I really enjoyed the first quarter of this book, I thought it was going so where good but ended up completely disappointed with what was to come. The second quarter did nothing for me and I couldn't actually complete the book.
Gutting really as I really liked Harpers character and the idea of the sleeping syndrome.

I thought this book was decent. I don't know what drew me to it at first (since this typically isn't the kind of book I read). Still, I thought the story was engaging and different enough to hold my attention. I thought the characters were well-developed, and I think it's a good starting point for the series. There wasn't anything amazing, but it was a solid book that kept my attention.

I really wanted to like this, I requested this book and that is the main reason I finished it.( 2 1/2 stars)
It is told through the view of the main character Harper a 17 year old girl. At times she is really smart and other times she is dumb as a box of rocks. Ok she is a teenager so maybe you can look past that I found it to bugged me,
All that is happening is because man/humankind is destroying earth and each other so now the Ancients (Ancient Aliens) have come back and are killing off humans. The problem is there are some that are immune to the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome.
Harper finds out she is why she is immune to the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome. The Ancients are take these people to another world. (another bugs me nothing about traveling to the other world) and they show these people who they really are. In hope of getting these people on their side. They show these people just how bad man/humankind is by showing them man killing man and earth, plus how bad/mean their family was to them. . So this is reason why they have to destroy all humans and start over. Harper is a homeschooled kid and this is one of those she is dumb a 17y old that doesn't know how bad man can be???
.
There are some really cool tech gadgets but the multi colored yellow, blue, purple ect... aliens is just way too PC for me. (Most of the people in the real world don't judge people by the color of their skin no matter what real world news/politician and haters try and convince us we do.)

The ending leaves too many unfinished storylines maybe in hopes of writing a book two but there is just too many unfinished storylines. Like I said I really wanted to like this book it just fell short in so many ways.

Absolutely loved this book! Couldn't put it down until it was finished. Will definitely be recommending to customers at my work!

After an outbreak of a deadly disease, only Harper survives. She's about to realise there's a much bigger picture, and she's been blind to what has really been going on.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not what I was expecting.
From the blurb, I though it was going to be a zombie story. From the first few chapters, I thought it was a government conspiracy. Instead, it's a story about aliens, infecting humans with a deadly disease, to wipe them out. Which of course they deserve, after depleting all of the natural resources and causing mass extinctions from their greedy ways.

Harper doesn't consider herself a normal teen. She's a bit of a tomboy, likes playing football (or soccer, if you insist), and has a freakishly over-protective mum who constantly grounds her for random stuff.
Harper would never have guessed that actually, she's part-alien.

OK, let's get something out of the way: how was this so boring?
It's got some great ideas, and it should have been awesome, and it's just so dull.
Harper is a very thorough and boring narrator. There are a few bright blips, where she interacts with people and actually does stuff; but these are in a see of contemplations and being told everything.
I found it really hard to connect with Harper - all of her friends die from the disease - and you'd think that in this contemplation-heavy book that she would think about them and mourn them. Maybe go through the stages of denial and grief etc. No. Nothing.
Her family may or may not have betrayed her, and they may or may not be dead. Stirring up any emotions? Anger? Fear? Nope, those pesky emotions are all ironed out.

Overall, this was a great idea, but terrible execution.

I read about 25% of this book before just giving up. I had so much hope of loving this book. yet the author does NOT give a good description of ANYTHING in the book.
In the end, I decided that this book was JUST NOT WORTH MY TIME! I wanted to like it, but it was horrible.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. Something about the writing style and my preferences just clashed too much and I didn't enjoy this book the way i had hoped I would.
It felt a little too YA for me, like it was written by some teen who was verbally telling a story to another teen, it was a little rushed, messy, and had lots of dialogue but not much substance. There was not too much descriptive imagery given and not much life breathed into characters, if i look back and try to picture the characters of this book, i can only really picture the aliens, the author didn't really paint an image of anyone else. I can't even imagine what the main character looked like !
The premise was a really interesting one but the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea. I do appreciate what the author was trying to convey, it was a cool thought but maybe younger crowds, 10-14 year olds will like this book because it is a quick and easy read.

