4/5 stars
St. Martin's Griffin, 2013
308 pages
YA/NA Contemporary
Scheduled to release September 3
Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I believe this is one of my first New Adult reads and I actually really enjoyed it. I haven't been very interested in New Adult because it seems to be mostly presented as Young Adult with steam and that's not really the kind of story I liked. But this one followed college students battling it out in the rough and tumble Silicon Valley world with only a hint of romantic entanglements and I found it all deliciously juicy!
Adam and Amelia Dory grew up in the foster care system, sometimes lacking even basic necessities but now they're at Stanford and the world is their oyster, particularly with Adam's ambition and Amelia's brilliant coding abilities. Soon they're working on their first start-up interacting with others of various intentions and navigating the wild and heady days of being young
Yesterday I reviewed Tumble and Fall and found myself dismayed with how the third person narration left me feeling disconnected from the characters. While this is also narrated from the third person perspective and I can't say that I feel very connected to anyone (maybe a little bit to Amelia despite us sharing very little in common beyond gender), it didn't bother me. I loved the constant shifting from character to character and getting just a peek into their ambitions and how they were pursuing them. Funny how that works, eh?
Part of the reason I didn't click with the characters is that they're really revealed at their core, with their basic petty natures coming to the fore. Basically only Amelia has a real moral integrity while the other characters compromise ethics in pursuit of their larger goal. I think I liked that Amelia has deeply held principles but I didn't mind that the others didn't. I found them all enthralling and the easy writing style helped me go through this book fast.
I'm not going to go very in-depth on the twists and turns but it looks like this book is a consolidation of three previously published e-novellas by Hayes so they may already be familiar to you. I can share that this book ends abruptly and may leave you wanting more as it certainly did for me. I certainly hope there will be at least one sequel and I know I will return for it.
Other Opinions:
Books Live Forever
Jen's Book Closet
Mind Reading?
Taking It One Page at a Time
I an not a fan if this genre either, and most likely will never be.
ReplyDeleteDo you think you'd give this one a try though? I'm not sure you'd like the characters but I still enjoyed this story.
DeleteI don't like all the NA coming out at the moment, they're all terrible but this one does sound good, mostly because it's not a copy cat of all the other NA and the topic is interesting!
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad that it focused on something other than steamy romance! The other ones all seem so interchangeable with their innocent young misses and dangerous bad boys.
DeleteThis sounds like the kind of NA I'd like! I agree with you on the alternating third person. I don't always love all the jumping around, and I usually prefer one POV over others, but for some stories -- like Game of Thrones -- it really does work.
ReplyDeleteOff to read Scarlet Pimpernel :)
I was pleasantly surprised-I have so many feelings about third person perspective but it worked for me here.
DeleteSounds fun! I like the idea of NA, but don't like that most of the novels have focused on the eroticism.
ReplyDeleteMy exact complaint! I need more in a book.
DeleteIts always a bummer when you don't connect with the characters. I am not a fan of pettiness either
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see the different personalities here-I wouldn't want to be friends with anyone but I loved reading about them all.
DeleteI had a few issues with this one, but I am glad that you enjoyed it. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's not my perfect book but I liked it well enough.
DeleteI haven't really gotten into NA either, I like to have more than just romance, drama and angst in my books and this sounds like it's definitely different! I really like the sound of it!
ReplyDeleteYes, this one added technology, spying, and sabotage to the mix, which stepped it up a notch for me.
DeleteI read a book that was said to be NA and the heroine was an immortal woman thousands of years old who looked like 28...yeah, nice try.
ReplyDeleteI am just not into NA. I do not see the point. If I want YA I read that, if I want adult I read that. I do not need a middle ground, they have always existed anyway
Not sure how that would qualify for NA. I'm more like you in my definitions with YA and adult but am curious how this category plays out.
DeleteI have this book to read, and I'm glad to see you gave it 4 stars. I read a lower review this week, and I got scared. I have to say I was most attracted to the cover yet someone reading books with adopted characters/foster kids is kind of my thing lately? I think I've read about 5 that fit into that category.
ReplyDeleteI love what you say about the 3rd person narrative. Sometimes I can't pinpoint WHY certain things work in some books and not in others. I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.
Wow-5 books about adopted/foster kids lately...that's not really something I've thought about but it's an intriguing trend.
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