Review: The Pack - L.M. Preston

Where I got it: Finished copy from Publisher (Phenomenal One Press)
Rating: 1 stars
Cover Rating: 0 stars (No thanks. This girl looks nothing like Shamira and she never uses a sword like that. Also her right hand isn't holding the sword.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: August 1, 2010
Publisher: Phenomenal One Press
Page Count: 315 p.

Shamira is blind, but that doesn't stop her from hunting down the bad guys that are kidnapping kids all over Mars. The bad guys have even started kidnapping members of The Security Force, which is near impossible.  Shamira may have to start to trust people if she is going to bring Monev down. She doesn't know if she's ready for it, but she knows she doesn't have a choice.

I really enjoyed this novel for the first few chapters. After that, whoever was editing this book seemed to take a mini-vacation, since the writing just went downhill. The idea of the story was really good (kids being kidnapped on Mars leads to other kids forming an underground uprising) but that is where it stops. There are a lot of editing mistakes, but nowhere on my copy does it say that this is an uncorrected proof, so I'm assuming this is what people who buy it will see. There was a lot of dialogue and it seemed forced most of the time.  The kids didn't speak like kids and some of the lines seemed to come from adult romance novels. Some of the action scenes tell us they were action-y instead of actually being action-y. The love interest in this book bordered on obsessive, he was pretty odd. Really though I had high hopes for this novel when I began, but was quickly and thoroughly disappointed again and again. Maybe someone else will enjoy this novel, the bottom line is I didn't and I can't recommend it.

First Line:
"She often walked this way home listening for all the familiar sounds."

Favorite Line:
"It was night out, but it made no difference to Shamira, for she lived in the dark most of her life."