Julia CraneCritiques

{my thoughts} - This book is about a cyborg named Kaitlyn. She was a teenager when her life had been tragically taken from her. However, to do one last good deed in the world she had allowed for her body to be donated to science. She had no idea what that entailed but she wanted to make a difference no matter how big of little in the end. This book is well written and a nice and fast read. I enjoyed getting to know Kaitlyn and who she was as a human as well as the cyborg side of her. I was surprised with much of the information that had been unraveled throughout the book and even sad when I discovered that it ended with cliffhanger. I am not real fond of cliffhangers but I do look forward to reading the continuation of Kaitlyn’s story when the next book is released.

{reason for reading} - I purchased this book on Amazon because the concept had appealed to me.

{my thoughts} - This book is about a cyborg named Kaitlyn. She was a teenager when her life had been tragically taken from her. However, to do one last good deed in the world she had allowed for her body to be donated to science. She had no idea what that entailed but she wanted to make a difference no matter how big of little in the end. This book is well written and a nice and fast read. I enjoyed getting to know Kaitlyn and who she was as a human as well as the cyborg side of her. I was surprised with much of the information that had been unraveled throughout the book and even sad when I discovered that it ended with cliffhanger. I am not real fond of cliffhangers but I do look forward to reading the continuation of Kaitlyn’s story when the next book is released.

{reason for reading} - I purchased this book on Amazon because the concept had appealed to me.

Basically a less fun version of The Adoration of Jenna Fox.

Whatever is going on with this cover..I want to find out!

This is not a book I would recommend. It starts witht this whole expositional prologue from the main characters birth mother so from the instant we read this know the main character is like superspecial.I have read this kind of prologue Before and its hardly original and destroys the mystery and any potential buildup to finding out the truth about her past the character migth have once she discovers she is different.. Then we switch to the present with her putting on makeup and telling the reader about her "insanely pale skin". Yes it must be such a burden to have that.

And then she is going off to school and as she is doing this she casually mentions her brand shoes and brand backpack.More attention is given in the description to supporting characters appearance than having it be revealed bit by bit to the reader.She also has a boyfriend who is sooo perfect and they have known each other forever. It was meant to be. Now some might say "well of course you dont like this kind of book..its for teens.you arent a teen are you?" No I am not anymore but even then I would have found this book cloying and too sugary.

I predict a dark and smoldering second love interest will appear also.

Shallow.So shallow.

If you want to read a decent book with a similar plot but that has the heroines go through real struggles read[b:Tithe|46777|Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1)|Holly Black|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1342120818s/46777.jpg|1460966] or[b:The Iron King|6644117|The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1)|Julie Kagawa|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327877670s/6644117.jpg|6838626]

Let me start by saying this is a novel I feel falls into the YA Category, and is a story that will touch the heart of any teenager who has felt drawn to another, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, we have all been there at one point or another, and felt the awkward emotions of our teen years. We have all felt drawn to someone or some thing at some point in our lives, and it was an unmistakable urge.

Keegan is an instantly likable character, and on some level, she is someone we can all connect with. I have read a lot of novels lately in the fantasy genre that are sat in times of the past, and especially when you consider elves, you expect it to be in some previous time frame, so when you hear that the main character has an IPad and is texting on her cell phone, it becomes a little disarming, but it makes the story more real to me. I will admit that it has been several years since I have been a teenager in high school, but I loved this story and honestly, I cannot wait until I am able to acquire the rest of the series. When she meets Rourk, her chosen, her soul mate for the first time, I could genuinely feel the rush of emotions right along with the characters, and the connection was palpable.

I almost cried as the events of the story played out, and had to keep reading to see what was coming next. I liked how the author made it apparent that the world around the main character was not exactly what she perceived at all, and then allowed her to make those connections and have the camaraderie that she seemed to so desperately need. In my opinion, if you love YA Fantasy novels, this is a must read, and I am giving this the 4.5 star rating for my arbitrary self invented rating scale. I hope you will give this author a look, and come to love the story as much as I have! Until we meet again, good reading!

