Man, I freaking LOVED this book! It's like X-men or The Darkest Minds with Illuminae! The romance was SO GOOD! SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait for the sequel!

This was not what I was expecting at all!

Thus was a fast-paced story following a group of teens trapped in a space station, Sanctuary. The main character was a junior guard on the space station prison and I found her believable and relatable. She is forced to face the prisoners and her beliefs when she becomes trapped with them. The band of prisoners that we come to know were interesting and, oddly, likeable.

Without giving anything away we are forced to follow the characters while they fight to survive and escape Sanctuary.

I highly enjoyed this adventure and can't wait for the next in the series.

A great book. The suspense and pace are fantastic and the setting is awesome! Looking forward to book 2.

This book is so good!! I couldn’t put it down. Can’t believe it’s a debut😱

It’s an action-packed SF with a pinch of horror set in space, and it reads like an intense action movie: breathlessly. Can’t wait to read book 2! 🤗

Thanks to the publisher for my e-copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Caryn Lix's debut young adult novel "Sanctuary" is set in a space prison far above Earth. Not just any space prison, though, this one holds hundreds of teens with special powers, that have been incarcerated for various reasons. From simply flying in the wrong place to murder, there's a wide variety of people in there, and Kenzie, the main character and only viewpoint, is a junior prison guard living on the station with her parents. Her life will be and always has been about her citizenship and the prisoners. A corporation called Omnistellar not only runs the lives of the prison guards, but also the lives of rich people everywhere, giving them a special citizenship that comes with a quality of life that others just don't get to have. All that changes one day, when a false alarm leads to a real emergency on the prison, when only her and her mother are on board. Kenzie is kidnapped by the prisoners, and used as a hostage to get what they want, until something more sinister shows up.

I had a lot of questions while I was reading this book, and most of them were answered only with, it's a mystery how it happened. I couldn't quite picture the characters, and I really felt like I was missing something, like reading the second book in a series. That being said, the story was mostly solid, and I could easily imagine the world the characters were in, and the monster's that surrounded them. At the beginning of the book Kenzie trusts the company and Sanctuary completely, but slowly the prisoners change her mind. Is that because of Stockholm syndrome or is that because they actually have a good reasoning? Is Omnistellar just another evil corporation? Only time will tell.

I would say this book is a mix between Alien, and X-Men, but written for teenagers. If you like those things, you may find that you like this book as well. The cover caught my eye immediately, and the description sounded like something that would be right up my alley. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate this book, it's just not my new favourite. My one final question is, will there be more for the characters? The ending left a lot to the imagination. I'm curious to see what the author's next move is.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon, and another link to the Author's twitter.

https://amzn.to/2LFsPT5

https://twitter.com/Missrithenay?lang=en

Thanks for reading!
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

This book was pitched as The Darkest Minds meets Alien, and I'd like to push it one further and mention that it also has similar components to the CW's The 100 tv show. I don't often read a ton of sci-fi even though I enjoy the genre quite a lot. I find a lot of it can seem similar and repetitive, and it really needs to be written in a way that is accessible. I knew I instantly liked this book when the first chapter opened with the main character, Kenzie, reading manga before bed. For Kenzie, her life has been consumed by Sanctuary, which is essentially a prison for superpowered teenagers. Her entire family works with her on Sanctuary and she is training to be a junior guard. The story opens with what seems to be drills that set up the story. However, the novel moves quite quickly that Kenzie is taken hostage by some prisoners that have planned a prison break. Through this tricky situation, Kenzie learns where her alliances lie, and what freedom actually looks like. Kenzie finds herself bonding with the prisoners and seeing that she connects with them on a much more deeper level. I had to remind myself a couple of times how quickly the novel moved because it was so action-packed. I liked that each chapter ended on a bit of a cliffhanger which had me turning the pages quite quickly. I also liked how the secondary characters were nicely developed, like Rune, Mia, Alexei, Tyler, and Anya. But the people that take center stage of the whole novel is definitely Kenzie and Cage. Both really strong characters that brought up a lot of questions about morality and freedom. I'm not usually a fan of insta-love, and it really isn't insta-love, but rather insta-attraction, but I immediately shipped them. I'm also all for a Mandarin Chinese love interest (kudos to Lix for all the diversity in characters). Overall, if you are looking for a fast-paced prison-break style sci-fi novel with a dash of aliens, this is the read for you. I look forward to seeing what Lix writes next for this group of teens and seeing where the story goes. Lix writes in a really digestible manner that even if you aren't a sci-fi reader regularly, you can definitely find something in this to enjoy!

