Pastel Pink

Zadok Series

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Pub Date 15 Apr 2021 | Archive Date 19 Apr 2021

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Description

From one ending comes a new beginning…

Ruby was murdered on Earth eighteen years ago and reincarnated on Zadok as a Pastel Zeek named Harlow. To be born at the bottom of her race’s caste colour system to a middle-class family of Magentas has made Harlow a source of conflict amongst the ruling Purples, and a source of derision from all three colours.

When Harlow is attacked by a fuegor on Zadok, the effects of its slow reacting venom triggers an unforeseen phenomenon, and due to the strong connection she had with her former twin sister Jade, her human spirit is unexpectedly drawn back to Earth.

Now living a double life, she has plunged into a world of intrigue on both planets.

On earth, she watches on in horror as Jade reconnects with Lucas, the man who murdered her and got away with it. And to complicate things further, she’s being pursued by Alex, the ghost of Lucas’ twin. On Zadok, she becomes embroiled with Jax, the son of the Commanding family. He’s determined to bring about change to the colony’s colour system, but it’ll come at a cost. 

As Harlow mixes with the political intrigue of the Zeeks, will she become a victim of those trying to rigidly maintain the status quo or will she usher in a revolution? 

And will ghost Ruby resist the temptation of the handsome Alex or pursue an impossible relationship that could have dire consequences on both planets?

From one ending comes a new beginning…

Ruby was murdered on Earth eighteen years ago and reincarnated on Zadok as a Pastel Zeek named Harlow. To be born at the bottom of her race’s caste colour...


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ISBN 9780645056204
PRICE A$4.99 (AUD)

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Featured Reviews

This book was spectacularly written! From when I started this book to when I finished it, I almost never put in down. Each time I finished a chapter I keep wanting to read more. Character development, I thought, was really good and how she describes events, emotions, people etc... is very descriptive.
Pastel Pink is like no other fantasy book I have ever read. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy fantasy/sci fi and romance.

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The cover of this book is very pretty and caught my eye in the crowd.

The thing I really liked about this story was, it’s fast moving. There was never a dull moment, every scene had a meaning behind it, and the writing itself was gorgeous and descriptive.

Harlow’s story was gripping. She is born a lower caste Pastel to a family of middle caste Magentas, which ostracizes her from all three colours, and makes her stand out for all the wrong reasons. As the story continues Harlow learns many secrets about the Commanding family’s scandals and the truth about certain events that happened when she was only a baby. I must say, I am quite the fan of Jax, the Commanding son.

Ruby’s story was gripping also. You could really feel her hatred towards Lucas and her love for her twin sister Jade. I have conflicted feelings about Lucas’ brother Alex, I like him, but by the end of the story I wanted to shake him. Admittedly, I still do like him though, and I’m interested in seeing what happens with his character in the next instalment.

Zavier is an interesting character. I could really feel his love for Harlow and his hatred towards the Purples. He has a bad attitude at times, but he’s also had a very hard life and you can tell he feels bitter about it. He’s still likeable all the same.

I think this is a quality indie book and well worth a read.

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spoiler free short review!

Pastel pink was a unique sci-fi book. The cover is stunning as is what’s in store inside the book. We read about Ruby who was murdered on Earth and got reincarnated to Zadok with a new name: Harrlow. Harlow's twin sister Jade on Earth reunites with the man who had killed Ruby/Harrlow and gotten away with the murder. One thing I had loved about this book was the emotions we felt through Harlow from reading. Only to add to the concept of the plot we get more drama which is entertaining. What stood out the most was the amazing impression of the world-building. The author had put much thought into the process of creating it. Moving on to the pacing of the book, the beginning was more a steady interesting pace, moving towards the middle I had felt it getting slower but as we reached the end the pace had picked up and was faster. So pace-wise, it’s a neutral read. What didn’t make me give the extra one star was due to the pacing, a personal preference. Overall this is an interesting read that I think anyone who likes sci-fi and fantasy could enjoy!

Reviewed: 2/3/2021

ARC COPY

Requested, Received, and Reviewed voluntarily (thank you)

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I found this to be a fun read.

The book is told from three different perspectives: Harlow (Ruby's new identity on Zadok), Ruby (as a spirit), and Zavier (Harlow's best friend). Each perspective is equally important and helps the reader to better understand Zadok and move the story forward. Each perspective is so engaging and important to the story that it's hard to pick a favorite.

An additional thing I liked about the different perspectives is how it helps with world building. The different narratives work together to explain Zadok and its cultures in a way that moves with the story rather than getting stuck and pausing the story to world build. The change in perspectives also allows you to meet different characters on Zadok and learn what makes them tick.

