Aurora Rising

I have mixed feelings on this book. There were moments where I was tempted to DNF it, but I'm glad I didn't because certain elements made up for it. To start, I'll give a summary of what the story is about before going through a pros and cons list. I heard the audiobook, so names will be misspelled.

To summarize, this story is about a squad of six noobs (freshly graduated from the academy) and a “time traveler” (Aurora O'Mally) who form a squad to try to figure out why Aurora has telekinetic powers. The squad is composed of misfits who were chosen last for the draft and became a team by default. Tyler (the captain) finds Auri floating in space. Auri is from 200 yrs in the past and has basically been frozen in cryosleep. She has telekinetic powers and the GIA (a human government entity) is after her. Tyler (the captain) has to decide if they should help her or turn her in to the authorities. They help her and discover a dark secret about warring alien species (the Rahal vs. the Asfereth?). The Rahal are basically the Borg from Star Trek, who are a hive of plant people which have returned and are planning to take over the universe. Auri is the key to a weapon to stop them given by the now extinct race called the Asfereth. In the end of the novel, the group take Auri to search for the weapon to defeat the Rahal.

Cons:
- Questionable squad qualifications: why in the hell would any military government think it's fine to send teams of noobs on spacefaring missions that could lead to war?? Seriously? It's a YA novel, so it explains why, but I can't take the story seriously when I'm reading about these green cadets doing this. Probably because I love Star Trek and the Vulcan in me finds the concept completely illogical.
- The Draft: the first chapter speaks endlessly about Tyler missing “the draft”. Basically, “alphas”, essentially Captains, are the top of their class and given the privilege to hand pick their squad. Again, are teenagers choosing their friends for a group project qualified to make such important decisions? No, they're not. The academy should have a say on teams based on their qualifications and merits rather than leave it all to a “draft”.
- Immaturity of the characters: each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the squad members. Overall, they're immature (imagine that!). The only exception to this would be Kal, my favorite character from the book. I found Kat and Scarlett's to be annoying and dreaded the chapters from their perspective. Kat is crazy about dating Tyler, and her chapters were the worst to get through.
- The constant disrespect and violence towards Tyler (even for comedy). I actually really liked Tyler's character, so the constant disrespect and beatings he received became annoying and tiresome. Funny enough, most of the abuse came from his own twin sister (Scarlette) and his childhood friend who has a crush on him (Kat). To start, his twin sister disrespects him by calling him ‘Beebro' in front of his new squad, rather than giving him the respect he deserves as a new Alpha. And Kat calls him “goldenboy” for being so perfect, which Finian starts using as well. Scarlette fantasizes about kicking her own brother in the balls, and Kat looks back fondly on how she hurt him as a 5 yr old boy by throwing a chair at his face, leaving him with a scar. How fucked up is that? Despite this, Tyler takes the constant teasing on the chin, figuratively and literally. Tyler then gets beats up by Kal, and then even Kat at some point. The poor guy is a punching back, yet, he just brushes it off and thinks the constant abuse from his sister and Kat are normal and affectionate. Seriously, the guy needs therapy. I've never fantasized about hitting my siblings in the balls. This was all used for comedic relief, but for me, it came off nasty.
- Aurora's beef with Kal: I started off liking Aurora, but when it came to Kal, she kept getting mad at him and pissed off at him for absolutely no reason. She was upset when he called her something, but it was sincerely just a cultural misunderstanding. She kept calling him a jackass and poor Kal had no clue she was upset at him when in reality, he was protecting her. She's so immature, Kal can do better than her! I don't get why she was so pissed at him, especially when he voted to not hand her over to the GIA. She conveniently forgot that when she was calling him a jackass - no sweetie, YOU are the jackass, not Kal.

