Sunday, March 5, 2017

Life After E.L.E. by JC Morrows

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About the Book





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Book: Life After E.L.E.
Author: JC Marrows
Genre: Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian
Release Date: November 29, 2016
Extinction Level Event: An event where all species on the planet can become extinct.
If you manage to survive . . . What then?
When a rogue moon was discovered on a collision course with the Earth, we thought we had a solid plan.
To survive. . . to rebuild. . . to go on.
30 Years later… those who managed to survive, emerged from the caves to find a frozen world.
A world where rule number one in the compound is to be inside the gates before sunset. . . or die.
Eve watched the gates close – with her father on the outside – so that should be the easiest thing in the world for her to remember.
But life is not always simple.
Life does not always go as planned.
Now Eve is in a race against time, discovery, and danger around every corner – to find a truth that has been hidden. . . for years.
A truth Eve’s father died to protect her from. 

My Review:
I have seen this book advertised over and over since before it was published. I was really looking forward to reading this book. Turns out, I was extremely disappointed in this book. For almost 60% of the book it dragged. The author did achieve something that is rare for me. I was bored reading this book. It didn't pick up pace or interest until it was 60% over. 

We are mostly inside Eve's head, with very little outside dialog. Eve is monologging her life. She is afraid to talk to her friends, Mother, brother or Grandparents. She is totally paranoid about not fitting in, and yet she does nothing to help herself fit in. She is extremely immature, and doesn't act like a 17 year old. I highlighted her age when I found it, because for a long time I thought that she was somewhere between 12 and 15. 

Monologuing along with Eve, she has hundreds of questions, and to my great irritation, none of them are ever answered! Some answers instead of endless questions would have been nice. She has become a hunter, but the only kill that is shared with us is a saber-tooth tiger. Wait? What? An extinct tiger, in frozen Arizona because something happened with the colony on the moon that altered Earth? This doesn't even work with plausible theory unless this is a parallel world, but I did my best to shove that to the side. What else do they catch in the way of food? We have no idea because we aren't told. Issues like this permiated the entire book, which, has multiple plot holes and unanswered questions.

I do read secular books, depending on the book of course. This book only had two instances of a parent or grandparent praying silently, and past that, this might as well be a secular book. God isn't even in Eve's world in any active way, nor with any of her friends. This is a secular book with a Christian label. It has some Christ centered questions, and a scripture at the end of the book, but that doesn't alter the over all book content itself. 

When Eve starts falling for Jude, her main worry is that he is older than she is. Really? People she knows are dying, and all she cares about is his age. We never know how much older he really is, because when they start kissing his age is no longer an issue for Eve.  Jude is old enough to be "bonded" to someone, but hasn't been. For this book, that could be any age to about 25, I guess. 

We never are sure if her Dad is really dead, nor what all the rules of the compound really are. Everyone lives in fear. Eve's Dad and others could have survive outside, but we have ZERO answers to any of the questions put forth by Eve. The parts that parallel The Hunger Games just made me groan. They were totally unnecessary and confusing. To top it off, the book ends abruptly with a cliff hanger. (This might be a spoiler, but it's really relevant!) A main charactor is smacked in the head and everything goes dark. The End. 

It's not often I wish I had spent my time doing something else, but this time, I do. The book is incomplete. The main character needs help in more ways than one. I'm sorry, but I simply can't recommend this book. I really wish the author would go back and fix this book!  In many ways, the premise had promise, but it was left outside to freeze and and it did. :(


About the Author 
jcm-session-201-sdm007JC Morrows – author of the Bestselling Young Adult Dystopian series: Order of the MoonStone and the NEW Frozen Earth series (Post-Apocalyptic with a Dystopian edge) – spends her days writing, arguing with her evil computer, juggling two kids, and wishing someone would invent a coffee IV.
A storyteller in the truest sense of the word, JC has been telling stories in one form or another her entire life and once her mother convinced her to write them down, she simply couldn’t stop.
And… as a true believer, she gives God all of the glory for her talent and ability!
“And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” Habakkuk 2:2

Guest Post from JC Marrows

Life After E.L.E. is one of those stories that I never saw coming. A lot of people might even say it was never meant to be. . .
But GOD had other plans!
It was one of those spur-of-the-moment ideas… the kind that usually doesn’t amount to much for me. Over the last twenty years I have started hundreds – yes, you read that right – of stories on the spur-of-the-moment. Until 2011, none of them amounted to anything more than a few chapters. In 2013, I was working on an entirely different series – the first I’d had any measure of true success with – when my mother challenged me to participate in NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month – where you write 50,000 words in 30 days].
I sat down on November 1st with absolutely nothing on the page and only a vague idea of what I wanted to write about. And, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect much. I did not expect to reach the goal and I certainly never expected that the book would be published three years later (albeit after quite a bit of editing and rewriting)
What’s more is that there is more to this story.
Last November, one of the stops on Marissa Meyer’s Heartless tour was Nashville, and of course my daughter and I had to go see her… and buy her new book! While there, I gave Marissa an early copy of Life After E.L.E.  after thanking her for being such an inspiration to me.
Not only did she seem genuinely excited – she made a point to have me autograph it! (cue absolute and utter shock – followed by inner Happy Dancing)!
Why so excited you ask? Well… there are some authors who think you’re not a “real” author when you write your story during NaNoWriMo and knowing Marissa’s story was about the only thing that kept me going that year. You can’t get much more REAL than New York Times Bestseller – which Marissa hit with her very first book. She was a tremendous inspiration to me then – and continues to be now. I am truly blessed to have met her!
And I count myself truly blessed that the right people enjoy the story enough that it has been published. I look forward to sharing part two with readers at the end of this year. And then I have another story to get out there!

Blog Stops

March 8: Reading Is My SuperPower (Author interview)
March 8: Mary Hake
March 9: Just Jo’Anne
March 11: Bigreadersite 
March 12: The Power of Words

Giveaway

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To celebrate her tour, JC Morrows is giving away a themed basket including the book and swag and some specially chosen surprises!! Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries! https://promosimple.com/ps/b0fd

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