I wish Kaitlyn was in more of it but I really enjoyed the plot and Eliza. She’s brave and she reminds me a lot of Kaitlyn. I really hope we’ll have more books. Julia’s writing is very good and her characters are amazing (especially the women!!)

Last book read to completion for 2018, and a random used bookstore find/purchase (signed even!), but oh so good! Interesting story, unique characters, and a curious concept to explore.... definitely adding the next two books to my wish list because I can't wait to see what Kate has in store for the world!

Rylie is special. Her mother gave her up when she was a baby to keep her safe, but now her birthday is approaching and there is nowhere to hide.

I was quickly intrigued…faeries…I haven’t read a lot of them. Once she met Kallan I became hooked. Even though there is a triangle, it doesn’t bother me, the guys are two separate beings and that just adds to my curiosity…which will she choose…and why.

My only problem, I was just getting hot and heavy into the book and it ended. I need more.

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I read this on Wattpad and can't wait to read the next in the series.

Coexist has been on my to-buy and read list for a good amount of time. The main reason is because it focuses on elves and I haven't been able to find many stories about elves--most books deal with faeries so that intrigued me. I also hoped it would be what the Laurel series ([b:Wings|5056084|Wings (Wings, #1)|Aprilynne Pike|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327983077s/5056084.jpg|5122699]) wasn't to me.

In the end it was such a huge disappointment for me.

I'll start with the writing: it's very choppy and almost mechanical in its execution. It just didn't flow very well and seemed to be mostly dialogue and thoughts. The third person narration makes things very confusing. I found it hard to differentiate between who was thinking what and when because I would think we were following one character and then it would jump to another. Simple line breaks between a change in character focus would have helped a lot with this but the writing in general is nothing fantastic.

Keegan was another let down. I had hoped for a strong female lead that wouldn't annoy me like Laurel from the Laurel Series did. Laurel was annoying, but I didn't find her overly annoying until book 2; but with Keegan, I disliked her immediately. She is just so petty and immature that I had a hard time liking her. She is extremely spoiled and selfish and that just grated on my nerves. My biggest problem with her was how she handled her chosen mate situation and her thought process regarding her dating life. Too be fair, she is 16--but man, it was painful to roll my eyes by the end of it and painful to endure her thoughts.

As for the plot, it wasn't overly excited. It does pick up and have some interesting elements to it but nothing I haven't seen before or anything that made me want to keep reading nonstop.

Overall: While I am intrigued by how the book ended, I won't be picking up book 2 anytime soon--or ever. I have read a lot better and I want to spend my limited time on something a little more exciting and at my age level (and to be fair I wouldn't have enjoyed this at the age of 16 either).

Check out more book and series reviews on my blog SERIESous Book Reviews as well as book recaps!

This book opens with the boring cliché of the main character, Kaitlyn, looking at herself in the mirror. Even worse, she's hating herself/her reflection because she's a freak. I don't have a problem with angsty self-hate, if it's done right, but don't just tell me that she hates herself. Show me.

There is so much telling in this book (and hardly any showing), I felt like I was being spoonfed how I was supposed to feel. I couldn't make myself care about any of the characters. I felt like I was being talked down to, like I'm not smart enough to make up my own mind about any of this. This is why showing instead of telling is so important: the reader doesn't want to be treated like a child.

Another thing that really annoyed me was the constant, glaring typos. In one sentence, 'soldier' would be spelled correctly and incorrectly ('solider') within a few words. It seems that the author didn't bother with a basic proofread before publishing.

When Kaitlyn is at the shooting range, we are treated to a long, detailed, boring explanation of guns and shooting and stuff that I don't care about. I skipped over it. I get that the author did a bunch of research and wants to show off her knowledge, but I don't care. It's boring. And then this happens: "She continued to shoot the various drills the instructor set-up and explained. Each time, unknown to Kaitlyn, she performed at a world class level, something that took competition shooters years of practice and hundreds of thousands of rounds." In a third person limited POV, we shouldn't ever be told anything that is unknown to the POV character. It's jarringly unrealistic, because if she doesn't know it we shouldn't know it.

