Saturday 20 May 2017

REVIEW - TRUE NORTH - TRUE BORN TRILOGY BY L.E. STERLING

Title: True North
Series: True Born Trilogy
Author: L.E. Sterling
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: 4th April 2017

BLURB from Goodreads
Abandoned by her family in Plague-ridden Dominion City, eighteen-year-old Lucy Fox has no choice but to rely upon the kindness of the True Borns, a renegade group of genetically enhanced humans, to save her twin sister, Margot. But Nolan Storm, their mysterious leader, has his own agenda. When Storm backtracks on his promise to rescue Margot, Lucy takes her fate into her own hands and sets off for Russia with her True Born bodyguard and maybe-something-more, the lethal yet beautiful Jared Price. In Russia, there's been whispered rumors of Plague Cure.

While Lucy fights her magnetic attraction to Jared, anxious that his loyalty to Storm will hurt her chances of finding her sister, they quickly discover that not all is as it appears…and discovering the secrets contained in the Fox sisters' blood before they wind up dead is just the beginning.?? 

As they say in Dominion, sometimes it’s not you…it’s your DNA.


PURCHASE LINKS

REVIEW
I am looking forward to reading this book, returning to Dominion City to learn more about the twin sisters, Lucinda and Margot Fox and what is happening to them now. Has Lucy made the right decision to join the renegades in the hopes of both changing the world they are living in and at the same time saving her sister Margot.
Once again I was fortunate enough to be sent an invitation to request this book and then sent a widget to access the book via Netgalley from Entangled Teen.

The cover has the same background colour of a washed out pale blue, so it should easily be recognisable as being part of the True Born Trilogy. Once again the central part of the cover is taken up be a skull of some sort. The byline on this book is "It's not you . . . . it's your DNA" which I am sure its relevance to the plot, and certain characters will be revealed within the book. The cover certainly fits well and is as unusual as the cover for True Born. I'd say the antlers on the first book cover and then the skull on this cover have a kind of shock value, which also intrigues as to what they are and how they fit into the books.

In this book the two unique twin sisters have been separated. Margot has left with their parents and the rich and powerful Russian aristocrat, Leo Resnikov. Lucinda is now living with the True Borns, and has Nolan Storm acting as her guardian. Lucinda or Lucy as she goes by now, is helping the True Born cause and Nolan Storm enter and rise within the ranks of the popular and wealthy elite citizens of Dominion City, in exchange for his help find and reuniting Lucy with her sister Margot. Jared Price, the golden haired panther True Born is still acting as Lucy's "merc" which is a powerful guard. Jared is prepared to die protecting Lucy. Is this because he is determined to do his job well or does he have much deeper feelings for Lucinda Fox? They come from totally different backgrounds, and are living in an unsteady, sometimes volatile world where if people were to find out they have romantic feelings it would not only be frowned upon, it could actually put the young fledgling couple in danger.
Neither Margot nor Lucy have yet discovered what they are despite numerous, and sometimes painful protocols and tests done on them. Lucy can feel what is happening to Margot and how she is feeling. The twin girls share a unique and strong bond, they are somehow invisibly connected. The girls have birthmarks, with Lucy's looking like a lock and Margot's looking like a key. You could say the girls fit together like a pair of gloves. Both girls wonder what they actually are. . .they are indeed special, but exactly how and why? Lucy often reflects about how her parents always seemed to look at the girls as if they were some sort of aliens from another place. The rather fanatical Father Wes believes the girls are the answer to a cure for the plague, that the answer to everything is somehow within the girls blood. Serena, the blind salvager's mother, had told Father Wes many years before that twin girls within Dominion City would save it from the plague. The truthfulness of this statement/prophecy is a mystery as Serena's mother seems to have disappeared into thin air after delivering it to Father Wes. 

