Link to buy Spark Rising (The Progenitor Saga) (Volume 1)
Story Rating: 5 out of 5
Review:
I bought the prequel to this book because the
premise looked very interesting. I really enjoyed “Ignition Point” and was
thrilled to see “Spark Rising” was available for review.
Lena is a female spark and strong women who can
produce energy or charge is extremely rare.
Sparks appeared after a catastrophe destroyed all the fossil fuels and
there was no way to produce the kind of energy mankind needed. Enter the
sparks. They can control the “dust” that charges everything, creates energy and
allows people to live comfortable lives. As long as the people obey the
Councilors.
Strong female sparks, however, are a mystery since
there is rumor they “disappear”. So when
Lena is a child, she is warned by her father to “fail” the test as a spark but
Lena wants to win so she shows her true power. This forces her family to hide
her existence until her father is killed and then, Lena leaves the city. She
lives on her own and likes it that way. She sells power on the black market and
stays out of the council’s reach.
Alejandro (“Alex”) Reyes is a double agent, working
for the council to control sparks, and leading a quiet rebellion against the
councilors. It becomes his job to bring Lena in, to force her to wear a collar
to fuel the people’s need for power. What he really wants is to help her to
escape, to join his cause and fight the council’s hold.
Needless to say, everything goes sideways. Lena ends
up captured by those loyal to the council.
Though she escapes, her trust in Alex is damaged and she isn’t sure she
wants to be a part of his rebels who don’t seem all that different from the
council that wants to enslave her.
There were so many layers to this book, I’m not sure
I can show how compelling the story is without revealing spoilers. First of
all, the romance between Alex and Lena is a constant push/pull and just when I
thought they were going to be happy together and figure it out, another barrier
rises up to separate them. By the end of the book, I’m still not sure how
they’re going to be together, though there is hope that they will.
There was a political undertone with the story that
was both complicated and in depth. The twists and turns of intrigue were
surprising and the power dynamics within this new civilization were often
uncomfortable. There were some heavy issues explored and I found them as
disturbing as I was supposed to find them. There is no gratuitous violence or overkill
in this book. Only the raw, exposed necessity that drives people to do what
must be done to achieve the freedom that people deserve.
Though I absolutely loved this book, there was only
one drawback for me. Through a series of betrayals, Lena is left with a
tremendous amount of pain in the end. I don’t find the peace that I hoped she’d
experience. In fact, I had a hard time with at least one political move that
Alex implements despite Lena’s hurt. It’s a move I don’t understand, though
Alex is convinced Lena will. My thought
was that she may understand, but that didn’t change the pain it would
cause. Alex is Lena’s defender, her
lover and her partner in many ways, he is also perfectly okay with keeping
information from her in the end and I didn’t get that at all.
Overall, “Spark Rising” delivered on the promise of
“Ignition Point” with action, intrigue, fantastic sex scenes and compelling
characters. I was emotionally moved by many of the things that happened in this
book and that’s not an easy thing to do. This is a meaty story that gives the
reader a full meal rather than a tasty bite. It’s intelligent, thoughtful and
well written.
The story contrasted with the other two NA books I
read (the only ones I’ve read in the genre) in that it wasn’t a sweet story
with a happy ending. I would call the ending a Happy For Now, not entirely
convinced that Lena and Alex have come to terms enough to love each other with
the kind of passion it takes to keep a good relationship strong.
Reviewed by
Jennifer Leeland
No comments:
Post a Comment