For a cyborg with a computer brain that we are constantly told is amazing and intelligent and beyond any human brain, Kaitlyn is really stupid. She doesn't understand slang until they give her a 'slang chip' and the only reason I can think of for this is that the author thought it would be funny if the robot got confused by idiom. Oh, haha. Spoiler: I'm not really laughing. At one point in the story, Kaitlyn is given an iPhone and this happens: " A small square on the screen said ‘Maps.’ Not knowing what else to do, she tapped it. She was surprised when it opened to a map." Are you kidding me? How idiotic is this girl?

The ending is way too easy and happens way too fast. I felt cheated. And then, Kaitlyn is approached by a douchebag at the bowling alley: '“What do you want?” she asked calmly, wishing Lucas would hurry up. “I’m looking at it.” His hand came forward as if he were going to touch her, and without considering whether she was doing the right thing, Kaitlyn grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder. He hit the hardwood floor hard on his back, and a long, low moan escaping him.' And Lucas, the man who claims to love her, berates her for this! “I promise. Kate, this is serious. If you do something bad, you could get taken away from me.” She needs to get away from Lucas now. Run away, Kaitlyn. Run far away. And don't look back.

This book really desperately needed a good proofreader and editor before it was published. The storyline was pretty good up until that awful ending, so I gave it 2 stars because I can see what it could have been. It's just so disappointing that it fell short of its potential.

I was given this book in return for an honest review, and although I didn't get a clean copy that I could read, I'm sure glad that I was persistent! Book one starts with Princess Tulepa, a dark Fae from another realm is summoned by her mother to come to Earth as it was in trouble from human's war against each other and Mother Earth was weak and she would surely die if something wasn't to restore her. On Earth, Tulepa could see first hand of the destruction that human kind waged on the land, no longer was it beautiful and green! There was barely enough humans left that once populated the Earth, and now her mother wanted her to mate with a human to repopulate Earth? In all of her two hundred years she never thought this would be requested! How was she supposed to return to her world as a tainted woman with no future of any Fae male wanting her?

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. While at first there was a slow start and a whining Tulupea to deal with I was glad to see her suck it up and do what needed to be done. Once she fell in line with her mother to help fix what 100 years of war caused and heal the earth she is a force to be reckoned with. Now that she is on board her and Michael have work to do. Great start for the series. Great character development and story line. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Very good. Take the Bionic Woman, mash it up with amnesia and romance, and make the heroine barely old enough to drink, but able to outfight Captain America. That's roughly the idea here, and it's executed quite well.

This is very much an "origin story" book, setting up a series, but I'm already looking forward to reading the (two, so far) sequels.

The title of this book bugs me, it annoys me, it frustrates me no end - it eats away at the edges of my sanity and threatens to push me over the edge. I mean, crikey, the book is about a CYBORG - a human-machine hybrid. That means the girl is a Freak of Science. A freak of nature is - 'a person, animal, or plant with an unusual physical abnormality.' Like co-joined twins, or a person with extra limbs or toes, BUT not a person whom scientists have perverted into a freak with cybernetic implants. Arrrrrgh, every time I see the book's cover I want to dump it into Photoshop and hack and slash at the title until is says Freak of Science. How could the author not know this, not see this - worse, how could they not care that they are doing our heads in with a title that's the reverse of what it should be???!!!