True Born leader, Nolan Storm has Lucinda Fox, daughter of the well known, high status, diplomat Lukas Fox introducing him to the elite people that are still living in Dominion City. They are invited and attend evening parties and engagements within the upper circle. It is at these fancy parties that Nolan Storm gets to roam around the homes and to gather intelligence and information about what is going on within the hierarchy of Dominion City. At times it seems that Nolan Storm is simply using Lucy for her connections and the people she can introduce him to, even though he protests when challenged that he does intend on helping her find her sister Margot when the time is right. But can Lucy tolerate being apart from Margot until the "time is right" for Nolan to make good on his side of their deal and help her rescue Margot? During this book Lucy has to learn to deal with a new alien feeling, which is not experiencing what her sister is going through. Then there are occurrences when Lucy feels exactly what Margot is enduring and it is not pleasant. There are also occasions where Lucy has the knowledge that Margot is involved physically and emotionally with a man that is with her wherever that is.

During the day Lucy is helping Doctor Dorian Raines collect samples from the Prayer Tree in Dominion City. It's during one of these excursions that Lucy meets little Marta and thinks she may be able to help her gain information that could lead her to Margot. Lucy is tired of the endless parties and introductions, keeping up appearances and putting on an act. Lucy thinks rather wryly to herself that her twin sister Margot would call this tiredness "to much glitter". It's maybe because Lucy feels like she has swapped one prison for another and that she isn't learning anything new about Margot's whereabouts. Along with the fact Nolan Storm seems somewhat reticent in his help in finding Margot too, that makes Lucy become a little reckless, and follow the street kid into a warren of streets, ending up lost and in imminent danger. It's around this time we meet a new character called Alistair, who is quite mysterious, and reluctant to reveal many details about himself. It is this new character that helps Lucy begin her long, arduous, sometimes extremely dangerous journey to find Margot herself. Lucy may think this is a journey she has to complete alone but ends up with two companions travelling with her as well as meeting an unlikely friend or two along the way. 
A man named Turner who at first seems a little stalker like or overly attracted, and "touchy-feely" towards Lucy. Lucy has to call on her experience as acting as if this overly friendliness is alright. In the end Turner ends up in being a form of benefactor for Lucy. He gives her and her travelling companions a gift that helps them continue on their journey.

Jared finds he has more than one difficult choice to make, he does make one quite clearly within the book. Jared is determined to protect Lucy as much as he can even if it interferes with his commitments to Nolan Storm and the other True Borns. At the very end of the book it seems like Jared may have at last come to a decision regarding his feelings for Lucy. Though they both decide their burgeoning feelings for each other are best kept secret for the time being.

We finally find out quite a bit more about what the twins are in this book. We learn just how special Lucy and Margot are. It is also revealed what has happened to eggs that were taken from Margot the first time she was kidnapped and taken to the splicer clinic, and the horror of what they are being used for. 

One of the scenes I love is when Lucy is pretending to be her sister, she really enjoys it. I found it amusing that Jared would be so surprised the twin sisters could pull this off. Lucy kind of laughs it off saying that they used to swap names and act like each other regularly as a game and could even fool their parents!

I loved a phrase from within the book. Lucy is thinking about herself and her sister Margot and what it feels like and what they are apart from each other . . ."What does a lock do without it's key? Keep it's secrets".

I could go on and on revealing much more about the book, but I don't like to do that. I don't want to mess up someone else's reading experience. If you read and loved book one in this series, it is a must to read this, the next installment. I am both looking forward and dreading the third and final part of this fantastic trilogy. I always say I love shifter books, and I do. I would say if you like shape shifters and like dystopian, and post apocalyptic then this is a series you really should give a go as it does have all those genre elements within in.

My "final thoughts" or first immediate thoughts upon finishing this book were that I  thoroughly enjoyed the to and fro of the on off fledgling relationship between Lucinda and Jared....Who or What is Alistair and why is he so eager to help on what could be a deadly mission? Will Nolan Storm really help the girls or are they just a means to an end.....? Some questions answered....even more to be asked...looking forward to the next book!

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