Another winner from Mary Weber. From the action packed page one to the dangerous adventures to find Sofi's brother this book had me hooked and I want more. The characters are complex and their relationship is complicated, but their connection is strong and I can't wait to see how it develops over the next two books.

The worlds Mary creates are vivid and satisfying.

I loved the cover, so unique and I love that only near the end of the book does the cover's significance become apparent.

This book somehow felt like two books - one I really enjoyed and one I nearly didn't finish reading; one with a genuinely interesting world created and one that was in places highly derivative; one with a strong focus on ties between siblings and one where the love story felt weirdly central but still tacked on - as such it is surprisingly difficult for me to write a coherent review.

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow is set in the unspecified future where after devestating world wars huge corporations rule the world instead of countries and where an alien race has parked their ice planet in the earth's proximity, solving all our global warming related problems and moving humantity's technological development along. Sofi and her brother Shilo are the children of the CEO of one of the biggest corporations and participants in a part virtual, part real fighting competition. At one of those competitions a bomb explodes and Shilo is missing, presumed dead. Plagued by nightmares and feeling a connection to her brother still, Sofi becomes convinced he is alive - and on the ice planet. She is absolutely determined to get her brother back, no matter the costs and seeks the help of Miguel, one of the Earth's ambassadors and one of the few people who have visited the planet.

I absolutely loved that Sofi's love for her brother is her driving motivation throughout the book. I understood their bond and Mary Weber created a very believable sibling relationship. I love when the central relationship in a book is a non-romantic one because I think the importance of those connections cannot be overstated. I could always understand Sofi's motives and she made perfect sense as a character.

While I thought Miguel's story line was interesting as well, I disliked the way Mary Weber withheld crucial information from the reader while still giving insight into Miguel's thought processes. This made the voice fell cheatery and I do not think it was necessary for the story told. I did however appreciate how she portrayed his bi-linguality; as someone often thinking in two languages as once I found it very convincing.

My main gripe with the book and the reason why it ultimately only gets three stars from me is the whole competition thing. For one, I found that highly derivative (they even state that only teenagers 17 and under can compete), but most importantly - those games do not make sense. I do not understand why in that vision of the future there should be a game this barbaric and more importantly involving children. Talking of children - I also did not understand why an ambassador to Earth was a 17-year-old boy. (To be fair, that might just be my age showing - those kids are younger than my students!)

Overall though, I found the book to be highly entertaining and very readable. I sped through it within a few days and really wanted to know more about the world Mary Weber created here, so I am absolutely looking forward to the sequel.

_____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sending me a digital ARC of “The Evaporation of Sofi Snow” by Mary Weber. I love being able to suggest a clean teen fantasy to out teen patrons and this book falls perfectly in that category. The other giant plus is that it is a good book. The characters are relatable and the plot takes a familiar topic and makes it interesting. This book is perfect for those teens who are interested in fantasy with parents who are concerned about content.

Wow!
This book would be fantastic as a SyFy channel movie or series!
Mary Weber has done it again!
This book will leave you wanting more and more. There are so many questions as to what will happen next.
I was so drawn into the world of hacking and gaming; a world I've never fully understood and still don't. Yet Mary Weber presents this world in such a way it's easy to imagine. Along with this futuristic world is a world containing aliens.
What would it be like if we were took over by beings of another world? Who could we trust and what is real?
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series to finding out what will happen with Sofi and Miguel.
I enjoyed the suspense, the unstoppable action, the futuristic adventures and the bits of drama with human emotions.
The author illuminated a part of the story that touches on events which are happening even now in our world and does so in a powerful way. Hopefully one day in our time we will be able to make a change for the better.
I highly recommend picking this book up.
I received this book from the publisher to read. All opinions are my own.

Holy moly, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This was so good and just plot twists all over the place! The characters were so well thought out and were mostly all POC. The main character Sofi Snow is such a good example of a strong woman. She may use her charms to seduce people but she has so much actual strength, intelligence and physical wise. And then Miguel was a Mexican with rainbow colored hair. RAINBOW! There was virtual reality, aliens, and intrigue. This first installment of this duology is a combination of the movie Taken, Ender's Game and The Hunger Games. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good young adult book with some good ol' aliens.

I love this author, and I loved most of her last series. I was excited about jumping into a new world and new characters. But honestly, I had the same problem with this book as I did with the last book in the Storm Siren trilogy. I was so confused! Completely befuddled. I really enjoyed the concept of this world and I thought the characters were interesting. I think I mostly understood the overarching plot of the book. But there were just several passages or sometimes whole paragraphs that made little to no sense to me. Like I could kind of, maybe understand what the author was trying to convey, but I wasn't at all sure. And the wording was just so convoluted and strange that I didn't really want to go back over it more than once or twice. It made me tired to try and figure out what was meant. It also felt like things switched around a lot and it was assumed we knew a lot more about the world than we did. Or maybe I just didn't know because I didn't totally understand everything.

Overall I thought the concept was really cool. I enjoyed the sibling relationship between Shilo and Sofi, and most of the relationships in general. I just didn't enjoy the story as much as I wanted to because I was too confused to totally immerse myself in the world.

Will edit in review closer to date as requested by publisher