Now to the book. Kaitlyn made the mistake of signing that little box saying that her body would be donated to science upon her death. What she didn't figure was that she'd be reanimated as a cyborg, with all her memories of the past removed/blocked. However, she is fully aware that this has been done to her. Now what do ya reckon her reaction to this would be? Wouldn't ya think she'd be horrified, disgusted, outraged, perhaps suicidal or psychotic? But nope to all over the above - not this girl. Her reaction is to pine for and have endless sexual fantasies for a young doctor who's partly responsible for putting her in this condition. I mean, really? She wakes up to find half her body replaced with cybernetics, and this is her reaction? I've heard of people having inappropriate or unrealistic responses and reactions to external stimuli and circumstances, but this! This reaction has got to take the oil. (I can't say 'cake,' cause, you know, she's a cyborg and she don't need to eat 'n all.) But wow, Kaitlyn's such an air head! (Even more so than I am.)

And then, in a tear filled scene, Kaitlyn wails to Lucas, "I'm just a freak of nature!" And I'm thinking, Lucas, here is chance to set her straight, to answer, "No! Not a freak of nature - we did this to you. You're a freak of science." But no, he lets her comment slide, and leaves her (and the reader, ie me!) weighed down by this false ideal that nature has somehow perverted her into this condition. Woe is me, I can't take this!

And don't get me started on Lucas. How that guy could look himself in the mirror every morning when brushing his teeth and setting his hair, I just don't know. After all he did to her, and the things he kept on doing even though his conscience pointed that accusing finger at him. But that was just the first half of the book - after that he gets to make a choice, but which side of him will win out, do you think? His conscience, or his 'I have to do the wrong thing 'cause it's my job' side?

Half way through the book things hotted up (not her body temperature though, that was regulated) and the story took a more interesting turn. And although I thought I had it all worked out, Kaitlyn (you know, the air head) had the audacity to go and surprise me and take the story in an unexpected direction. The book even had a satisfactory ending too, how's that?

Let me start by saying this is a novel I feel falls into the YA Category, and is a story that will touch the heart of any teenager who has felt drawn to another, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, we have all been there at one point or another, and felt the awkward emotions of our teen years. We have all felt drawn to someone or some thing at some point in our lives, and it was an unmistakable urge.

Keegan is an instantly likable character, and on some level, she is someone we can all connect with. I have read a lot of novels lately in the fantasy genre that are sat in times of the past, and especially when you consider elves, you expect it to be in some previous time frame, so when you hear that the main character has an IPad and is texting on her cell phone, it becomes a little disarming, but it makes the story more real to me. I will admit that it has been several years since I have been a teenager in high school, but I loved this story and honestly, I cannot wait until I am able to acquire the rest of the series. When she meets Rourk, her chosen, her soul mate for the first time, I could genuinely feel the rush of emotions right along with the characters, and the connection was palpable.

I almost cried as the events of the story played out, and had to keep reading to see what was coming next. I liked how the author made it apparent that the world around the main character was not exactly what she perceived at all, and then allowed her to make those connections and have the camaraderie that she seemed to so desperately need. In my opinion, if you love YA Fantasy novels, this is a must read, and I am giving this the 4.5 star rating for my arbitrary self invented rating scale. I hope you will give this author a look, and come to love the story as much as I have! Until we meet again, good reading!

Let me start by saying this is a novel I feel falls into the YA Category, and is a story that will touch the heart of any teenager who has felt drawn to another, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, we have all been there at one point or another, and felt the awkward emotions of our teen years. We have all felt drawn to someone or some thing at some point in our lives, and it was an unmistakable urge.

Keegan is an instantly likable character, and on some level, she is someone we can all connect with. I have read a lot of novels lately in the fantasy genre that are sat in times of the past, and especially when you consider elves, you expect it to be in some previous time frame, so when you hear that the main character has an IPad and is texting on her cell phone, it becomes a little disarming, but it makes the story more real to me. I will admit that it has been several years since I have been a teenager in high school, but I loved this story and honestly, I cannot wait until I am able to acquire the rest of the series. When she meets Rourk, her chosen, her soul mate for the first time, I could genuinely feel the rush of emotions right along with the characters, and the connection was palpable.

