to that reputation, peeling back layers of denial and revealing hurting hearts and soothing them with the balm of hope in God.

Profanity and Crude Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief references to making out. A boy spends the night in one of the girls’ rooms, though she insists they simply fell asleep talking.

Spiritual Content
Through their experiences with addictive behaviors, the girls realize they need more than personal strength and determination to achieve their goals, whether social or academic. They realize their needs for mutual support they receive from one another and, even more, spiritual support from faith and relationship with God.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Palmer uses wine to loosen up socially. Her friends notice what she does not: that more and more she turns to alcohol to relax and connect with others, and it’s getting out of hand. Claire battles her mother’s neglect from a distance, worrying when her mother’s behavior indicates she may be using (or overusing) some sort of pharmaceutical stimulants.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Primetime Charity Anthology by Curiosity Quills Authors

Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, New Adult 18up, Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Primetime
Curiosity Quills
Published October 7, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A crow with a taste for blood, a computer playing a deadly game, a terrifying Mothman, and a killer refrigerator, among many other bizarre and frightening villains feature in these dark, suspenseful short stories. An unlikely team of heroes includes a zombie and son of a witch. On a devastated planet, a young princess fights for her life, seeking hope for her people. A man whose bodily functions elicit a broad range of powerful emotions begs for death before his anger-inciting burps cause the world to destroy itself. A struggling “ghost-relocation expert” makes a deal with a murder victim only to discover he’s made a deal with something else entirely.

Some of the stories are simple suspenseful fun, while others flirt with a deeper darkness, exploring the minds of murderers and sexual predators. A few feature characters from full-length novels, no doubt hoping to pique the reader’s interest. Most compelling in this vein is the story of the Beggar Princess and her desperate resistance against powerful enemies who would destroy her people and home by titled “The Last Carnivale” by Vicki Keire. “Trevor,” the story of a bored spaceship computer who wreaks havoc on its crew was another highly enjoyable tale, though a little dark.

It should also be noted that 10% of the proceeds from this collection and its sister collection titled After Dark, will be donated to selected No-Kill shelters across the USA.

Language Content
Severe; moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
In one story a man briefly confesses to abuse committed on him by his mother. He makes love to a woman he has just met. The scene is brief and includes some sensual descriptions. A woman discusses falling in love with and sharing an intimate relationship with another young woman. In another story, a terminally ill prostitute recounts his life, beginning with abuse at the hands of a church leader. Details are brief. Other stories reference sex or characters off-scene who are having sex, but do not describe the events in detail.

Spiritual Content
In one story a group of unlikely heroes must recover a stolen religious symbol which contains power of both Heaven and Hell before forces of either side can get their hands on it. A demon and angel emerge as characters but without the context of much Christian doctrine, and neither side is seen as good. Another story features characters who sense ghosts and ghostly presences. In still another story the protagonist finds himself surrounded by friends and acquaintances who’ve departed before him. He wonders, as the crowd contains those who’ve helped and who’ve hurt him, whether he is in Heaven or Hell.

Violence
Several stories feature fierce attacks against protagonists, though most are brief with regard to details and only some are deadly. One story features a computer as its mass killer. Two stories reveal the identities of serial killers and describes the death of the latest victims. In one story, the victims are mutilated (details are brief, and bodies are discovered by police, so there is no little description of what happened to the victims at the hands of the killer.) Two stories feature characters who commit suicide.

Drug Content
At least one story delves into cocaine addiction, and a character overdoses on illegal drugs in a suicide attempt.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: City on Fire: A Novel of Pompeii by Tracy L. Higley

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Historical, New Adult 18up, , , , ,

City on Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
Tracy L. Higley
Thomas Nelson
Published September 24, 2013 (Originally published 2011)

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Ariella, a slave girl in service to a lustful, vicious master, finds her chance for escape during a secret celebration to honor Bacchus. Before she can flee the city, however, she is drawn to a young slave boy in a troupe of gladiators. His resemblance to her missing younger brother moves her heart, and she takes his place among the troupe members, setting him free. As a gladiator, she conceals her gender and hopes to make a name for herself, winning enough favor among the people to be rewarded with freedom.

