Hello Booksters, and welcome to December!

How’s your holiday season going? Anything worth noting? Me and the boyfriend got a new kitty!

Isn’t he cute? His name’s Pinky because of his pink-tipped ear and cute little pink nose (also because of Pinky and the Brain). We love him so much already!

Also, I finished my grad school semester last night, so now I can just focus on the holidays, reading, and writing. Alright, back to the post at hand!

Today I’m reviewing Bloom (The Overthrow #1) by Kenneth Oppel.

This author has been on my radar for a long time, but I’d never given him a chance until now. This seemed like an interesting series, so I dove right in. On to the review!

Blurb

The invasion begins–but not as you’d expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout–overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom–and release toxic pollens. They bloom–and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom–everywhere, unstoppable.

Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies–and yet not to these plants. What’s their secret? Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They’d better figure it out fast, because it’s starting to rain again….

GoodReads

Amazon

***Brief disclosure***

I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

I’m totally floored by how well this read went!

Okay, so we’ve got three main characters: Seth, Anaya, and Petra. They all go to school together on this island where everything is nice and peaceful. That all changes with a strange weather event that brings new plant life. Like wildfire, bizarre black grass grows everywhere destroying crops and causing trouble, and soon they discover there are more threats lurking that threaten not just their island, but the entire world. Can our MCs and the adults around figure things out before the situation spirals out of control?

I loved the premise of this story. It had apocalypse written all over it, and there really aren’t that many young adult novels in this genre so I was super excited. There were also some great scifi, action, and mystery elements that kept me going. The antagonist is literally a force of nature and the stakes escalated really fast into a race against time. That made this book addictive, and I couldn’t read fast enough.

I liked our MCs a lot. Anaya and Petra had unique disabilities that were fun to explore, and Seth has these weird scars that made me wonder more about his past. These MCs were super resourceful and smart, which I loved, and they all had plenty of personal growth. One thing I did want to pick at was the drama between Anaya and Petra at the beginning. It didn’t really work for me once it was revealed who the true culprit was behind it, especially since both had claimed innocence before that. Other than that, I have no complaints.

This was a solid apocalyptic scifi thriller, and I can’t wait to read the next book!

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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