I almost cried as the events of the story played out, and had to keep reading to see what was coming next. I liked how the author made it apparent that the world around the main character was not exactly what she perceived at all, and then allowed her to make those connections and have the camaraderie that she seemed to so desperately need. In my opinion, if you love YA Fantasy novels, this is a must read, and I am giving this the 4.5 star rating for my arbitrary self invented rating scale. I hope you will give this author a look, and come to love the story as much as I have! Until we meet again, good reading!

In this story, a serial killer is stalking abducting and killing teenaged brunettes in areas nearby. Kaitlyn decides she wants IFICS to get involved. This story is evolving into more of a crime drama, than a science fiction, which is great. It leaves the storyline open for many many more books to come!

Excellent resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of book one! This book is action filled, socially aware, wonderfully tragic, and, of course, brilliant! I wouldn't expect anything else from Julia Crane. Kaitlin and Eric are a unique special ops team. Mercenaries, they are not bound by the constrictions of government agents. In this story, they've joined forces with some other ex military men, to kill a rich human-trafficking kingpin. The story takes you back and forth between the IFICS people and a young girl who's been singled out by the slave-trader. It's heart-wrenching at times, and terrifying at others. All in all, a very good book. I've just downloaded book 3, and I'll let you know what I think, when I've finished.

The only disappointment I found, with this book, was the abrupt ending. I read some of the bad reviews, and all I can say is, 'she must have done a lot of work to this book since those were written'. I thought the characters were exactly who they were written to be, evoking the emotions that they were meant to. The plot was perfectly well-thought out, and I didn't spot any typos (which either means there weren't any, or that the story was so engrossing that I missed them)! Anyway, enough said about that. This was an excellent first book in a series. Thank God I have some amazon gift cards, so I can read further in the series! I am off to book 2!

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'Fatal Abduction' is a psychological thriller with paranormal elements, aimed at young adults. This is the first of Julia Crane's books I have read. I didn't realise it was part of a series until I looked on Goodreads and found out it is book 3 in the IFCS series. The story works as a standalone read, with enough back-story to make the characters understandable. For an enhanced reading experience, read the series in sequence.
The moving prologue sets the scene perfectly. The well-paced plot flows well. The multi person points of view, make the story immediate and realistic. The serial killer is threatening because of his apparent normality and again this adds to the story's authenticity.
It did seem a little rushed in parts, much is made of Kaitlyn posing as bait for the serial killer in the blurb but this is an anti-climax because she never appears to be under threat from the killer. I liked the victim point of view from Eliza and the paranormal threads in her point of view, more of this would have increased the drama of the story. A little more detail about why the antagonist became a serial killer, maybe by making his flashbacks more detailed would have made him more menacing.
'Fatal Abduction' is an interesting, quick read for those who like thrillers and covert avengers.
I received a copy of this book from the author via Mark My Word Book Publicity in return for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley.com and Indie Inked for access to this title.

2.5 stars. I loved the cover and I was excited to start reading. And then I became progressively more disappointed the more I read. It seemed like halfway through a new person started writing. The second half had a completely different feel to it. The entire sex scene didn't work at all. And where was the protagonist? If it was supposed to be the big boss that failed horribly for me. Let's just talk to him and it magically works out. Boring!

The tip of the iceberg is using loose for lose. I can't stand that, and I was hoping it would be corrected in the final copy, but nope, it's still there. Things like that completely distract from the story for me. I won't be reading any more of the series.

Enjoyed this romantic tale, but was confused until I realized this was part 2. I am definitely going to read book one to get caught up.

This is a series book of 3. I got the first book off Pixel of Ink for free. They have now alerted you to when these are series book!

In this book Keegan struggles with her magic. She falls for her protector. But then tragedy happens. She looses her memory. Now her family struggles with how to help her.

This book is for teens. It's good, not great. I did want to see how this ends. Nothing is worse than reading something to find you have 2 more books left to end it. These are fast reads. It took me a day and half to read this. So great weekend books!