This scifi is set in a world run by huge corporations where anyone who displays powers is sent to a secluded prison on a space station. No one knows why the alien probes were sent or why they're giving powers to children a generation later, but with the 50th anniversary coming up the people in charge seem worried.

We follow Kenzie, a prison guard on the Sanctuary space station for teenage anomalies. Once most of the crew goes on leave the prisoners decide to stage their escape by taking Kenzie hostage in the hopes the commander of the station, her mother, will exchange a ride off station for Kenzies life. What they didnt count on was having to team up when deadly aliens invade the space station.

Her entire life Kenzie has been drilled by her parents on the values of their corporation and how they owe everything to them. Without a corporation people are left to starve. Loyal to a fault Kenzie fights the bonds that start to form with the teenage prisoners after she taken hostage, but shes thrown for a loop when she starts to uncover her corporations dark secrets.

Her messy relationship with her mother made me feel all kinds of emotions. Kenzie definitely got her loyal to a fault trait from her. Theres so many unanswered questions when it comes to her mother and I think that makes the whole situation even more realistic because we often dont get to find out why people do the things they do. Dont get me wrong Id still love to know, but it didnt bother me like it might bother other readers.

The way Kenzie slowly started accepting her corporations faults as well as her bond with the prisoners felt believable. I liked the rag tag group of prisoners and their bond with one another, especially the sibling relationship between Cage and Rune. They all had a touching backstories. I felt like the romance developped quickly, but I still ended up enjoying it. They both acknowledge how fast it is. Im always happy to see a protagonist whose had other boyfriends in the past.

The story didnt grip me as much as I was expecting from a hostage and alien attack premise, but thats probably because I didnt feel super attached to the characters. However in the second half the plot picked up and I started getting more invested. I would have liked more planning behind some of the risky things the characters did. Im guessing some of it will come back to bite them later on since theres probably another alien ship at the adult anomalie space prison.

I thought the world with its technology and the anomalies powers was really interesting, but I wish they would have used their powers to defend themselves more often. I loved getting to know the aliens motivations, but I would have liked more insight into the corporations. The writing was easy to understand, but I feel like the pacing could have used a bit of work. I love that this book is written by a Canadian author and Ill definitely continue on with the series.

Oh my goodness, this was bloody amazing. I loved, loved, loved, this. I would recommend this to anyone who loved Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

I am loving how Scifi is having a roll in the teen genre. We are getting some serious gems.

The premise book is what drew me in. I love the whole corporations in space and the switching of the sides of main characters. When they believe they are on the right side but later on show that their beliefs in certain things become morally questionable and end up fighting the system they believed in so much. Fight the Power!! As well as the author is Canadian got to support our fellow Canucks.

Caryn Lix sure knows how to hook her audience and reel them in until the very end. When you have a book that is almost 500 pages it can come across as daunting and sometimes the plot or flow looses its steam about half way through but nope the pace was steady throughout the whole book and the characters growth was believable and steady as well. The worldbuilding was easy enough for people who don`t usually dabble in the Science fiction genre will be able to not feel intimidated. And on that same note those whole love the SciFi genre won't feel it was overly simplified there was a nice balance. The book does suffer from insta-love and absent parent syndrome but in the YA world there are just some tropes you can't get rid of. My only complaint is that ending, who ends a book like that especially when I didn't know their was going to be a sequel I almost had a heart attack.

Overall this is an action packed book full of twists and turns with a splash of horror to keep us on our toes and great characters with believable character development. Would recommend to anyone.

This book had me entranced the entire way through. The twists and turns were amazing and I fell in love with all the characters and was upset when they died. I hope there is a sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this e-arc!

Sanctuary is a new science-fiction novel about Kenzie, a prison guard in training, who must team up with the most unlikely allies to survive. That's as basic a summary as it comes, but I feel like it'd be a good idea to go into this book without knowing too much about it.