Pastel Pink is the first book in a series. So much of the book explores Zadok's culture, the relationship between the characters, Ruby's former life, and increasing conflict on Zadok. In the end one problem gets resolved, but several more are created as a result. And with this part of the series complete, I'm excited to see what happens next in Ruby Red.

(Note: I did notice some nitpicky things while reading. "Gabs" instead of "grabs". "Deertra" instead of "deetra". An unneeded "a" in a sentence. A missing "I" in another sentence. One word missing an apostrophe and a unneeded apostrophe somewhere else. In one instance the J in Jade's name isn't capitalized.)

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At first i gotta say - LOOK AT THAT COVER. just ..LOOK AT IT. It`s so awesome and beautiful!
When i started the book, i was kinda meh? The start was interesting, then i got a little lost for a while but the story and the characters managed to drag me back in. Look forward to the next book!

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The story of Pastel Pink is set on a planet called Zadok, which is divided in four realms. Each realm has their own leader and their own race. The races are different from each other by color, for example the Zeeks are pink/purple whereas the Vallons are orange/red. Harlow is a Pastel, which means she is the lowest in the order of the Zeeks. Harlow her parents and sister however, are Magenta. Harlow works alongside her twin sister Floss as a fruit picker, a job that is usually reserved for Magentas but as Harlow has a Magenta family, the Commanding family made an exception for her. Harlow finds out later this exception was made at a great cost for the Commanding family. One day, Harlow is attacked in the woods by a fuegor and barely makes it out alive. The toxic saliva from the Fuegor makes it possible for Harlow to travel to the Human world as a ghost. Harlow used to be an 18-year old human girl named Ruby with a twin sister Jade. Ruby was killed, so she finds herself watching the lives of the people she once loved as they have moved on about 18 years later. Alex is also a ghost in the Human world, but is also alive on Zadok. We follow Harlow as she struggles with coming to terms with her new life compared to her old life, falling in love, feeling left out and realizing she might be more than just another Pastel.

The cover is very pretty, the art is amazing and gives you an idea of what our main character, Harlow, looks like.
The story was very interesting and compelling, I finished this book in a few days. There is a bit of a love triangle going on (probably even a love square), which is what I didn't like about this book. Harlow seems to have admirers from every corner thrown at her and she doesn't quite know how to handle getting that much attention. She seems to be in love with two of her three admirers, which made me cringe a bit. The love interests are however really interesting to read about, which made up for the cringe.
One thing I really didn't like about this book is the ending, it ends in the middle of a scene. It's a smart move to end a book like that, because now I can't wait to read the next one. But I generally don't like a book ending in the middle of something, especially if I have to wait to continue reading.

All in all, I really liked this book. It has a lot of potential. Given this is Nikki Minty's debut, I am curious to see what more she has to offer in the future.

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This book actually turned out a lot different than I expected it to. I loved the cover, which is why I initially requested an ARC from NetGalley. Are there books with similar stories out there? Absolutely. Any “dystopian, post-earth” world has only so many options for civilization.

The writing style was simple but kept you coming back for more, which is a perfect YA story in my opinion. Something I don’t want to put down and can read fairly quickly.

The idea of having Harlow able to return as a ghost Ruby was a twist that made the book more than just another civilization segregated into a colour system, where the weak only become the weaker.

Unfortunately, I like my books filled with drama, so for me the ending was a bit lack lustre. But again that’s just my opinion. I look forward to continuing reading on this journey with Harlow and see what trouble follows her and Ruby next.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

I’m not sure what my final thoughts for this book are. There are A LOT of problematic relationships in this book. I know that’s the point for some, but people are seriously messed up in the book. Overall, I did enjoy the story though. I like the flash backs and links to Earth. I usually can’t stand “real world” stuff in books, but this wasn’t too bad. The Zadoc world is really interesting. Everyone is kind of horrible to each other, as I said. The color systems are rough but make for a very interesting read. The powers and weaknesses of the colors are unique, especially with the different races. I’m really looking forward to the next book. I need to know what happens. Alex’s irrational behavior kind of annoyed me at the end, but there were major cliff hangers.!

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From the moment I picked this up to read I could barely put it down. I absolutely loved it. It wasn’t your ordinary story and had so many twists and turns and storylines so well connected that I just had to know what happened next. I’m so sad that I’ve finished it and have to wait for the next book to be ready to read. I need to know what happens next! 10/10 would read again and probably will read again soon.

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Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read and review this awesome book 💜💜

Seriously hate how work and life got in the way of reading this book so much because I never wanted to put it down!

