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March 8, 2015

Helia's Shadow: Part One by K.C. Neal ~ Blog Tour: #Review & #Giveaway


Welcome to my stop on the Helia's Shadow Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. Click here to follow along with the tour schedule! 



Title: Helia's Shadow: Part One
Series: The Starlight Age #1
Author: K.C. Neal
Publication date: November 23rd 2014
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Source: Copy for review 

Purchase: Amazon 






Synopsis

Helia's Shadow is for fans of The 5th Wave (Rick Yancey), The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), Divergent (Veronica Roth), and Legend (Marie Lu). 

When the aliens arrived, they were hailed as the saviors of a dying Earth and dwindling human race. But the aliens didn't come to help. Now, one human girl's ingenious invention and one alien boy's awakened heart are humanity's last hope...

Nineteen years ago, aliens arrived on a barely habitable Earth with advanced technology and the promise of ensuring human survival in exchange for a place to settle. They were hailed as the saviors of humans and Earth. 

Today, 16-year-old Helia wants two things in life: to step out of her over-protective mother's shadow and become an engineer, and to stop hiding her relationship with alien boy Kalo. But the world definitely isn't ready for a human-alien romance. And worse, the human-alien partnership is crumbling. Humans are arrested without explanation. Some of them are never seen again. 

When the alien leader imprisons her mother on a false charge, Helia discovers the aliens never intended to help humans at all. Now, she must join forces with alien rebels. If she succeeds, humans have a chance at survival and she has a chance at love. If she fails, the dwindling human race dies out in slavery.




Wow, after reading the synopsis for Helia's Shadow, I remember thinking how freaky would it be if aliens not only landed on Earth but helped us while secretly plotting to destroy us? The idea is genius to write about!! The human/alien relationship also caught my attention. It sounded like it would be fraught with complications - how can Helia trust her alien boyfriend knowing his species wants her species dead? How would that all play out? I had to find out!   

Helia's Shadow begins with humans still mostly trusting the aliens. This doesn't last long, however, because soon large numbers of humans start getting arrested, others disappear, and still others start dying. It becomes apparent the aliens never intended to help the human race; instead, they came to enslave human beings.  

What I love about this book is how well written it is - there's romance, action, suspense, and everything I love about sci-fi. The characters are distinctive each with her/his own personality. There are twists in the story I didn't see coming. I like that everyone thinks the aliens were here to help at first. That seems so scary to me but also really smart for the aliens to gain the trust of Earthlings before beginning their plan. Not that I'm on the aliens' side or anything! The ones who want to enslave humans, that is. No way, no how would that be okay with me. 

I'm looking forward to reading the next installment of this series and see where Neal takes me next! 

My Rating



About the Author


In previous iterations of my professional life, I worked as a bench chemist, a lab equipment tester, a biotech researcher, and a medical writer. Strangely, this sequence has not led to my dream job: drummer in a rock band. But my current gig is pretty sweet. 

I love colored pens and sticky notes, sunsets and sunrises, digging my fingers into the dirt and nurturing the things that grow in it, and learning anything and everything. I'm a scientist who studies astrology, a go-with-the-flow Type A, and an impatient practitioner of daily meditation. A big bag of contradictions, just like everyone else. 


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