Pros:
- Audiobook is fantastic! The only reason I was able to get through this was because there was sound effects and different narrators for each character. It sounded like I was listening to one of those old radio dramas back in the 40s before televisions were invented. My favorite part was at the end when Kat was taken over by the hive and they were narrating it from the hive perspective with multiple voices. That part was so chilling and fun to listen to. The audiobook narrators and editors did a fantastic job. They get a 5 star rating alone!
- Kal is amazing! Kal is Sildrafi(?), a race that resemble the elves from Tolkien. Aurora refers to him as both Elrond and Legolas a couple of times. His culture is super interesting. They are fighting a civil war and have lost their planet, so his people are scattered. The instigators were the people from his own caste system (the warrior class), so he is hated by others of his race when they see the mark on his forehead. He's not only handsome, but a skilled fighter and the most mature one in the squad. He feels what his people call “the pull” for Auri. They mate for life with one person, and he's in love with her. He's so loyal and devoted to her, and when he confesses to Auri, she says nothing and walks away. I get they were called to the bridge, but that's heart shattering.
- Great ending: the villain reveal was really cool and well done. I love Star Trek, so it didn't bother me when they used the concept of a Borg-like race that was defeated by a now extinct alien species. The fact that her family and the colony was taken over by the Rahal gave a nice dose of angst.
- Funny moments: there were hilarious bits throughout. One favorite is when Tyler and Kal kiss in a restricted area to avoid getting apprehended. Finian also provided great comedy relief sometimes, I enjoyed listening to the gearhead (aka engineer) being sassy. He reminds me of Baird from Gears of War.

So yeah, overall, I liked this book, but I don't think I'll be continuing the series. I've been informed that the Tyler bashing only gets worse in the second book. I thought with Kat gone for now, it would lessen up, but apparently not. I also heard that Aurora breaks up with Kal because he kept a big secret from him (I'll withhold the reason for it from this review). Sweetie, you really don't deserve Kal. Breaking up with your soulmate is a no no. With both my favorites hurting, I think I'll skip the next one and just read spoilers.

Enjoyed this one - it didn't grab me like Illuminae did - but enjoyed it enough to jump into book #2...and now that the characters are fleshed out, I'd say I'm enjoying #2 more.

“I believe of all the places I have not fit, I fit here a little better.” - Zila, Aurora Rising

...I almost DNF'd this book something like five times in the first two chapters because of the incessant flashbacks. I mean, it felt like every page we were switching between current time and flashback. Look, flashbacks can be very effective, and I like them as well as the next person. But there is a time and place for them and the first two chapters of your book is not the time or the place. That being said, I told myself that I at least needed to meet all the characters and I'm glad I persevered because chapter three came and the flashbacks disappeared.

So, this book is fun. A lot of fun. I like most of the characters - several of them right from the start and all of them did grow on me. I love the dissimilar people having to work together though they don't always agree on everything. Or, really, anything. But, boy, have they got each other's backs and I love it!

I did have a couple of complaints. I wish all the characters had toned down the lust because, early on in the book, there was a lot of ‘he's hot' and ‘she's hot' going around. When things started getting serious, I am pleased to report that that did lessen significantly. (I read some of the one star reviews and there were several complaints about things like characters wanting to lick each other upon first meeting and one character being obsessed with the color of her bra. I can only assume these readers read an ARC, because I can assure you, nothing like this was in my copy. ... Thankfully enough.)

I'm not the biggest fan of the ‘big bad.' This is just a personal thing. I've dealt with big bads like this before in books and they are never my favorites.

I have to make mentioned of LGBT+ rep because this is something that I actually heard a lot about before reading this book. Or, rather, I heard a lot about the lack of LGBT+ rep in the book.

I'm of the opinion that pretty much the whole galaxy here is bisexual and nothing is made of that, because of the way pretty much everyone in the story seems to note how good looking others are without it seeming to matter what gender they are. There is one tentative, possible, maybe future romance being set up. And, yes, it is a F/M pairing. But, nothing has happened there, yet.

There is one character that is pretty darn unambiguously bi. (Even if you don't agree with me that everyone else probably is, too.) There does seem to be a couple little hints that this character could be developing strong feelings for someone. If this couple would get together, this would be a F/M pairing. BUT - and I can't believe I have to say this - a bi character getting into a straight relationship does not mean that that character quits being bi.

There is a kiss in this book. It is a gay kiss. It is a fake kiss. I feel like it was used to great effect to 1) show that there is nothing unusual about same sex attraction in this world and 2) to finally start correcting years of this type of fake kiss only being used for straights that already had some romantic attraction. The kiss-y was flustered and flummoxed, not because of who kissed them, but because they were kissed at all.

YMMV on all of this. But I was happy with the book, I was happy with the characters, I was happy that there wasn't mass romantic pairings off in this book (straight or queer) and I am very happy I didn't DNF this book.