E-book/ARC/YA Science Fiction: I saw some of the other advanced reviews, and most folks quit reading at 20% because Harper goes to meet the aliens. I had less of a problem with the book at that point. Before Harper meets them, she is a selfish, angsty teenager who complains about not being able to leave the house. Why would this be a problem? Well, there is a sleeping sickness killing the human population and staying home would probably be the best thing.

I will say that her life on the ship is not action packed and Harper, who narrates her story in first person, could have cut at least 200 pages out of this 700 page book. It is YA so it is a quick read. There are parts of the book that go on like plot aspects that I have read and seen before. The Vulcan society where everything is pretty much logical, the book Zero Sum where the alien characters cannot eat the food, the movies Oblivion and War of the World where aliens come to steal Earth's resources, the Governor's compound on the Walking Dead as workers are told to do a job for protection in the city with no pay, and a lot of aspects of the Harry Potter novels where the three main characters plot a plan that takes three to six months.

What I liked about the book is Harper gets smarter and less whiny through the book. She never has a love interest to slow her down. Yep, I was waiting and it never happened. She has two close friends, but even at 17, is allowed by the author to stay independent. You go, girl. I like her two friends too. With everyone so serious, her two buds help her maneuver around the cult atmosphere of the aliens.

What I didn't like was the setting of the ship and this is probably a spoiler. These aliens has been hanging around for over 8,000 of our years. Their ship is still really pristine and while there are some problems with mutiny and aliens impregnating humans, there are no problems with murders, rust, cabin pressure, and the ship breaking down in general. It not like they can go down to Auto Zone to get a part. The same technology the aliens had 8000 years ago, they still have. From what I can tell, they have teeth, which evolution would have cycled out since they eat goo. I know this book is a series, but there are too many questions that are not answered such as why obliterate the human race now? I read the whole book so Harper could question her brother when she found him, but she never got any answers from him, which was a major plot point! It was very unsatisfying in the end.

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me a copy of the book. However, the book summary really is not what the book is about.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoyed reading this. An interesting story with fun characters. Well written.

This book started out with so much potential. First of all, the cover art was spectacular. That alone would have me buying it if I saw it in stores. The idea for the book hooked me as well. It sounds like it is going to be a wonderful sci-fi romp. And at times, it really was living up to my expectations, but then at other times, particularly near the end, it was just a slog to get through. This could have been fantastic - 5 stars for sure. But pacing issues and the last 3rd of the book being a bit dull dropped it to 3. I think Hadley has some great ideas and the potential to be a good author, and I'll look for more from them in the future.

I like how even when the female was shown that she was an alien she still cared very much for her family. The book was good just a little slow. But when the story started getting good it was very good and kept you wanting to know more.

This was interesting at first, gripping, quite intriguing, but once it got to alien territory, it just seemed to ramble on and on about the alien technology and the weirdness of the place, without moving the story on at all.

I'm afraid I lost interest, with so many other appealing books waiting on my kindle to take up my reading time, so I gave it up. Possibly not really my genre, but after a good start, it just didn't keep my interest .

Seventeen year old Haper arrives home, finding no one at home. Her family has evacuated before the quarantine walls were put up. Harper finds a note from her mom and gets a phone call from her telling her how the family got out. There is a deadly disease called the Maasai Mara Sleeping Disease. It killed everyone in a homeless shelter in New York. Now it has appeared in a Reno, Nevada neighborhood. As Harper waits for the quarantine to end she decides to clean up her home. As time goes by she is visited by a medical team and has a sample of blood taken. They tell her to stay home and they will be back. As Harper realizes that her neighbors are all dead, she decides to try to make a break for it as she wants out of quarantine. Harper is suddenly aware that she is no longer home. Where is she? As time passes, Harper discovers that she is a hybrid — part alien and part human. What does she do? Will she meet other hybrids? She makes friends on a planet she has been taken to where they decide to try to find a way to escape. Will they be able to? Will they make it back to earth?

I am leaving out much of the story as I don’t want to spoil it for the next reader. I enjoyed the experiences that Harper goes through in this novel. It engaged me so that I didn’t want to stop reading this novel. It’s a good start to a science fiction series. I can’t wait for the next book to read!

I found the first part of this book was really interesting with the disease going around and infecting people in seemingly unrelated cities. However, the second half or so, with the aliens seemed extremely weird and like the author was just looking for the strangest explanation for what was going on. It was nothing like I expected when I requested it.