I went into this having no clue how I’d feel about it but so so glad I finished loving it!
Harlow/Ruby was a really nice MC. I loved the whole idea of Ruby in her next life as Harlow on a completely different planet. The whole world building was amazing, the different species (I guess that’s what you’d call it 😂) on the planet Zadok was so cool, and all the details of them and what they look like/ act like and even speak like, I thought that was awesome.

There was definitely some toxic characters in this book, but there was also some amazing characters 💜

The ending was quite surprising, I thought it was going to go a certain way but I was wrong! This was definitely a fun (sometimes worrying and stressful) read!
I’m definitely excited for the next book! 💜

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Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this arc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I don't feel it's often that I start a review with that sentence. It was one of the few times that I didn't get confused by the POV's that were in here and they are clearly labelled. 

This brings me on nicely to Harlow/Ruby. I was unsure how Nikki Minty was going to bring what I thought would be two different personalities across but it was very well done. I like that you know when Harlow is Harlow and when Harlow is Ruby and I didn't really need the POV's labelling to know this. I relished how she made this one person have two lives and how it all ties in.

Some of the side characters were a little annoying, such as Zavier who was the typical "friend-zoned" butt hurt boy who deserves more because he's been Harlow's friend for years. No boy deserves your romantic love because they're your only friend. This type of character just grates on me but again he's well written for this to actually annoy me to this level. 

Floss and Jade were strange in their complete contrast to each other and I am still unsure what to make of this. 

I thought the world-building was done well, especially when we take the whole colour conflict. When Ruby Red comes out later this year I would like to get to know more about the colours and the differences between them. The only thing that got a little tedious was Harlow translating the things Zeeks have to human comparison. Such as the "cafe" Zavier works at by calling it a coffee shop. I got that without the explanation. 

The ending caught me off guard and because of that, I will be waiting not so patiently for Ruby Red to be released.

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I adored this book - it had everything you could truly need from a YA sci-fi/fantasy novel. And isn’t the cover just stunning? Pastel pink follows Harlow, a reincarnated Pastel Zeek living on Zadok, who was previously murdered on Earth as Ruby, a human. It follows her life in both of these locations - and how they intertwine. The book starts straight into the action - with a graphic depiction of Ruby's murder in the human world, which hooks you into the story straight away.
First of all, I loved the reincarnation aspect, I'm fairly sure I've never read a book which has quite done it justice? But this certainly did! It was so easy to tell between Harlow's chapters and Ruby's chapters, as they had different storylines and 'personalities' (even though it's technically the same person).
One of my favourite aspects was the world building; Nikki Minty did a fantastic job at developing a complex new world. Zadok is a planet which has 4 unique 'realms' based on the seasons, with different races and kingdoms. Each of these, especially the one based on Winter, where Harlow lives, are based on a hierarchical caste systems by skin colour, which dictates their 'place' in society (i.e., where they can work and who they can form relationships with). I appreciated this aspect as it seemed to reflect, and be a critique of racism in society (which is an especially relevant topic of discussion in current society). However, I do wish some of the other kingdoms were explored a little bit more, but I can see why they were not, as the book would have potentially been too long (hopefully the next books do so!)
The only small issue I had was with some of the side characters and love interests, I found some of them to just be annoying and unnecessary - and to be honest it was quite hard to figure out whether they were supposed to be unlikeable? However, some of the other characters, such as Jax, who I loved, definitely made up for this - I would protect this man with all of my being.
The ending is painful. It ends on a true cliffhanger, right after an extremely dramatic event, which just left me needing the second book in the series now (which is released in July btw, woohoo! I'll be keeping my eye out for that).
I would definitely recommend this book to any sci-fi and fantasy fans. I think fans of Marissa Meyer and the Lunar Chronicles would especially love this book (and series!).

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I am so so SOOO grateful to receive this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review because DAMN what an interesting and creative ride. This book grabbed me from the thrilling prologue and held me until the very last page. I need the second book of the series ASAP! I just loved everything single thing about this book and I was so addicted to it that I couldn’t put it down until the very end. From the multiple and well established book worlds to the amazing and loveable characters, this book was a hit for me and I cannot wait to continue the series!

Usually two dueling book worlds can cause too much confusion or not allow enough detail to be conveyed to the reader, but this author is a winner because she gave equal time to both and gave just enough details to root out any confusion or chaos for the reader. I mean not only did she do it well, but I LOVED the book worlds equally. Whenever we were pulled out of one, I was sad to be pulled out, but was instantly satisfied to be back in the other. I mean these dueling book worlds allow this book to have something for everyone and I am so on board! We have revenge and murder in one world and a dystopian forbidden love in another... this book is so good.