Have you ever read a book and felt like, logically, you shouldn't really like it? Not because it's bad or anything, but because it's the opposite of what you usually like? Because that was me throughout this entire book.

First things first. If you don't like tropes, especially insta-love, I don't recommend going into this book with extremely high expectations. This book is filled with tropes, and I can see why that could bother some. Logically, it should have bothered me, but for some reason, I still really enjoyed it.

Though a few parts of this book made me cringe, I personally thought that it was all worth it. It was easy to relate to the main character, and the romance was cute, no matter how insta-lovey it was. Also, all the characters? So loveable. I wanted to protect them all, including Kenzie, who I related to the most. Which I've already mentioned, but whatever. Anyhow!

My main criticism of this book is how quickly things happened and/or changed. It felt like everything happened too suddenly, and like development wasn't given enough time to seem realistic. I mean, who knows how I'd react were I in the same situation, but I doubt my mind would change as quickly as one can say any word whatsoever (I couldn't think of a funny one to put here). Still, you know what? It made this book action-packed and almost impossible to put down once I got into it (which happened about 16 pages into the book), so it's really not that bad.

Plus, I adored the world building. I'm no scientist, so I don't know how realistic this all is. I tend not to go into science fiction thinking "um, could this really happen?" and this book was no exception to the rule. Still, I thoroughly appreciated the world. I thought that the idea of corporations vs governments was fascinating, and I just want to find out more and more about this world. Like, I love politics, and the ones in Sanctuary are ones I'd love to learn about. (Let's make one thing clear, though. I may love politics, but politicians? Not so much.)

All in all, whilst this is not a new favourite of mine, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you don't mind tropes, and love interesting world building, I definitely recommend picking this book up. I absolutely can't wait to find out what happens next to this world and its characters, and I'll be eagerly waiting for the next book.

Sanctuary is the Prison Break meets Alien debut novel by Caryn Lix. A high octane sci-fi action adventure that grips you from the very first pages. It is fast paced, action packed and thrilling, with a little romance and horror thrown in for good measure. It has a little bit of something to appeal the the pickiest reader and would be perfect as a quick summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the free ARC copy of this book! I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book that I couldn't wait to begin reading it. 

This book was awesome. It pulled me in from the very beginning and kept my interest piqued throughout the entire book. I read through it in just over a day, and would have read it in one sitting if I didn't have a few things going on. Seriously get this book, it was amazing! I loved it and devoured it, and I found that the pages were turning themselves.

This book follows the main character, Kenzie, a prison guard in training aboard the Sanctuary - a prison in space that houses super-powered and dangerous teenage criminals. Kenzie lives aboard this space prison, with her mom and dad and other prison workers, and it is up to them to make sure the prisoners do not escape and to protect people on earth from the dangerous prisoners.

On the Sanctuary there are 5 prison levels, that houses the criminals on each level. One day the Sanctuary is attacked by mysterious creatures, and Kenzie becomes trapped on one of the prison's main floors that houses the criminals. The criminals somehow manage to escape their cells and hold Kenzie hostage. She is terrified. Surely her Commanding Officer, which also is her mother, will come to her rescue? However, Kenzie soon learns that her mother will stop at nothing to follow policy of the Sanctuary, and that is to protect earth at all costs, even if it means sacrificing her own daughter!

What are these mysterious creatures that have attacked the Sanctuary and what is it that they want? What will the dangerous, super-powered criminals do with Kenzie now that they have her as a hostage? Will Kenzie escape?

Without giving too much away this book was amazing. I enjoyed reading this and it was a pleasure to connect with the main characters in the story.

hank you to Netgalley, Simon Pulse and Caryn Lix for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Rating 4.5 stars

Okay, so I was soooo into this book that I didn’t notice I was reaching the end. And there had better be a sequel because I had no idea the book was ending. I mean, come on, give a girl a head’s up! I literally thought I was missing chapters. I thought, hmmm I have an ARC where the author actually forgot to include the ending. But nope, that’s the ending I’m stuck with until Caryn Lix decides to write another book.

I knew it was great from the first sentence, first page, first chapter. I was reading something else when I received the ARC and I was so excited I would read a sentence here or there, a paragraph if I was lucky and then I would get pulled away. But it stuck with me and I couldn’t wait until I could just sink my teeth into it.

