I'm thrilled to today's stop in Martin Leicht and Isla Neal's MOTHERSHIP blog tour.
By: Martin Leicht & Isla Neal
Released on: July 10th, 2012
Source: book from publisher to review
2.5-3 stars:
Teen pregnancy is never easy—especially not when extraterrestrials are involved. The first in a new trilogy.
Elvie Nara was doing just fine in the year 2074. She had a great best friend, a dad she adored, and bright future working on the Ares Project on Mars. But then she had to get involved with sweet, gorgeous, dumb-as-a-brick Cole—and now she’s pregnant.Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship—and one of them turns out to be Cole. She hasn’t seen him since she told him she’s pregnant, and now he’s bursting into her new home to tell her that her teachers are aliens and want to use her unborn baby to repopulate their species? Nice try, buddy. You could have just called.
So fine, finding a way off this ship is priority number one, but first Elvie has to figure out how Cole ended up as a commando, work together with her arch-nemesis, and figure out if she even wants to be a mother—assuming they get back to Earth in one piece. -quoted from Goodreads
Mothership isn't normally one of those books I'd pick up and read, but between the book's synopsis and the cover there was something about it that cried "read me". In all honestly, this book surprised me a bit, because in those moments where I wanted to put this book down, there was something about it that kept me reading it. It's a mix of humor, sci-fi and action. This book has a mix of teenage moms to be, aliens and an out of this world future setting in outer-space. See, right there you know there will be plenty of humor infused in this book.
Putting aside the whole aliens and having a school for pregnant teens that floats around in space, the fact this book's main characters are teenage moms is interesting. I like that the authors kept a realistic dialogue that stays true to how teens interact with each other complete with crushes, archenemies, and how expecting moms would react to their growing baby bumps. I loved that the main character Elvie is a tough cookie with plenty of sarcasm that kept me laughing while reading about her story. Being weeks from her due date makes her a bit moody, which also adds to humor in some of the things she deals like a cheerleading archenemy, a flakey almost boyfriend that ditched after he found she was pregnant and oh yeah, this poor girl is plain clumsy. But she's got spunk and it made her a fun character to read about.
What I didn't like about the story is all the comedy that centered around pregnant teenagers. I get that it's comical to be pregnant while floating around in outer-space on a school made for pregnant teens, complete with an alien invasion, and baby aliens, but aside from all the humor, I felt that the comedy and teenage pregnancy didn't go hand in hand. That's what fell short in the book for me. I get it is a little hard to take all this seriously when you consider the humor of the entire plot line, but for me the mix of humor and the reality of teenage pregnancies didn't mix well.
As I mentioned before there is plenty of humor, some action (as in some hot commandos who hijack the ship aka school, and some very pregnant teens who at first attempt to make a run for it or fight back until they realize who the guys really are) a few touching moments, an emotional scene or two, and plenty of laugh out loud lines and scenes! This is definitely not like anything I've read before and though it wasn't a book for me, I think YA readers will enjoy this book's authentic storyline. There is some mild language in this book and some brief mentions of sex.
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To celebrate today's release of MOTHERSHIP I've got a fabulous prize pack for 1 lucky blog reader.
GIVEAWAY TIME:
Thank you to Simon & Schuster I have 1 copy of Mothership along with an Urban Decay Stardust Lip Gloss in Space Cowboy to giveaway to one lucky blog reader. To enter, please leave a comment with your email address. US residents only (please).