Publisher: Macmillan Children's
Publication date: September 2011
ISBN: 9780374302108
Source: ARC provided by publicist
Anya Balanchine is no stranger to crime. She's grown up the daughter of the head of an illegal chocolate empire. But when her dad was murdered, she was left to care for her brother, sister, and sick grandmother. At least she's kept them out of the business. Until the new head of the DA comes to town, bringing his cute son with him, and Anya learns you can never escape from your family.
Things I Liked:
I was sucked into this book right away, and it wasn't necessarily the story. It was the voice! I adored Anya from the first - she is full of sarcasm, and strength, and smarts. I love how she makes tough choices and how she accepts the consequences of them, no matter what. She was the main reason I kept reading, to find out where she ends up and what happens to her. I was also in love with the minor characters, Galina, Natty, Win, Scarlet - it was a great bunch of characters that made me care what happened. Oh, and I really loved how Anya was religious, but it wasn't a big deal. She just was. And the story wasn't too bad either, it really had me thinking of hoarding my Snickers! An awesome dystopian that isn't all about the action or the future world, but the characters.
Things I Didn't Like:
The middle dragged a bit for me, since not much happened, but because of my afore mentioned Anya-love, I was invested enough to keep reading. I kind of wanted a little bit more about this future world too, since only tidbits and mentions fleshed it out, but I liked how it wasn't really revealed all at once in an info-dump.
Read-alikes:
Curse Workers series by Holly Black
Heist Society series by Ally Carter
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
some mild cussing here and there
mrg-factor: X
all talk and no page action
v-factor: ->->
unavoidable in the Mafiya business
Overall rating: ****
Does reading dystopian fiction ever make you take action (like hoarding chocolate or buying up canned goods)?
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