Gripping and suspenseful! A very well-written book with wonderfully-interesting characters. The tension builds at just the right pace as the story unfolds. Will keep you swiping the pages furiously. Worthy of your TBR list.

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book from in order to read and provide a voluntary and honest review, should I choose to do so.

I received a copy of this book through netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed the Jeckel and Hyde twist but I just could not for the life of me get into the story I found myself checking to see how much was left to read. Most of the story was just such a huge leap of science fiction which would normally be fine but the writing just didn't back it up.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial, I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

All truth, it took me a few pages to get into but once I did I couldn't put it down!

Chimera, 2 persons in 1 body and a lot of drama. I think it was Felix who I had a tough time with because once Connor joined the party I was hooked.


The brothers are the result of some government experimentations, of course they are. Although they have some similar qualities you can feel the difference between them. As boys Felix is shy and timid and Connor is aggressive and protective, he lashes out. Eventually the boys are adopted by a mob boss who isn’t a fan of Connor and that leads to him working with a scientist to create a drug to suppress Connor. With the drugs Conner takes a back seat to life, only allowed out when Felix forgets to take his meds or when he’s strong enough to force himself into control.

It’s a fascinated story, two boys, brothers, one body, two personalities, two sets of agendas. It leads to a lot of chaos.

The world-building got a little fuzzy for me at times. We meet the MC who is introduced as American but who speaks with an Irish accent and lives in Ireland. Although it’s explained that World War has destroyed America it took me a long time to get past Felix’s accent and into the story. I also don’t exactly know how the boys ended up with Rian. We know the beginnings of their story but how do they get to him? Did I miss that part?

This is a story where you’re never sure who to trust and who’s on your side. Is Felix? Is Connor? Is Rian? Then you have GDI, Government Directive International who are out to use Felix/Conner as a bio-weapon. Everyone seems to be using everyone else for their own reasons and that causes a lot of action.

There is a sense of humor to the story that I wasn’t expecting and I loved. As well as the slight romance that pops up for a very brief moment. It’s a fast paced, action packed story about brothers fighting for their identities and their lives.

The biggest flaw for me was the abrupt ending. Although I was aware the end was near it felt so sudden that I had to check a couple times to make sure I hadn’t missed something. The story ends with some major problems unresolved and a lot of questions. If you are a reader who doesn’t like cliffhangers you may want to wait and see if a second book is coming soon.

I would highly recommend Rise and Run to anyone who enjoys sci-fi-ish, action stories however if you have a hard time living in the story and not questioning if the science is possible, this one might not be for you.

Rise and Run is a dystopian thriller that shows R J Plant’s potential as a writer.  The premise is an interesting take on the Jeckyl/Hyde duology. Felix is a genetically engineered chimera with two distinct and competing sets of DNA.  Medication suppresses his brother Conor. As his adoptive father, Rian’s enforcer, Felix is tasked with infiltrating GDI and protecting Kaitlyn, a scientist in their employ, from death threats.  Felix quickly discovers the situation is a setup when the leader of GDI infects him with a lethal, fast-acting virus. Conor is forced to take control, and must ally with people he doesn’t trust in the hopes of finding a cure and preventing GDI from destroying what’s left of humanity.


The novel’s biggest flaw is that it ends rather suddenly.  The issues raised are far from resolved, and there is little indication of when the next book in the series will be released.  This may trouble some readers. What Rise and Run does have in abundance is action. Between traveling and fighting, not much space is left for development of other aspects of the plot.  Still, I liked Rise and Run. It isn’t perfect, but it is intriguing enough for me to want to know what comes next.


3 / 5


I received a copy of Rise and Run from the publisher and NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.


— Crittermom

A Broken Man Novel...well isn't THAT an understatement? This book broke my heart in some places and mended it back together in others only to have the process happen all over again and again. It was a roller coaster to say the very least. I had so many feels for the brothers, Felix and Conor. I wanted them be okay and whole again so very badly. They stuck together through everything and it was a beautiful thing to see Conor take the reigns when Felix was dosed.
I look forward to seeing if we get a few more A Broken Man Novels...if so, I'll be grabbing them up with my greedy little hands. :)

I'm not entirely sure what prompted me to read this one, but I'm glad I did. Once I got used to the writing style, this was a pretty fun, action-packed book. Most dystopian books feel really unrealistic to me but this one seemed entirely plausible and so very terrifying! The book is very movie-esque with all its dialogues and twists and turns.

Another aspect that I enjoyed was that the main character was a chimera. It's the first time I've read of such a character and it was pretty interesting. I loved reading the shifting viewpoints between Felix and Conor and I actually think I liked Conor more!

Wow. Just, wow. When you receive a free copy of a book in return for an honest review, sometimes you moderate your expectations, but this is a case where my expectations were totally blown out of the water. The author has created a near-future post apocalyptic world which she paints in a manner that comes across as monochrome and stark. Not monochrome as in cute sepia, but monochrome as in grey, worn out and beat down. The book reads like a movie with fast moving action, hard side-cuts and complicated flashbacks, not to mention some fairly graphic violence. I'm not going to rehash the plot in this review because I wouldn't be able to do it justice; suffice to say that it is complex and the ending definitely suggests an interesting series is going to develop.

Bravo RJ Plant, I am looking forward to reading more.

Let me tell you that this book was a beautiful surprise! To be honest, this is not my cup of tea and I really don’t know why I have opened its page on NetGalley but after reading the plot I was so curious that I have downloaded it and started it right away.
And I couldn’t put it down!!!

The best thing about this book is Connor. I liked the idea of two different persons in one body, it’s original and well developed. Felix and Connor aren’t two different personalities, but two different persons altogether, they are the result of some government experimentations and they are a chimera. Felix is the one who has the control of the body for the majority of the time, but the stronger one is Connor, usually the “dormant” one. But when the things get thought is him who come out to play, and so we would see more of him than Felix in these pages.

And my poor heart kept broking on Connor. My feelings were devasted by Obsidio and Connor delivered the final blow! I have hurt for him a lot and during the reading, all I wanted to do was to take him home and gave him a biscuit, because he was so sweet, in a psycho way, yep, but sweet nonetheless. I think I may have a strange idea of what is sweet, that’s for sure, but this is not the point here. The point is that Connor is a great character and that I left a little piece of my heart with him.

I think that I could go on and on gushing about Connor, but I am here to talk about the book too, and not just about him, so… the story was intriguing and fast-paced. I wasn’t bored while reading and I was hooked up almost from the start. I had to put it down to sleep, but the next morning I founded all the excuses to go back and read it, and it finished too soon!!!!!
I really hope that the author is working on the second book right now because I want more of Connor!!!!!!! I am curious about the story! I need to know what would happen now!

The world-building isn’t top-notch, that’s true, but the concept is interesting and the author did a good job. It could be better and I hope to see more of this new world in the next books, but the premises are good. And we have others interesting characters, Connor aside. Rian is a complex one, for example, even if I am not so fond of him, and I hope to read more about him. To be honest, it would have been great to read something more about him in this book, too. I am not talking about more scenes with him, but more about his background or about his activities and so on… but I am not complaining here, just saying!