Young Roman nobleman Cato escapes Rome following a bitter political defeat. He hopes to begin a new life in Pompeii as a wine merchant, but he finds his new home steeped in corruption. His determination to remain apart from politics is shattered when the vile city leader sets his eyes on Cato’s married sister and intends to take her as his mistress. Cato vows to protect her, and when he discovers the identity of a fierce young girl masquerading as a boy gladiator, he longs to keep her safe as well. An injured man and an urgent errand bring Cato and Ariella to the home and meeting place of a group of Christians. At first both are reluctant to become involved with the strange faith, but neither can deny the genuine warmth and peace the group’s members possess and how deeply they hunger for such peace. Before either of them can understand the spiritual hunger or find a way to pursue it, a powerful volcano reigns terror on Pompeii and its citizens, and Cato and Ariella must overcome great obstacles to find one another and their families and escape the city.

Higley has clearly done a monumental amount of research on Pompeii and her people, and many interesting cultural or historical tidbits are woven throughout the story, intermingled with fascinating characters and a beautiful landscape. For the most part, the plot is powerful and well-constructed, with only one weak spot: when Ariella has freedom within her grasp and she instead takes the place of a gladiator slave, it was hard to grasp why she would do this thing. The boy was not her brother, and surely if her deepest motivation was to find him, wouldn’t she have had a better chance to do so with her freedom? Despite this, City on Fire is a rich retelling of the story of a volcano and its wrath upon an ancient city, and a great pick for historical fiction fans. See Tracy Higley’s web site for more information on the research she used in her novel about Pompeii.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
References to aberrant sexual practices perpetrated by members of a cult who worship Bacchus. Descriptions are brief but creepy.

Spiritual Content
Ariella was captured and enslaved in Jerusalem, and after experiencing cruelty and abuse at the hands of her perverse master, she abandoned any hope or faith in God. The wealthy Roman Cato has always gone through the motions of worship to the Roman gods. When the two cross paths with a secret Christian group, their hearts are drawn to the strange, kind ways of the people and the whispers of a Presence to which they can’t deny being drawn.

Violence
As a slave, Ariella knew a cruel master. As a gladiator, she knows only violence as a means of survival. Details are brief, and she is usually spared from having to end the life of her opponent by the mercy of the games’ host. Some descriptions during the volcanic eruption are a little bit intense as well.

Drug Content
During cult celebrations, participants drink wine laced with an opiate.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: It’s Complicated by Laura L. Smith

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, New Adult 18up, , , , , ,

It’s Complicated
Laura L. Smith
Playlist Fiction
Published March 26, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Claire meets a girl looking for a third and fourth college roommate, she takes a chance and accepts. Sharing a room with Hannah and her friends will be awesome. Hannah is bubbly and bright. Palmer, Hannah’s bestie is looking for friends to fill the gap that will be left when she moves away from her long-time boyfriend. Despite her excitement about being on the college soccer team, Kat is thrilled at the possibility of friends off the field. But just as roomie preparations are finally in place, the unthinkable happens, and one of the girls is raped. How can she face her new friends now? Maybe she’s too soiled to fit in with them anymore.

As the four girls juggle classes, homework, living space and boy interest, they learn they have more in common than they initially thought. And they’ll need all their strengths if they are to band together and help each other through the heartaches and hardships of freshman year at college.

