Book Review: 'Til the World Ends

Title: 'Til the World Ends

Authors: Julie Kagawa, Ann Aguirre, Karen Duvall

Release Date: January 29th 2013

Publisher: HarlequinLUNA

Source: NetGalley

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Dawn of Eden by Julie Kagawa

Before The Immortal Rules, there was the Red Lung, a relentless virus determined to take out all in its path. For Kylie, the miracle of her survival is also her burden-as a doctor at one of the clinics for the infected, she is forced to witness endless suffering. What's worse, strange things are happening to the remains of the dead, and by the time she befriends Ben Archer, she's beginning to wonder if a global pandemic is the least of her problems...

Thistle & Thorne by Ann Aguirre

After a catastrophic spill turns the country into a vast chemical wasteland, those who could afford it retreated to fortresses, self-contained communities run by powerful corporations. But for Mari Thistle, life on the outside-in the Red Zone-is a constant struggle. To protect her family, Mari teams up with the mysterious Thorne Goodman. Together, they'll face an evil plot in both the underworld of the Red Zone and the society inside the fortresses that could destroy those on the outside...for good.

Sun Storm by Karen Duvall

Sarah Daggot has been chasing storms since she was a child. But after the biggest solar flares in history nearly destroy the planet, she becomes a Kinetic, endowed by her exposure to extreme radiation with the power to sense coming storms-in the cosmos and beyond. And she's not the only one. Sarah believes the Kinetics are destined to join forces and halt the final onslaught of the sun. She'll vow to keep trying to convince the one missing link in their chain of defense, the enigmatic Ian Matthews, up until the world ends.

I haven't read anything by any of these authors—yeah, not even Julie Kagawa—but I've been hearing great things about all of them so even if this book's an anthology, I was excited to read it. Sadly, only one of the three stories satisfied me. 

Dawn of Eden - Julie Kagawa
This story is a prequel novella to Kagawa's Blood of Eden series, and honestly, it didn't encourage me to start the series anytime soon. I couldn't sympathize with the main characters, and I felt like their romance wasn't needed in the plot, either. However, I am curious about the strange man who helped them, who I'm pretty certain appears in the next books.

Thistle & Thorne - Ann Aguirre
Now this is the one that satisfied me. It's perfectly placed as the middle story, really, because it makes up for the first one and prepares for another trip downhill in the next story. 

I loved the badass main characters, Mari and Thorne, who totally reminded me of Tris and Four from Divergent. And as short stories should, the action immediately kicked in and I found myself being unable to put this down.  

Now, while I complained about the romance in Dawn of Eden (as I will in Sun Storm in just a little while), the romance in here felt like the cliffhanger—or maybe that's because I'm a sucker for badass romance. Anyway, that aspect made me wish this will get continued in a full-length novel!

Sun Storm - Karen Duvall
My liking for this one falls somewhere in the middle of the first two above. Sun Storm started out well, but the romance—slight insta-love, even—messed up the awesome equation.

I loved the idea of Kinetics a.k.a. the mutants brought about by the intensified sun rays, especially since I'm one of those who believe that the world will end when the sun does, and the deadly heat waves in this story are one of the signs of that death. And I also really just have a weakness for mutants. But something that I found unrealistic in this story was how only human skin was susceptible to the heat, not buildings or cars or even tents. Also, the more the government and other Kinetics got involved, the more confused I got. And I guess it says a lot that I struggled to read the last 10% of this story.

MY FAVORITE PART was the car/motorcycle (failing memory, sorry) chase in Thistle & Thorne.

RATING:

(cover and summary from Goodreads.com)