This book began auspiciously with a homeschooled teenager who loves soccer and rebels against her mother’s demands for a curfew as a mysterious “sleeping syndrome” reaches epidemic scale. Not only that, but she starts seeing mysterious glowing creatures, invisible to everyone else. Before we can catch our collective breath, she’s kidnapped by an alien race bent of cleansing the Earth of human evil. What a great set-up!

Unfortunately, that’s where the story began to sag. The suspense dissipated into long, long, long stretches of characters explaining the obvious to one another. Action submerged under the weight of description and dialog that didn’t advance the plot, reveal character, or heighten conflict. Even when something important was happening, it felt distant and flat, without emotional engagement.

On a prose level, the many scientific impossibilities or rather extreme implausibilities are dismissed with “unknown reason,” or “somehow this happens.” I was able to ignore most of the medical errors, until “Unless he’s bipolar and can change his mind without a trace of his old emotions” just threw me out of the story, since my husband has bipolar disorder and that’s not how it works. Awkward prose includes bits like, “My ears comb the silence,” and “The seconds of silence that followed lingered in the air like a pungent smell.”

I want to say something about first person, present tense, when handled by an inexperienced writer. Both choices give the illusion of dramatic intensity and emotional immediacy but are actually hurdles to achieving them. Just because action happens inside the protagonist’s head and “in the now” does not automatically engage the reader more deeply. First person is commonly used in Young Adult fiction today (although this was not always true and might fall into disfavor in the future) because the focus is so often the personal growth of the central character. This creates difficulties in conveying information that’s necessary for the reader to understand but that the narrator herself does not know or that there is no logical reason for her to think about. You end up with dialog whose only purpose is the edification of the reader, or in which two characters tell each other what they already know, or ask idiotic questions at inappropriate times, which happens entirely too frequently in this book. Present tense in particular requires skill in order to not be flat and passive. You end up with passages of verbal flab like:

++We go through the net, the garden, and then come to the base of the structure. There is no visible divide between the inside and outside. We enter the building by walking through an invisible force field. We enter a massive lobby with towering white walls that elegantly slope down from the ceiling and rise up from the floor like white sand dunes. We go to the wall straight ahead.++

If you’re in need for a cure for insomnia, look no further. (Snarky aside: three out of four sentences begin with “we,” and two of those “we enter” — what editor let this slip through?)

I think in the end the length and tedious pace bothered me so much because I didn’t connect with the central character. She kept asking annoying rhetorical questions, and the choice of present tense conferred an unfortunate emotional flatness. Another reader might love the book. For me, though, the fact that this is only the first book in a series made it ¾ of a book too long. The story is imaginative and should have been compelling. I don’t know whether the author or the editor bears the greater share of blame for the result.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ruby & Topaz Publishing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I was incredibly interested in this book alone for the description. I was ready for some weird Contagion-esque, end-of-the-world, 5th Wave kind of deal. That was not what I read. Instead, I read a lengthy, but good, book about a girl whose world is ripped apart and the illness killing everyone on earth literally accounts for like one-fifth of the book.
Potency follows the story of Harper. She’s homeschooled, incredibly good at Biology, has to sneak away to play soccer, and just wants to graduate to get away from her family. The Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome has only hit a few cities: an unnamed city in Kenya and New York City. That’s hundreds of miles away from Reno, Nevada where she lives. One night after an argument with her mom, she runs to the desert and stumbles upon creatures that are human-like and give off a glow. That night everything changes. She’s constantly haunted by the glowing creatures she saw in the dark and after an unsettling night of babysitting and another hidden soccer game, Harper returns home to find that she’s alone and her entire neighborhood is in quarantine: the Masaai Mara Sleeping Syndrome has arrived in Reno. Soon after she’s the last one left in her neighborhood and is kidnapped while during an failed escape plan created by her mother and brother. She finds out that she’s not truly human at all. While living in this new world, she finds friends but not everything in this new place is settling right with her. Half-truths and a search for the real truth begin and at the end, Harper’s still looking for the right answers.
Honestly, this book was good. That’s it. There were part that had a lot of potential, but to me it just fell kind of flat. There was so much detail that felt unnecessary which made it super lengthy. Also, this book is over 600 pages and much of it is those extra details or plot points that aren’t even necessary to the main story. There were so many characters mentioned that I had a hard time keeping track, especially the ones that were only mentioned once or twice and had no dialogue, but kept being brought up.
My favorite parts about this book was the quarantine and maybe the last 150-200 pages. The quarantine was super interesting. The intrigue and suspense was there: ‘Will she catch this super contagious killer virus, or would she survive. She’s alone and has a single friend from the National Guard that she met the day before, is she going to make it.’ The last 150-200 pages truly made it feel like everything I sat through was worth it. There was action, there was suspense, there was the knowing that everything that Harper had gone through wasn’t for nothing, but it all came together (the parts that mattered) and fell into place. The book ended making me want more (there’s an abrupt ending), but more of the actual story and less of the insignificant details.
This book releases on June 16th and is a great read if you really love details, aliens, books taking place in otherworldly atmospheres, and intrigue. Overall it really was good, but again, the extreme amount of details just threw me off.

