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melkirkman's review
3.0
Thanks Goodreads for this giveaway.
I really enjoyed the story line of the uprising of the 'underdogs' etc and the fight for survival but I really didn't expect the explicit nature of the book. Don't get me wrong, I love erotic fiction but it just didn't seem right in this book. I would have preferred more focus on the story rather than the love story part of the book.
All in all I did enjoy it but it was not something I would read again.
I really enjoyed the story line of the uprising of the 'underdogs' etc and the fight for survival but I really didn't expect the explicit nature of the book. Don't get me wrong, I love erotic fiction but it just didn't seem right in this book. I would have preferred more focus on the story rather than the love story part of the book.
All in all I did enjoy it but it was not something I would read again.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
‘The first time I met you I never saw you.’
Port Angelsund is a foggy northern city, the gateway to the high arctic. It’s a contemporary city which has been under occupation for some years by the soldiers of Garrison. Port Angelsund is strategically significant because of its lucrative reserves of energy. The citizens of Port Angelsund are under constant surveillance: their existences full of petty rules and hardships, of curfews, restrictions on movement and rationing.
Nineteen-year-old Sylvie Falk attracts attention at a routine checkpoint, and is bound and blindfolded. She is rescued by a young lieutenant and allowed to travel home. Sylvie, her brother Toby and her mother work at the Half Moon Café where Sylvie is an accomplished pastry chef.
Sylvie’s rescuer, Lieutenant Will Maur, visits the Half Moon Café. And, despite the risks of collaboration, Sylvie falls in love.
What follows is an extreme test of Sylvie’s loyalties. Her older brother Jory is part of the resistance against Garrison. Jory wants Sylvie’s help. Sylvie loves Will, but is acutely aware of the hardships being inflicted on her family and friends. Sylvie is being watched constantly, both by Garrison’s city-wide surveillance and by her lover. Whatever choice she makes will result in betrayal. How will it end?
While Sylvie is the central character in the novel, there are other significant characters. Their lives provide insight into life in Port Angelsund. It is Sylvie’s story, narrated in her voice, but it provides a much broader look at conflict, love, loyalty and the consequences of war.
I started reading this novel a few weeks ago, and had to put it aside because of other commitments. I picked it up again, went back to the beginning and finished it in two days. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this novel is the fact that the world described could so easily be the one in which we live.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Port Angelsund is a foggy northern city, the gateway to the high arctic. It’s a contemporary city which has been under occupation for some years by the soldiers of Garrison. Port Angelsund is strategically significant because of its lucrative reserves of energy. The citizens of Port Angelsund are under constant surveillance: their existences full of petty rules and hardships, of curfews, restrictions on movement and rationing.
Nineteen-year-old Sylvie Falk attracts attention at a routine checkpoint, and is bound and blindfolded. She is rescued by a young lieutenant and allowed to travel home. Sylvie, her brother Toby and her mother work at the Half Moon Café where Sylvie is an accomplished pastry chef.
Sylvie’s rescuer, Lieutenant Will Maur, visits the Half Moon Café. And, despite the risks of collaboration, Sylvie falls in love.
What follows is an extreme test of Sylvie’s loyalties. Her older brother Jory is part of the resistance against Garrison. Jory wants Sylvie’s help. Sylvie loves Will, but is acutely aware of the hardships being inflicted on her family and friends. Sylvie is being watched constantly, both by Garrison’s city-wide surveillance and by her lover. Whatever choice she makes will result in betrayal. How will it end?
While Sylvie is the central character in the novel, there are other significant characters. Their lives provide insight into life in Port Angelsund. It is Sylvie’s story, narrated in her voice, but it provides a much broader look at conflict, love, loyalty and the consequences of war.
I started reading this novel a few weeks ago, and had to put it aside because of other commitments. I picked it up again, went back to the beginning and finished it in two days. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this novel is the fact that the world described could so easily be the one in which we live.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
shanayahreads's review
3.0
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
Full Review Here
Starting off, I was intrigued, I don’t usually pick up books of this sort – some parts war, some parts romance, all set in a contemporary world. It took a while for me to get into the feel of the book, since for some reason my mind thought the book was set in the ‘50’s, and I would get tripped up whenever something relatively modern was mentioned, but once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. Until the romance set in.
I liked how the book was written, I was drawn in and was always interested to see what was going to happen next. I really felt the emotion throughout the book, the author is brilliant at writing emotions. It felt like a book I wouldn’t read and then just forget about (ahem, Perks of Being a Wallflower), but as I progressed through the book, it deviated further away from the interesting start.
I got a little confused with all the characters up until around page 140, because of the different groups, but once I got the hang of how things worked, it was alright. There were female characters, but I didn’t really find them to be strong, so that really disappointed me, especially since this is set in modern times. I would have expected at least one from all of the characters in the story. I liked Sylvie initially, and I thought she had potential to be a strong character, but her character changed so much when the romance started and during.
I wasn’t a fan of the romance between Sylvie and the lieutenant. Initially it sort of seemed like the author was trying to romanticise possessiveness, over-protectiveness and having the female be a simple ‘trophy’, I’m aware that people tend to be more protective when it comes to war or possible danger, but I feel like that was a little over the top. Further on into the story, it got progressively worse, with both parties having constant mood swings and Sylvie giving off a damsel-in-distress vibe, and feeling like she was nothing without him and he was the only thing to make her happy.
To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend this, not when there are so many other stories with stronger characters and healthier relationships.
I received a review copy from the publisher
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Full Review Here
Starting off, I was intrigued, I don’t usually pick up books of this sort – some parts war, some parts romance, all set in a contemporary world. It took a while for me to get into the feel of the book, since for some reason my mind thought the book was set in the ‘50’s, and I would get tripped up whenever something relatively modern was mentioned, but once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. Until the romance set in.
I liked how the book was written, I was drawn in and was always interested to see what was going to happen next. I really felt the emotion throughout the book, the author is brilliant at writing emotions. It felt like a book I wouldn’t read and then just forget about (ahem, Perks of Being a Wallflower), but as I progressed through the book, it deviated further away from the interesting start.
I got a little confused with all the characters up until around page 140, because of the different groups, but once I got the hang of how things worked, it was alright. There were female characters, but I didn’t really find them to be strong, so that really disappointed me, especially since this is set in modern times. I would have expected at least one from all of the characters in the story. I liked Sylvie initially, and I thought she had potential to be a strong character, but her character changed so much when the romance started and during.
I wasn’t a fan of the romance between Sylvie and the lieutenant. Initially it sort of seemed like the author was trying to romanticise possessiveness, over-protectiveness and having the female be a simple ‘trophy’, I’m aware that people tend to be more protective when it comes to war or possible danger, but I feel like that was a little over the top. Further on into the story, it got progressively worse, with both parties having constant mood swings and Sylvie giving off a damsel-in-distress vibe, and feeling like she was nothing without him and he was the only thing to make her happy.
To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend this, not when there are so many other stories with stronger characters and healthier relationships.
I received a review copy from the publisher
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