So not only did I love these book worlds, I also was obsessed with these characters! There were so many amazing and unique characters that it just made the book so much more lovable. I just want more time with these amazing characters and thought the book was over way too soon! Harlow is such a strong chick and has been through a lot of crap. However, instead of dwelling on it and feeling sorry for herself, she is a badass and takes names. Not only was the main character amazing, there are so many sexy love interests to get lost in. I mean how do I choose? They were all so yummy and I can’t wait for more of them.

The book was told through multiple perspectives, which is my favorite, but I just wish there were more perspectives. I wish I could see in Flow’s head, Jax’s and Alex’s. I just want to know what they're thinking about everything and I really hope I will get more in the next book. I also have so many questions about the dynamics of the book worlds and how they work. I just want answers and I need them as soon as possible! UGH THE IMPATIENCE IS REAL!

Overall this was a fantastic fantasy and I cannot wait for the next book!

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Pastel pink by Nikki Minty.
I really really enjoyed this book. I loved the cover. It was pretty. That's what drew me to this book. That and the blurb. This was a different and refreshing read for me. I liked Harlow Jaxon and Zavier. Didn't like Floss. Especially how she was with Harlow. Looking forward to the next book. 5*.

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just wanted to say lovee the cover made it stand out soooo much
Great , fast paced book i was very doubtful i would understand the plot because in the description it was just a lot of words .
but was delightfully surprised !
Unlike any other fantasy book i've read ..
will definitely read again

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Pastel Pink is about a girl reincarnated on a different planet, but remembers her previous life on Earth - such an interesting concept right from the start! Add in wonderful world building, well developed characters, and of course that gorgeous cover art and it's a great book!

I found myself so intrigued with the planet Zadok that I wanted to travel there myself - definitely a really fun journey! This is perfect for anyone who really loves the sci-fi fantasy genre!

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The most interesting thing for me about this book were the characters. There was a lot of them but they were well developed. You actually got a chance to care about them and wanting to know more about their life.

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Can I just say how much I love the cover? It so stunning. The world the author had created was so realistic and complex and yet it wasn’t at all confusing. The story follows Harlow a reincarnated Pastel Zeek living on Zadok, who was murdered on Earth as Ruby, a human. The story is told from both their perspective and how they intervine.

All in all a great read, hated the fact that it ended on a cliff hanger though. Cant wait to get my hands on the next one now.

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Actual rating: 3.75 stars

Thanks so much to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for this eARC!

I was really drawn to this book because of the cover and because of my goal of expanding my reading repertoire beyond my usual fantasy and dystopian reads. This one being a sci-fi definitely fits the bill of diversifying my reads. It started off really normal, but when the storyline got going, it really picked up! The book was really fast paced but I enjoyed the pacing quite well. The groundwork for the series was really well established and I look forward to reading Ruby Red!

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the cover is what drew me in, it was so magnificently done, the story itself works perfectly and I enjoyed going through this fantasy novel. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed getting to know them.

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Pastel Pink by Nikki Minty was a wonderful experience and unlike anything I have read in quite a long time. The lore and world-building were so immersive, and the characters were such a joy to follow along with. Harrow/Ruby's feelings were so realistic, and it was so refreshing for the main character to be flawed and difficult. I was rooting for her the entire time, and by the end of the book, I was desperately wishing for the next installment! Also, in a controversial opinion, I loved the color system. I actually broke it all down in a journal to follow along with as I read, and I thought it was loads of fun. I can't wait to see where the author takes this series.

If you're interested in a story that blends our world and one that couldn't be more different, with lovable characters and a plot that will keep you biting your nails until the very end, pick up Pastel Pink. It's easily worth it.

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This was such an interesting start to a new series. I am a little late reviewing this book.
I loved the characters, and how this world was somewhat twisted, but it all made sense.
I read this in like a day, and that is rare. When I do that it indicates that I like the book.
I loved to learn more in this world, and even if this is a completely new world to me I didn’t find it difficult to follow.

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Right from the beginning, Pastel Pink captivated me with its interesting narrative. The world-building is a testament to the author's brilliant creativity. I could vividly picture everything and this cover!!!!! So freaking gorgeous! I'm a sucker for character art on the cover and this one is impeccable. Harlow on the cover really helped me develop a clear mind's eye picture of her as well. Having racism hinted at existing within a single race based on colors was interesting and clever. I liked it a lot, not enough for a 5-star read but this was a cute little pallet cleanser.

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