Ratings3
Average rating3.3
*36:00:00*
*The clock activates so suddenly in my mind, my head involuntarily jerks a bit to the side. The fog vanishes, dissipated in an instant as though it never was. Memories come slotting into place, their edges sharp enough to leave furrows, and suddenly I know. I know exactly who I am.*
*My name is Lia Johansen, and I was named for a prisoner of war. She lived in the Tiersten Internment Colony for two years, and when they negotiated the return of the prisoners, I was given her memories and sent back in her place.*
*And I am a genetically engineered human bomb.*
Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. Her life gets even more complicated when she meets Michael Sorenson, the real Lia’s childhood best friend.
Drawn to Michael and his family against her better judgment, Lia starts learning what it means to live and love, and to be human. It is only when her countdown clock begins sporadically losing time that she realizes even duds can still blow up. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there’s far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye. With the fate of not just a space station but an entire empire hanging in the balance, Lia races to find the truth before her time—literally—runs out.
Series
2 primary booksSpectre War is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2015 with contributions by Margaret Fortune.
Reviews with the most likes.
Pros: good pacing, interesting characters, interesting mystery, light romance
Cons: felt like Lia should have understood a few things faster
For three years the Celestial Expanse and the Tellurian Alliance have fought over rights to New Earth. Now, there's a cease-fire accompanied by the good-will release of 500 prisoners of war from the Tellurian prisoner of war camp at Tiersten Colony. Among those being released onto New Sol station is sixteen year old Lia Johansen. But she's actually a living bomb, set to go off in thirty-six hours.
This is the first book in the Spectre War series, and it's a doozie. Given the age of the protagonist and her search for meaning after things go wrong, it kind of felt like a YA novel. There's a touch of romance, coming of age, befriending an enemy... But throughout there's an undercurrent of something else - the same mystery that Lia's trying to remember.
I thought the pacing was great, with the book teasing out bits and pieces of the mystery. There was one aspect in particular that I was surprised she didn't grasp earlier. Yes, she is sixteen and it wouldn't be easy to work around false memories, but it did frustrate me a bit.
The romance elements were great and gave the ending quite a punch. I liked that Lia developed friendships with several women of various ages. Often books ignore the importance of female friendships to female protagonists, so I really appreciated seeing this.
While the story is self-contained, it opens a lot of future possibilities, and leaves you wanting to know what happens next.