Part of a series, Glow's book one is a long ride away from home. It certainly does take you away but it also feels like the longest book you have ever read. Harper is a teenager who feels alone in her own house, her mother traps her in while all she wants is to play soccer with her friends.

What she does not know is the reason behind her mother's behavior and at the time she is not even interested. Not until she has been dragged away by aliens, stripped off of her human skin and thrown into a group of hybrids who are forgetting themselves while the rest of the work goes extinct.

Seems like a great story right? It truly is a great premise but it lacks motivation. Glow by Aubrey Hadley is a detailed description of the new events taking place in Harper's life. A little too detailed at times. The story and arc could have run a little faster, taking us into the story and Harper's change. But we see all of it only for a few seconds while the rest of the book takes the long route to the end.

Since the book is a series and a sci-fi one detailed rendition of every min of the day is expectable but I couldn't wait to finish the book and finally see what happens to all of them, but after weeks of reading, we do not get much in the end. I am not sure if this was the right fit for me but I did enjoy the basic story and the authors writing talent.

Thanks for the chance to review this book.

The cover was beautiful and the description was eye-catching! Unfortunately, the content wasn't for me. The pacing wasn't quite right, which is a problem for a 600+ page book, and there was a bit too much telling and not enough showing which detracted from my enjoyment of the story. That's not really my preference in sci-fi. I definitely respect the effort, though, and wish the author the best of luck with the rest of the series.

I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I was interested in reading this one because I thought it was about a few survivors from some kind of weird, mysterious illness that rapidly spreads across the globe, killing most of the population. Turns out that is not at ALL what this was about.

I absolutely hated the first 20% or so of this book before we got into the meat of the story. I just did not care about the teenage main character's arguments with her mom or sneaking off to play soccer with her friends. Just did not care in the slightest and almost DNFed right then. But nevertheless, I persisted.

That's when we start to hear rumors of a new, mysterious illness popping up, and I was intrigued, but then when all the descriptions of weird, glittery, rainbow things, the narrative totally lost me. Seriously, I can only read about things being "glittery" and "rainbow" so many times; there have GOT to be better adjectives.

Without getting into spoilers, we learn that there are aliens. Yes, aliens, and it's unclear if they are the good guys or the bad guys. The majority of the book takes place among the aliens, so we learn more about their culture and what's they're all about, and why they are so interested in humans.

But I just didn't care enough to have any interest in picking up the sequel... sorry.

<b>Another interesting concept whose result lacked cohesion and a proper execution.</b> From the sheer number of excess pages and superfluous information, to the characters needing more substance, this one was a disappointing and tedious read.

From the summary, the impact and urgency of the conflict seems to revolve around this mysterious illness, the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome. There's an outbreak in New York which wiped out an entire homeless shelter and now it seems to have appeared in Harper Loomis's town of Reno, Nevada.

The introduction to the character of Harper, her family, her friends, and the fear of the disease itself was nicely done. From the onset, I was fairly intrigued and curious about the potential avenues Hadley would explore with so much that happens in the beginning few chapters alone. The pace seemed to be set nicely for a speedy and action-packed book. <b>No such luck.</b>

Given how much seems to ride on this disease being the main culprit in the book based on the summary, you'd think you wouldn't completely ignore it for the majority of the plot. Harper is picked up by aliens fairly early on and wakes up from having lost consciousness. She is now in a jail of goo apparently on an alien ship. <b>From this point forward, Harper's <I>adventures</i> could barely be described as such.</b>