Here we have Kenzie, an Omnistellar company girl who tows the line. She is part of a team that includes both her parents and a small number of guards that protect the safety of a prison that houses humans with extra special powers. Not just any humans, but this prison is full of kids. Aliens visited Earth and when they left certain people were left with special powers. For those who abused their powers they were sent to a prison housed on a planet. Adults on one prison planet and kids on another. Both of Kenzie’s parents have brought her up to respect the company, be loyal and appreciate the life that working for the company has afforded them. Kenzie is a little lost because her parents are getting a divorce and her dad is returning to Earth. Her mother is especially strict and when they are at work, very impersonal. Kenzie is now a junior guard and the company expects a lot from their employees, including, if necessary, putting their life on the line. I mean, all of these kids are criminals. They have abused their powers, endangered humans, had a trial and were sentenced to serve until they are eighteen years of age. A safety drill turns into a prison break and Kenzie is taken hostage. They need her to help them break out and get off this planet. Kenzie starts to realize that not all is as it seems. Maybe the company hasn’t been as fair to these kids as she thought. They certainly weren’t these animals intent on hurting humans as she was led to believe. How much of a hardened criminal can a 9 year old be? Yes, their powers can be scary but soon Kenzie’s whole world starts to turn upside down as she begins to bond with them. Especially their leader Cage. It’s not only his super speed that is making her heart race. But getting off the planet becomes a real priority as they learn that they are not alone. There is something far more sinister and far more alien that is hunting them down.

In case I didn’t make it obvious I loved this book. The action was exciting, the monster scary and alien. The world that Lix created was so interesting. Why did the aliens visit Earth? Why did the leave people with powers? We never get to know much about the alien story. I assume we will get to know more in the upcoming books. But there is enough juicy bits that I want to know it all. And the powers that people have. They fly, they read minds, they meld with computers, they are invisible and they are fast like The Flash. I loved all of the characters, their relationships and their interrelationships. Yes, Kenzie and Cage! What a sweet romance. But I wanted to know more about all of them, their backstories, all of it. Kenzie is a strong female lead. She is smart, strong and arc of learning that the world is never as simple as it seems is handled so well. Don’t become too attached - characters will die so stay on your toes. This is making it into my classroom library because I think kids will love it. There wasn’t much I didn’t love except the ending. It was so abrupt it was like finishing in the middle of a sentence. Even if there are sequels shouldn’t you close off the first book? It just was a little unsatisfying, but I still can’t wait for the next book.

Kenzie is a loyal corporate citizen and a junior guard on Sanctuary, a space station and prison for criminal teens with superpowers, the result of a mysterious alien probe. At a time when the crew has been reduced to just her and her mother who just happens to be the warden, the prisoners take Kenzie hostage, hoping to use her as a means to escape. Kenzie has already begun to question everything she believed about the corporation, her mother’s love for her, but, most of all, the prisoners when the station is taken over by alien monsters. Now she must work with the prisoners if anyone is to survive.

Sanctuary is the debut novel by author Caryn Lix. It took me a little while to get into the story. The first quarter or so is mainly buildup to the hostage taking and it felt like one of those books I consume over time – enjoyable but certainly something I could pick up or put down easily. With the exception of Kenzie, the characters in this first part are mostly the adult staff and, frankly, they are not particularly interesting. However, once the aliens arrive, things really take off and I mean like jet-propelled take-off. The action becomes almost non-stop. The story also switches from the guards to the kids who are much more interesting and likeable - it is easy to become invested in what’s happening to them and most of it’s bad. This is a YA book and so, of course, there is the requisite romance that blossoms just a bit too quickly but, fortunately, it didn’t slow things down too much.

Sanctuary is aimed at a 12+ audience but it definitely has appeal for adult readers. However, there is a great deal of violence, much of it aimed at the kids, many of whom don’t survive so I would suggest that it might not be suitable for younger children. The story is wrapped up fairly well but there is enough left open for a sequel and I, for one, am already in line for it.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Simon &Schuster Canada/Simon Pulse for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

This story was well written with a great storyline, the characters were also amazing. Once I picked up the book, I could not put it down until it was finished. Looking forward to reading the next book in this series. I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book. it was a great read.