I`m sorry, but i could not get behind the name Cheater, it basically ruined it all for me.
I just did not enjoy this, sadly. But yeah.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. There were parts of this book that I had to re-read for I was sure that I had read them before. I found it was the way the story was constructed that some of the plot was repeated but it did not hook me right way. There were moments that had me so excited and kept me reading, but the reading did make me put it down a few times. I did for the most part enjoy the story line and the character. I like the character Jaz. I will have to see about the other two books in the trilogy and see about how I feel about this over all.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed this as a beginning of a series. I look forward to more from the author.

The premise of this book was promising, but I was hard pressed to keep reading since the plot only began to materialize near the middle of the book. Cheater has a gift she doesn't understand. She meets a person in conflict, blacks out and returns to consciousness with that person who has undergone a transformation in attitude. Jaz can read minds. Both are tied to a place called Paradise but neither knows where it is.

I agree with other reviewers that you will either love it or hate it simply based on the structure of the story. It was not a book for me, but your mileage may vary. I also know that this was difficult for me because Cheater is homeless and I have experience working with homeless individuals in the library.

I really wanted to love this book, and it started off decently strong but lost it's momentum a few chapters in. It became convoluted and slow moving - as well as a little too big for it's britches. I'd say it's definitely more middle grade fiction than YA and reads really young. Ultimately I think other books have done something similar but better.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found the writing style to be both too hard to follow and too easy to follow. The sentences were choppy which made it difficult to follow, but it also felt more tell less show for details. The premise of the book sounded so good, but the execution for me fell flat. I appreciate the opportunity to read this book, but I will not be continuing with it.

Paradise Rising by Pg Shriver a four-star read that could use a rise of its own. I was so undecided on what to give this but I went with four, as I enjoyed it and I want to read the next one in the trilogy, but on the flip I could have DNFd this so man times, just as I was getting to the point that I was like I have read this part already I’m sure, something would happen and I would be hooked in again, and its like that all the way through, so if you can follow the story you will be okay. It could have done with some polishing and I am hoping the author will do that for book two as the premise and the characters deserve another shot.

Paradise Rising is a book you will either love or hate due to how the plot is constructed. The nature of the story means it' repeats parts of the plot over and over again as it moves forward. Elements of it were extremely gripping and exciting, and some parts were not. The balance felt a little off. But as the first book in a series hopefully it all becomes clear as the story unfolds more.

I really wanted to like this book, because I found the premise interesting. Two teenagers with special powers randomly meet and realise they have a lot in common, including a need to find a place called Paradise to conquer a great evil, because their mothers have repeatedly told them about it. I found the book troublesome from the start, however, but I persevered, hoping for some sort of satisfying delivery. But the book just ends without giving the reader anything.

No matter what the overall story of a trilogy is, each part needs to have a narrative arc of its own, a build-up to a climax followed by some sort of closure, even if it's just a setting for the next book. In a book called Paradise Rising, it's fair to asume some sort of rising to take place. But no.

We spend the first half hanging out with people who then exit stage left to their happily ever after, never to be heard of again. Only then do we start to learn about the joined destiny the book description mentions, and set out on a journey to Paradise. There are some action scenes, but they simply repeat what has already happened and don't alter the plot or add to our understanding of the characters. We reach a destination, run into bad guys in what seems like the start of the climax -- and the book ends. Right in the middle of the scene. Literally. If it's supposed to be a cliffhanger to make readers anticipate the next book, it fails miserably. Especially since the opening of the next book is included in the edition, and it's about different people entirely.

The lack of a proper plot isn't the only problem. Language is convoluted with incomplete, repetitive sentences that even a voracious reader finds difficult. A middle grade reader (which is the assumed audience) will not get past the first chapter. Dialogue tends to be talking heads, with no indication to who is talking, and with the dialogue of a character divided to several paragraphs with no indication that the same speaker continues, which make it difficult to follow. Point of view is all over the place. Maybe it's supposed to be omnicient, with occasional deeper POVs, but it just ends up headhopping, with the POV changing from paragraph to paragraph, with an occasional random character's POV thrown in the mix too. This has, among other things, the unfortunate effect of the main character often refering to herself like an outsider as 'the young girl'. And to cap it all, it's preachy. Preachy in a Sunday school manner that grates the teeth of a grown-up, and becomes downright creepy when coming out of the mouth of a thirteen-year-old. Cursing is bad because it makes mother sad; The Simpsons is the cause of the moral degredation of American youth; and worst of all, 'they' banned the Christmas, and you're not even allowed to wish Merry Christmas anymore. I wonder whose playbook that came from...

When a story clearly builds on a Christ myth, with children with special powers all born on Christmas Eve trying to make it to Paradise to face the great evil, a religious undertone is expected. But the moralising and finger-pointing won't endear the middle grade readers to these characters.

Finally, the book is supposed to take place in the very near future. Year 2024 is mentioned in the book description, though never in the actual book. There's been some sort of economic collapse, but the world continues pretty much as it's been, with the addition of more poor people. But the overall feel of the world is like it's twenty years in the past. MP3 player is the height of technology, there isn't a cell phone in sight, flat computer monitor is mentioned especially, and when a thirty something couple requests romantic music, they ask for Elvis. That'll resonate with the teenagers of today.

All in all, this is a difficult book to like. Sara (I refuse to call her Cheater, which is an awful name to give to a character) has a tragic past that is rehased over and over. Surely there's more to a character than the people she's lost. Jaz, too, has lost his entire family, but with his special skill of mind-reading, you'd think he'd made something of himself by now. They remain sketches to the end. But had I been given a proper story (it doesn't have to be the full story, as this is a trilogy) I would've given the book three stars instead of two. Now, I struggled to give it even that.