Harper joins a large group of other captured humans aboard the alien craft/vessel/location (the exactness of Harper's new facilities is left intentionally vague by Hadley and it's annoyingly frustrating throughout and barely has a modicum of payoff when the truth is eventually revealed). Together the group is learning to become part of a community to work and learn alongside the aliens, known as the Ancients. However, it's clear something is amiss. Or it should be, but the feeling never fully develops. <b>I kept wanting it to start something, go somewhere...anything!</b>

We follow Harper and some members of the group as they learn tasks, exercise, eat alien gewd (goo+food), and continue to lose their memories and emotional attachment to related Earth stuffs through rather tame brainwashing. Harper and the others are forgetting who they were on Earth and what they loved about it....their life before. So any struggle to get off this vessel, vanishes in inexplicable ways and at an inexplicable pace for Harper. <b>This is the majority of the book. <u>And it is tedious.</u></b>

Too many details, too much information. From entire news articles, entire tv news reports, entire orally relayed character back stories, I see how this ended up too long of a book. Better editing would’ve helped this one tremendously. The entirety of the novel fails to really follow a good formula for keeping the reader engaged and setting a good pace for the characters. In addition to that, the characters lack a true-to-life depth and none of them really grow or change...Harper in particular is a really static character. She is the same person at the end of the novel that she was at the beginning—just with a lot more information.

I wanted to like this one, and I think I could've if it had been properly pared down, properly paced, and better character development. There's something there, and I enjoyed the basic concept, but I really struggled to finish this behemoth.

This book was not what i expected at all. It was a fun scifi fantasy, which made you question who was telling the truth, and who Harper could trust - along with learning about herself and her unknown skills.
As a character harper really develops and learns not just about herself but the people, species and world around her, personally i didnt like some of the names of the characters and items but I think thats more my rain being lazy than a valid complaint.
There are some brilliant points in the book about human behaviors and attitudes, including exterminating smaller species and care for the planet all of which are true and should hopefully be taken on board. Cant wait for Book 2.

The beautiful front cover and compelling premise lured me into choosing to read “Glow : Book I, Potency” by Aubrey Hadley, a book about apocalypse and alienation.

The Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome has appeared in New York, and it has wiped out an entire homeless shelter.
The same night of the outbreak, Harper, a seventeen-year-old girl, stumbles across a glowing figure in the desert outskirts of her neighbourhood. As her suburb goes on lock-down, Harper finds herself isolated from her friends and family, and soon begins to suspect that the events - though thousands of miles apart - may have something in common.
Harper must find her bravery and embark on a plot-twisting adventure that will have her looking for answers in unexpected places and different worlds.

Although this book is not from one of my normally preferred genres and it is a longer read than I normally choose, it was still a really enjoyable novel. I can't say that I've ever read anything exactly like it, or even similar. If you are into vampires or spectres then this isn’t for you. It’s just something totally innovative and fresh and that is why I liked it.

The main characters, whilst not necessarily particularly likeable, were a good fit for the story. As for the ending, I usually prefer one that is a little more definitive, unless it is meant to be a cliffhanger.

Overall, whilst it wasn’t one of my best-ever reads, I would recommend this book by Aubrey Hadley. I am guessing that there will be a sequel to “Glow : Book I, Potency,” so I will look out for it.

[Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Ruby and Topaz, for a free ARC of #Glow in exchange for an honest review.]

Not really knowing what to expect from this book, did manage to stay to the end, an interesting sci fi concept that just didn't feel like it had enough meat, the beginning and the end were highlights the middle did seem to drag. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I never wanted to put this book down. I enjoyed the different settings, the Ancients world sounds fascinating. I can't wait to read the next book. The story was enthralling while covering a lot of different topics. Thought it was fairly well done.

I’m struggling to finish this one. The story line is interesting but not really holding my attentions. The blurb drew me in but I’m sorry to say the book just isn’t what I’d hoped it’d be.

First, thanks to Net Galley and Ruby & Topaz Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy, but this was a DNF for me. I wanted to like it and get through it, but I gotta tell ya I just did not enjoy this book. I couldn't even make it to 25%. It seemed intriguing, I liked the cover art, and it seemed off to an good, action-filled start, but then came all the details about every little thing she did. There was too much detail, weird moments that seemed to come out of nowhere, like when she's reunited with Brett then suddenly Max turns a gun on him, and I didn't care for the seemingly simplistic writing with awkward dialogue, I got bored with it and kept finding myself wanting to be distracted

I LOVED this book! Wonderfully written with a great story-line, I'm eagerly anticipating the next book!