Saturday 24 August 2019

Last Hope by Krista & Becca Ritchie Review


Rating: 3 Stars
Publication: August 13th, 2019
The Raging Ones #2
Genre: YA Scifi Romance
Format: Egalley/Audiobook

Summary:

In a freezing world, where everyone knows the day they will die, three teens break all odds by defying their death day and somehow become linked so deeply that they start to share senses and emotions. With the threat of people learning they’ve dodged their deathdays, they end up stealing a spaceship and running right into the arms of their enemy. Imprisoned for weeks Franny, Court, and Mykal have sat with an unfathomable revelation. But as they fight to stay alive, escaping prison means trusting a young mysterious stranger. He knows everything about their lost histories, and when answers aren’t given freely, the bonded trio are forced to join a mission. One that will determine the fate of humanity. Vulnerable and with no choice, the trio on embark on a dangerous mission to a water world where their enemies can’t die and survival comes at a high cost.


Thoughts:

After her mother died when she was only 6, Franny grew up on the streets working hard and partying even harder with the other fast trackers who will all die before they turn 30. Passionate and rebellious Franny doesnt do anything half way. Court could have had that life had he not been a child genius adopted by a wealthy family, but after spending five years in prison for going against peoples death day he becomes acquainted with a great deal of pain. Cold and calculating Court only lets a chosen few close to him and his boyfriend Mykal is one of them. The rugged Hinterlander who was suppose to die as a babe brings warmth and positivy wherever he goes. A perfect balance to Courts reserved personality. We also get a chapter from a fourth character who helps them escape prison. Full of grief, secrets, and determination to honor his commanders, Stork hopes to lead them all on a dangerous mission to save earth.

Despite knowing each other a long time we still get a romance full of wonderful angst as Court and Mykal try to hide their link by keeping their distance from one another. The link they share with Franny could have easily been seen as polyamoury, but sadly thats not how it played out. I still really enjoyed the strong friendship between the three of them. Because they share emotions they can tell when one of them isnt happy and try their best to make things right. It was sweet how giving and self sacrificing they were for one another. Franny tried hard to give them space to be together despite sharing senses and the boys tried to encourage her to find someone even though they would have to experience what she does. They dont want her to suffer without human connection for their sake, especially when she keeps denying her growing attraction to Stork. As for the other side characters, we dont get to know them that well.

After the major revelations at the end of the first book we slowly start to unravel the mysteries of the main characters past. The action took a while to get started because the characters are first imprisoned and then spend a bunch of time training for the mission. Besides the need to discover the truth, its the friendships and romance that kept me engaged. I felt Frannys frustratiom that Stork wasnt allowed to give them any information unless their mission was successful. They could all die without any answers and thats just cruel, especially considering how the whole mission hinges on a myth they found in some random book that might not even be accurate. I felt like they put way too much faith in the author knowning a powerful baby would be on a specific planet at this very convenient moment. It definitely required some suspension of disbelief. I also wish more violence happened on page, but whenever we got to those parts it would switch perspective and that just lessened the emotional impact.

In this sequel we get to explore more of the world since the main characters have finally left their planet. Theres some fun space travel and an exciting trek across a waterworld. I wish we got more descriptions of the alligators on this planet because I live for any unique world building element. One example of this was how everyone was seperated into different classes based on their death day. Theres the babes who die very young, the fast trackers who can live up to twenty nine, and the influentials who can live long into their hundreds. I thought the death day reader technology was interesting, but I do have questions like if they can't die before their death day can they be put into a coma until then or does that somehow count as being dead. I enjoyed this more than the first book, but that might be because I listened to it on audio. I feel like the full cast of narrators really enhanced the story and Im happy I decided to pick up the conclusion to this duology on audiobook.

Diversity: LGBT+ MC
Trigger/Content Warnings: Grief, Murder, Death of Parent Figure, Child Abandonment, Fear of Drowning, Loss of an Eye, Blood, Animal Attack, Confinement in a Tight Space, Starvation, Alcohol Addiction

*This book was received for an honest review

No comments:

Post a Comment