I still want to thank the publishers and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Really long book… I am reading this book as an ARC. It is absolutely wonderful! I can't say that I've ever read anything exactly like it. No zombies, no vampires, just something totally fresh. The main characters are very likeable and there are many not-so-main characters that are likeable, also. It does seem to be rather long, but enjoyably so. I assume that there will be another book, since this one is called book 1. The book doesn't really end in a cliffhanger, though. It just sort of ends.

Gorgeous cover and really interesting premise! Unfortunately did not feel that the writing and dialogue kept all the promises.

My Review: I really wanted to like this one, this cover is just so pretty and I want to tell you that this book was amazing but sadly it was just so totally boring. I think this one needs to be reworked just a lot. I could see it being an amazing title with some clean up.


Go Into This One Knowing: Aliens

NetGalley provided me with a free e-copy of this book to review.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 since GR doesn't do half stars.

The concept was interesting. Finding out you're a human-alien hybrid has to be disorienting. Trying to figure out who in your life is telling you the truth sounds even more difficult, when both sides are telling wildly different (and completely unbelievable) stories. Poor Harper has to do both of these things, and her confusion definitely reigns in this book.

The thing is, I really just didn't love it. I can't say I've read it before, because I haven't, and can't think of anything else I've heard of that's similar. But for some reason it just didn't elicit any real emotions from me. I was disconnected from just about all of the characters. I worried more about the people left on earth than I did the hybrids in the Base of Ki. From the moment Harper's human body was dissolved and she became more Ancient than anything else, I had a general sense of unease about the Ancients that never went away. Everything was creepy, all of the Ancients' interactions with the hybrids were strange and condescending, and I just could not get past it all. Of course this was intentional, we were supposed to question the Ancients, but I just felt weird about it.

One thing I noticed (and mentioned in my reading notes) was that one of the hybrids who told his tragic story mentioned that his pregnant wife was executed right in front of him. But a big deal was made previously about the fact that hybrids were sterile. Was this an oversight, an error that was meant to be written out? Or were the Ancients lying about that, too?

The ending wasn't a satisfying ending, not even a cliffhanger. It was like the book just stopped, like there was supposed to be more but it got left out. After the however many pages (seriously it felt like 1000 pages), I think there could have been a couple more devoted to Harper thinking about what was going to happen next. Or at least something to make me clamor for book 2.

I have no idea where this is going to end, but I'm not sure I'll pick up the next book to find out. 2.5 stars because it wasn't a bad book and it was an OK read, I rounded up to 3 because I didn't feel like 2 was enough. But again, no spark for me. I guess it just wasn't the right book for me.

3.5 stars Just finished reading Glow by Aubrey Hadley. This is a science fiction story about a teenage girl, Harper, and her family. She lives with her mother, sister, Olivia and her brother, Brett. Starts out routinely enough with Harper clashing with her mother and typical teenage problems. But soon the story takes an ominous turn when an illness, which has occurred in some other places in the world with severe loss of live, hits her hometown of Reno. Harper is in their house under quarantine. The story then focuses on Harper as she wakes up in a different world , how she learns about this new world, herself, and how she hopes to return to her family. The book was interesting and I enjoyed it. Will likely look for the next book.

I think maybe I was expecting something different when I started this book. The description sounded really intriguing, but a plot twist part of the way in just turned the whole story into something completely different. I finally stopped at 40% because I struggled with the dialogue and the fact that nothing had really been happening for probably the last 15% I’d read. I’m not usually one to give up without finishing but I really struggled with understanding where the plot was going.

I will say I did like where the story was going at first, but a major plot turning point threw me off and I never was able to get back into it.

In the not-too-distant future, there are humans and alien-human hybrids. There is also a deadly virus that is killing people. Harper, a teenager who lives by some very strict rules set down by her worried mother, is our narrator. Through her eyes we see what happens when the CDC locks down her town after the virus hits them.

I liked the character of Harper - a typical teen who wants to be independent and an adult already - but I felt like her recklessness wasn't smart. In a world like this, I would imagine the teens would be old beyond their years, perhaps a bit wiser.