When it comes to dating and relationships issues, author Laura L. Smith doesn’t mess around. Hitting heavy topics like date rape and peer pressure, she remains frank but not intensely graphic. The rape victim asks real questions and endures a grieving process. As the characters face peer pressure, they respond with realistic emotional confliction and growth. The spiritual journey by comparison begins deep for each girl, but doesn’t seem to undergo the same beautiful blossoming as the emotional journey of the girls. Spiritual themes may have been strengthened if the girls began their journeys at more varied levels of spirituality. Over all, this first novel in the Status Updates Series is a warm, fun read about having great girl friends.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
One of the girls is raped. The scene is brief and only a few graphic details are given. The boyfriend of another girl pressures her to have sex with him. Sexual tension between the two runs high and in a couple scenes, he touches the edges of her underpants before she stops him.

Spiritual Content
Each of the girls is a Christian, but since only two girls have known each other prior to becoming roommates, they don’t at first recognize their shared faith. Once they realize they are four Christians together, they believe God has placed them in each other’s lives to help them work through the issues they each face, particularly issues in their relationships with boys.

Violence
See sexual content.

Drug Content
A boy from the soccer team smokes something outside a coffee shop which leaves him pretty stoned. He justifies this behavior by telling Kat it’s completely legal and nowhere near as bad as some things other players do. Kat isn’t swayed by this argument. There are other brief references to college parties which include alcohol, but no central characters participate.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Review: Trisk by Kenny X

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Trisk
Kenny X
Pen and Prayer Publishing
Published June 5, 2013

Amazon | Goodreads

Curtis Powell has one goal, one dream for his life: to be a champion Trisk player. His dream is about to come true.

It’s the year 2151, and baseball is no longer America’s favorite game. Trisk, a game that is equal parts sport and war, is America, and the Massi Corporation is Trisk. As hopefuls like Curtis and his friends graduate from training college, though, a startling event occurs, in which one Trisk team defies the granite arm of Massi and becomes independent. When Curtis signs with the gutsy though underfunded team, he isn’t sure if he’s made the right choice, but as the season progresses and his star begins to shine, Curtis believes he is finally reaching his dream.

Caught up in the high life, Curtis begins taking risks, talking big, taking advantage of the way America swoons over his very name. His ego spirals out of control, and not even his best friend can shake sense into Curtis’s solid gold over-the-top ways. As the inevitable reckoning comes, Curtis struggles to pull back from the abyss of selfishness, but it may be too late to regain what he’s lost. On top of that, as the championship heats up and Curtis and his independent team battle for a place in the final games, Massi turns up the heat, promising destruction if the team doesn’t back down. Curtis talks big, but Massi hits hard. All that remains to be discovered is whose will and whose might are stronger.

Sports fans be warned: Trisk is packed with high-energy, over-the-top action. Non-sports fans: the sharp wit of the author and the high stakes of the game make this debut novel a hard one to put down. While a few passages delve into the techniques and strategy of the game for which the book is titled, much of the story centers around the underdog team and its star member, his struggle to remain honorable and valiant in the face of an amoral country drowning in a sports obsession. The story is told with a sort of wry, intelligent voice, though sometimes it drifts into metaphors which obscure what’s actually happening and become confusing. For the most part, the writing is as entertaining as the story itself.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple of crude references, but no swearing.

Sexual Content
Curtis has a long-time girlfriend named Priscilla, who he does not sleep with, though it remains unclear whether the couple live together or not. A journalist attempts to seduce a Trisk player, while video-taping the exchange. The scene is a little confusing, but it seems like the couple stop after removing clothing and the player reconsiders his actions.

Spiritual Content
Curtis and his best friend live by higher moral standards than many other Trisk players and are often ridiculed for this stance. Brief references are made to God and Jesus in a spiritual way, but there isn’t a lot of preaching or long explanations.

Violence
One player is severely injured by an explosion. Brief battle violence describes players performing in the game of Trisk.

Drug Content
Trisk players are instructed to use a type of drug to control their emotions. Curtis struggles with whether or not to use this, and it’s hinted that some players have become addicted and trapped by serious side effects. References to alcohol over-indulgence, and some brief scenes showing drinking.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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