{my thoughts} – Thia book is amazing. Riven is seventeen year-old girl from Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. She is an elite fighter, a guard of the army and her father’s most treasured creation. It appears that she was given every fighting advantage as a child when he father had experimented on her to make her more then she was meant to be. She became close friends with the Prince because they were always paired together when they were training. This book has a lot of twists and turns but the jist is she has to go to the Otherworld to get a boy named Caden and bring him back to Cale in order to ensure Cale won’t die from being sick with poor lungs. She does this with no question, she manages to complete her mission with many obstacles in the way and then once they are both back in Neospes they find that there are far more obstacles to overcome then there had been in the Otherworld.

This book is about standing up for what you believe in, falling in love even when every fiber of your being tells you it’s wrong, and it’s about learning to accept that not everything you have been told is truth. Riven had a rough childhood, she had a rough teenage years and she has an even harder time when she learns tha she isn’t the person that she was led to believe she was. Despite of of the bad in her life that she had had to face she discovers that there is good in the world and there are things to be happy about. If you want to learn about Riven and her mission to finding herself you should really read this book. It’s amazing. ( )

{my thoughts} – Thia book is amazing. Riven is seventeen year-old girl from Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. She is an elite fighter, a guard of the army and her father’s most treasured creation. It appears that she was given every fighting advantage as a child when he father had experimented on her to make her more then she was meant to be. She became close friends with the Prince because they were always paired together when they were training. This book has a lot of twists and turns but the jist is she has to go to the Otherworld to get a boy named Caden and bring him back to Cale in order to ensure Cale won’t die from being sick with poor lungs. She does this with no question, she manages to complete her mission with many obstacles in the way and then once they are both back in Neospes they find that there are far more obstacles to overcome then there had been in the Otherworld.

This book is about standing up for what you believe in, falling in love even when every fiber of your being tells you it’s wrong, and it’s about learning to accept that not everything you have been told is truth. Riven had a rough childhood, she had a rough teenage years and she has an even harder time when she learns tha she isn’t the person that she was led to believe she was. Despite of of the bad in her life that she had had to face she discovers that there is good in the world and there are things to be happy about. If you want to learn about Riven and her mission to finding herself you should really read this book. It’s amazing. ( )

Riven is sent from her universe to a parallel universe to locate and retrieve her Prince's clone. She's betrayed her father, a high-level governmental official, in order to side with the Prince, her childhood friend. When she locates the clone she discovers he's more than a copy of her Prince, he's a person in his own right. He's also a person she's starting to fall for.

In this battle for control of the universes, Riven finds her beliefs and memories tested. She decides where her ultimate loyalty and responsibility lie.

I liked this book and this universe. The science was fascinating. I'm looking forward to another book in this series.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. [...] But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.[...]For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more. (Source)

From the description, I felt I was taking a risk with this book because the plot has the potential for a terribly annoying romance. Fortunately, the romance wasn’t as bad as I expected. There were a few times I couldn’t believe the characters were thinking about romance. There was one forceful kissing scene I may rant about later. But overall, Riven was extremely sensible. It was hilarious and gratifying to see her recognize high school drama as completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even when Riven was in high school, the dramatic analogies and dark descriptions helped me share Riven’s focus on her mission. In fact, the author did a great job setting the tone throughout, starting with the third-person prologue to add mystery. Than the transition to first-person for the rest helped draw me into the story.

The author’s writing impressed me a lot. The plot and the world building were fairly standard, but were also unique enough to be exciting. The constant action and slow reveal of information about Riven’s world kept me glued to the pages. In particular, I was impressed by that the slow information reveal didn’t get annoying or break up the story. Riven’s thoughts always felt natural. Flashbacks were short and triggered by related events. Her focus on particular facts always made sense. And even though I had questions, I never got that annoying feeling that the author was working too hard to keep me in the dark. Overall, this was one of the best written YA books I’ve read and also a ton of fun.

This review first published on Doing Dewey. ( )

The Almost Girl falls into a middle ground for me. One where I can’t always put my finger on the reasons why I only just liked or ok’d it. With a gripping prologue and a suspenseful sounding premise the progression of the book was a bit uneven for me. But then on the flip side when action scenes appeared they were well written and engaging.

Character development!
Again I experienced this flip flop reaction when it came to the characters. Riven was such a strong female lead and a General in the military on her own world, that I found some of her behavior incongruous with what I was expecting. I know, I know I shouldn’t expect a character to behave a certain way, but I’m sure we all have those moments. I did love her character development and how she seems so rock solid in the beginning to being more vulnerable and human towards the end. I’m going to lump my romance thoughts in here and say…It’s there. I’m usually a hit or miss person on the romance in the ya fiction that I read. I love reading young adult books but for some reason I only enjoy about half of the romances that in the ones I read…and if you don’t know already, almost every young adult book features a romance.

Thoughts on editing.
Keeping in mind that I read the advance reader edition of this book, some things may have been changed in the published version. But in the bedroom I read I really felt the book needed more editing. I don’t mean there were typos or anything like that, I just mean a plot or character nudge here, a removed scene there, providing more varied ways of delivering world building information – those sorts of things. I think it had the potential to have been a much smoother and gripping read. I can’t really complain tho because I’m not a writer or editor and wouldn’t know how to accomplish that perfect balance.

World building!
Once we get away from our reality things get good. I struggled more so with the portion that takes place in our reality, but once the characters make it to Neospes my interest was definitely peaked. What a world! The technology and the creepy vector android zombies?, the technology, pretty much everything there had my sci-fi itch jonezing.

Fans of strong young adult heroines and alternate worlds may very well find The Almost Girl to be a winner. ( )