Mundie Moms

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Book Review: A Million Suns by Beth Revis


Published by: RazorBill/Penguin Teen
Released on: January 10th, 2012- TODAY
Source: ARC from publisher to review
5 stars: I LOVED It
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship. -quoted from Goodreads

Wow! What a fabulous sequel! Everything you thought you knew or thought you figured out in Across the Universe holds no bars when it comes to reading A Million Suns. Beth Revis not only surprised me with her numerous plot twists, and surprising revelations, she had me yelling "no way" numerous times through out the course of reading this book. Seriously, the plot twists continue to the very end of the book. If you loved Across the Universe, wait till you find yourself back on Godspeed in A Million Suns.

I don't even know where to begin my review. Beth's writing is brilliant, it's engaging, and boy do I wish I had the next book in my hands. The plot twists are so unpredictable, the revelations, the secrets and the betrayals are FABULOUS!! I couldn't have asked for a better sequel. It completely exceeded all my expectations. I loved every heart pounding moment I spent back in Amy and Elder's world. It's not just those sweet moments between the two of them that I enjoyed, but the fact that I could not figure out what was going to happen next. All the key players from ATU are back and wow, there's some startling discoveries with a few them that I never would have imagined possible.

Let me just say if you LOVED Across the Universe you need to go pick up this book today! I can not say anything else about this book with out giving away sort of spoilers, which I'm not about to do. I love Beth's writing. Her world building is incredible, her characters are well written and her plot line is flawless. She doesn't hold back on killing characters off, causing friction, an uprising, and putting her characters in positions that make them think outside the box. Through various events her characters learn to take charge of different and often times difficult situations which makes them grow into characters that I as a reader enjoyed seeing. This is a fast paced, thrilling sequel that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND picking up.

A Million Suns Virtual Launch Party!


Today we’re celebrating the launch of Beth Revis’s A MILLION SUNS by participating in the Virtual Party! Each hour of the day, from 9am to 5pm EST, there will be a different feature on a different blog. And each stop, in true party fashion, will have a party favor to give out—in the form of a signed book plus some cool swag—and a party game: a puzzle piece to a truly epic prize for one winner! So read on to find out exclusive information about A MILLION SUNS and enter to win a signed book!



THREE SECRETS


In an effort to get Katie of Mundie Moms to read on the Harry Potter series (I mean, come ON! How can you not devour those books, amirite?), I tantalized her by promising to tell her a secret about
A MILLION SUNS if she kept reading Harry Potter.

That didn’t quite work out, so instead, I’m going to tell YOU some of the behind-the-scenes secrets that I worked on for A MILLION SUNS.


And because I’m morbid and like to make you sad and think about death and stuff, all of these secrets deal with murder.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a book that I like to call “a murder mystery in space,” but A MILLION SUNS is more of a puzzle mystery. I guess you could say AtU is an Agatha Christie and AMS is a Sherlock Holmes. You know, in space. Because everything’s cooler in space. Still, there’s a pretty high body count in A MILLION SUNS, and there’s definitely a murderer working quietly behind the scenes.

But here’s what you didn’t know:

Secret #1: When you discover who the killer really is, I hope you’re shocked. I was. In my original plan for the novel, this character was NOT the killer. In fact, he was supposed to be the good guy of the third book. However, when I rewrote A MILLION SUNS, I realized that this character had a much stronger motivation than the original character who was the killer, so I switched around the plots of both the second and third book to make this character be the bad guy of A MILLION SUNS.

Secret #2: The killer changed three times in each subsequent draft. In my original draft, the killer was Character A. However, while *I* thought I was rather clever by making Character A the killer, none of my initial readers understood that character’s motivation. In the second rewrite, Character B was the killer. Although it made sense for Character B to be the killer, my editor pointed out that Character C had stronger motivation. With each rewrite of the novel, a different character was the bad guy…so you can imagine how surprised even my initial readers will be once they see the final version! Until ARCs were printed, the only people who knew who the final killer was was my agent, my editor, and me.

Secret #3: This secret is a bit of a spoiler. If you want to remain 100% in the dark, do not read further.

Seriously. Quit reading now if you want to avoid a spoiler.





Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Kayleigh is Harley’s girlfriend in the first book. Harley always believed that she committed suicide. However, in the second book, it’s revealed that Kayleigh did not commit suicide. Here’s the secret: her true killer is not the person everyone suspects. I will reveal the full story of Kayleigh’s death at a later point in time, but suffice it to say, there’s a lot more mystery surrounding her death than anyone on the ship currently knows.

Thanks for stopping by today as a part of the Virtual LaunchParty for A MILLION SUNS! To help celebrate, one commenter on this post will receive a signed paperback of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, the first book of the trilogy, along with some custom swag, including a poster, an art print of a koi fish (made by the student who inspired Beth to write the character Harley), NASA goodies, and more. This contest is open internationally, and will end in 24 hours.


JUST COMMENT ON THIS POST TO ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN THIS PRIZE!


Make sure you go back to Beth’s website for full details onthe party. Visit every site in the party to gather clues that will enable you to enter for the GRAND PRIZE—a signed paperback of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, a signed hardback of A MILLION SUNS, an exclusive water bottle, a poster, an art print, and more!

In order to win that grand prize, you need a clue. And the clue for this blog stop is...

Twitter Tuesday - Veronica Rossi

Top row: Ellen Hopkins, Pam van Hylckama (bookalicio.us), Heather Petty, Me with Veronica Rossi, Lisa Desrochers, Pam and Naomi Canale.

This past Saturday, I headed over our snow-less Sierra Mountains to join a number of Nevada SCWBI authors in celebrating the launch of Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky. And what a fabulous party. It was so fun to see fellow bloggers, too, like Two Chicks on Books.

If you haven't picked up Veronica's book, oh my gosh, don't wait. I listened to the audiobook on my drive over and back and let me tell you, Mundie Moms, you guys have to meet Aria, Perry (HotBoywithArrows) and oh my, my...Roar. Trust me on this.

I'm actually not reading another book immediately because I want to let it all simmer in my brain for a while. I simply adore the world Veronica created -- scary, political and romantic. Did I say romantic?? Oh yeah. Sooooo romantic and it's all so realistically played out. But that ending? It's just...unbelievably perfect.

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