Broken Skies by Theresa Kay

So to celebrate the release of book 2 coming out TOMORROW!!!! I thought I’d post my review for the first book in the series to entice everyone to join the fandom.  (Also seemed appropriate since it’s TBT)

Synopsis:

Thirty years ago, civilization collapsed. Few survived.
Ten years ago, the aliens arrived…and stayed.
One year ago, I killed two men and went a little crazy.
Today, the aliens took my brother and I will do anything to get him back.

In seventeen-year-old Jax Mitchell’s world, humans are nearly extinct and alien settlers have arrived.

Until recently, the E’rikon have remained segregated in their city and ignored the few humans who have tried to engage them… but now they have taken Jax’s brother. To rescue him, she forms an uneasy alliance with a teenage E’rikon left stranded in the woods. She agrees to guide him to the city if he sneaks her past the human-proof barrier. Too bad it’s not that simple.

Jax, who cannot stand to be touched, finds that she’s drawn to the alien boy with bright green hair and jewel-like scales on his back. And he’s equally affected by her, the courageous redhead with haunted eyes. But she doesn’t know the alien’s true motives and he has no idea that she is much more than she seems.

With the aliens and the humans at odds, the connection forming between the two teens has consequences. What started off as a rescue mission sets a chain of events in motion which threatens not only the remaining humans and the growing alien society, but Earth itself.

Find it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20764638-broken-skies
Order it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1FQCWq0

My Review:
5 stars — I received a digital arc of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review….and now I may never recover.

Well….I am currently in epic book hangover mode. Not only did I stay up until the wee hours finishing this book, I have also just spent most of today sitting around, staring blankly at the walls, trying to recover. Have you ever watched the Sing-Off?? Shawn Stockman always talks about how when you hear a good song, sometimes you get the stank face (where it looks like you smelled something bad), b/c the song is just so good. This book gave me the stank face. And now I have the great burden of trying to figure out why I loved it so much so that you may also be convinced.

I haven’t read a lot of sci-fi’s, but not for lack of interest. More b/c I’ve been caught up in this paranormal trend, and so I just haven’t sought out any recommendations for good sci-fi.

I’m not sure where I was going with that….let me start again. Characters. Characters are the meat of a book for me — they will make or break a book on my personal taste scale. Well great big check mark there. I really fell in love with Jax….she was so damaged and broken, yet strong, sassy, willful…. And all the secondary characters were well developed….enough to make me intrigued by them — Emily, Jace, Flint…. Even the bad guys effectively made me rage in hatred for them.

And then there’s Lir. OH Lir. What were you thinking??? OK, I don’t think I can talk about him b/c he made me feel so much and I’m still recovering. But seriously, the chemistry between Lir and Jax was off the charts….such a subtle build up, packed with the occasional roadblocks. Enough to make me fall for them as a couple and thus feel all the heart ripping out agony as they went through their troubles.

LOVED the world that Ms. Kay built. I could really visualize it, from the Bridgelake settlement, to the abandoned towns, to the alien city, and even the aliens themselves.

Now my only problem is that I need the next book NOW NOW NOW, and this book hasn’t even been released yet. The conundrum of reading an arc. I guess that’s not my only problem….my more immediate problem is — what in the world am I going to read now??? Epic book hangover.