Stange Skies by Kristi Helvig #BookReview #Giveaway

Title: STRANGE SKIES
Author: Kristi Helvig
Pub. Date: April 28, 2015
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 272
Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Action, adventure, and romance are heating up in this sequel to the futuristic science fiction thriller Burn Out. Perfect for fans of Across the Universe and The Memory of After.

Caelia is the new Earth. That's what the Consulate told everyone and, against all odds, Tora finally has made it there. She can't see the ocean from her cell in the Consulate's containment center, and she doesn't know what happened to the weapons her father died for and she's risked her life to save.

But as she plans her escape, she runs into the last person she ever expected to see-her dad. The Consulate has kept held him prisoner in a complicated plot designed to lure Tora out of hiding. Now Tora has a new purpose: break free, get the guns, and save her father.

But first she'll have to navigate a strange new planet, track down James (whose loyalties still remain questionable), and find Kale…before he finds her first.

Releases simultaneously in eBook format (ISBN: 978-160684-482-3).

Story Locale: Caelia, a planet colonized after Earth becomes unhabitable

Series Overview: In a future where the sun has turned into a red giant, making Earth unhabitable, a teen girl fights for survival while trying to protect the special weapons her father invented from falling into government control.

Wow. What a fantastic second book if I’ve ever read one. I loved Burn Out and Strange Skies keeps up the Sci-FI goodness that Kristi Helvig executed in the first book. It was fast paced and explosive.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read the first book. So my memory had to be jogged a little bit and of course Tora herself is missing memories. So it turns out some of the things I wasn’t supposed to know. The story picks up with Tora waking up in a drug induced haze. She doesn’t know where she is and what’s going on, all she knows is she needs to get out. After being rescued we find out that Tora was in a Consulate facility on the new planet of Caelia and they were wiping her memories in attempt to control her in order to control the guns. It’s always about those crazy guns. Soon Tora finds herself in the Resistance camp and she is not necessarily universally welcomed. She has to navigate this new world and complete her personal mission, destroy the guns. She just needs to figure out where Kale took them.

The story stays fresh even though it’s a second book and I think that has a lot to do with the setting. We move from the scorched Earth to Caelia and therefore have an opportunity for some new world building. Now they have to learn to function in a new climate and ecosystem. So it adds another layer to the things they are navigating through. I thought it was interesting that book focuses not as much on The Consulate but on the Resistance and it’s inner turmoil. We get a good look at these people and what exactly they want. The Consulate is still there and is a threat but it’s more about getting the guns. I really liked how it did a lot of focusing on what is more important, a better life or getting revenge.

Tora has changed so much since the first book where she was the scrawny girl living in a hole in the ground. She’s seen things now that she can’t unsee. Blood, dying and betrayal are things that seems to happen every day and she has moments that she is afraid she is going to lose herself and become more like Kale. Of course Kale is rotten, only Kale can pull that off. I think towards the end of the book she makes an important choice between sympathy and revenge. It makes her true character shine through.

James is so swoony this time around. In the first book he’s more quiet and to himself. He keeps his distance as much as possible. Where in this book he is wearing his heart on his sleeve. It’s more important to him for Tora to forgive him and be with him no matter what he needs to do to win her back. I love the effort he makes and how he fights for their relationship. It made him so seriously swoony, I wanted cute doctor boy to fix me up.

I was so happy with this book and I already feel like I want to read both books again. Kristi Helvig is definitely on my top list for authors of Sci-fi.

Kristi Helvig is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist turned sci-fi/fantasy author. Her first novel, BURN OUT (Egmont USA), which Kirkus Reviews called “a scorching series opener not to be missed,” follows 17-year-old Tora Reynolds, one of Earth’s last survivors, when our sun burns out early. In the sequel, STRANGE SKIES, coming 4/28/2015, Tora makes it to a new planet only to discover a whole new host of problems—and the same people who still want her dead. Order Kristi’s books through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite local retailer. Kristi muses about Star Trek, space monkeys, and other assorted topics on her blog at www.kristihelvig.com and Twitter (@KristiHelvig). You can also find her on Facebook. Kristi resides in sunny Colorado with her hubby, two kiddos, and behaviorally-challenged dogs.