Still, it was an intriguing start to a series. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc to review.

What would happen if you found yourself all alone in a quarantined neighborhood where all your neighbors were dying of sleeping sickness, and your mother and brother and sister had escaped prior to the quarantine? What if you started noticing glowing creatures out in the desert near your house? While I think most of us would freak out, our protagonist, Harper somehow manages to keep it all together.

Harper is your mostly average teenager living in Reno, NV. She’s homeschooled, but plays soccer on a club team with her best friend Maria. She’s a brilliant science student, looking forward to studying biology in college. Her mom is rather protective and obsessive which drives Harper nuts. She adores her little sister Olivia and tolerates her older brother Brett.

When the sleeping syndrome first hits the United States, there isn’t much to worry about in Reno, but then it seems to be spreading. Harper’s mom becomes even more protective of her, not wanting her to even leave the house to play soccer. Harper and her mom argue. Harper runs out and finds weird black, glowing humanlike figures in the desert. She’s sure these things are after her. Then her family disappears without her, and the CDC and military lock down her neighborhood, which is really where the story begins.

This is a YA sci-fi/paranormal/fantasy novel that takes some interesting twists and turns. It was sometimes a slow read, but overall, the story was unusual enough to keep me going until the end. As this states it is book one, I would probably stick around to see what happens in book two.

Received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!

Not really sure how to rate this book. Cover is beautiful, blurb sounded quite good: a mysterious virus, a young adult protagonist and maybe sci-fi. However I was exzessively bored throughout the entire book. I even skipped some pages after having read half the book. No immersion into the story, I do not care about the character, yet the world-building was quite interesting.

I'd say maybe 2, 5 stars.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was offered this by NetGalley, and thought it sounded in the line of the Death Cure or Hunger Games type books, so wanted to give it a try. This is not like those books though, and was very nearly a DNF. I had to force myself to finish it because I felt I should since I got it as an ARC, and that took me nearly a week, when usually I finish a book I a few hours. I’m not sure what the author was going for, but the result is a hot mess.

Harper is 17, home-schooled, with a strict mother (who stops her from doing absolutely nothing she wants to do) who is living in a world where a sleeping plague is staring to take hold. Her neighbourhood is taken over by the plague and she’s stuck there by herself until she’s rescued (sort of) and then abducted by the beings causing the plague, which reveals details about her and requires her to fight back. I’d give more details but that would give away the plot (such as it is) and seriously, there’s no need to read this at all, but especially if you already know most of the major ‘plot points’.

This plot could have been interesting but not the way it’s written here. All this book contains is pages upon pages of exposition. Lots of ‘tell’ very little ‘show’ (and it’s also way longer than it needed to be). I know it’s billed as book 1, so you have to lay the ground work, but there’s ways of doing that without boring the reader to tears. This may have been offset with a compelling lead character (or any compelling characters) but that was also sadly lacking.

This could have been such a great book and the concept is certainly strong, but I found there was way too much exposition that both slowed the narrative down and did more to confuse than to explain - just too much information to get my head around and no strong characters to take me through it. What a shame, as it looked so promising.

A teenager in the Nevada desert sees a glowing object as the world is watching a deadly virus killing people in Kenya and New York. When the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome hits Reno, Harper finds herself home alone and her neighborhood locked down by the CDC.

Harper finds out that nothing is what she thinks it is, including her family and most importantly, herself.

Although the premise is great, the story does not come together. The characters are flat and the writing become plodding as soon as Harpers true nature is revealed. The way the author chose to reveal the history and the motivation of the Ancients was dry.

Although there were several interesting directions this book could have taken, none of the avenue were fleshed out and fully explored, it felt more like a collection of plot pieces derived from TV-shows from the 60’s-90’s that never got sewed together to make a solid piece.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very interesting idea that somehow just didn't make it all the way into fruition to me. It starts out as a typical YA sci-fi sort of story, but it devolves quickly and by the end I feel like I just read a nonfiction story about an alien society's foundations? This is clearly meant to be the first entry in a series, with Book I being in the title - it was an interesting story, but I don't think I'd pick up book II.