Nemesis by Brendan Reichs is a fun adventure of friendship, high school rivalries, the government, secret projects, and, the possible end of the world. The book is full of twists and turns. The ending is a cliffhanger; so, I hope there are more books coming in Project Nemesis. Bottom line, I enjoy the story. Even more so, because I think this book works for me and my kids, it gets high marks from me.

Read my complete review at Memories From Books - Nemesis

Reviewed for the Penguin First to Read program.

Nie będę ukrywać, że po książkę ,,Wirusy" sięgnęłam tylko dlatego, że nazwisko Reichs kojarzy mi się z kreatorką postaci Temperance Brennan, którą bardzo lubię. Tak więc nie mogłam odmówić historii, która wyszła spod tego samego pióra. Postać Tory i jej przyjaciół została także wymyślona przez syna wymienionej pisarki, więc zapowiadał się lekki wietrzyk świeżości. Wszystko mi podpowiadało, że to musi być dobra książka, więc nie zostało mi nic innego jak ją przeczytać.

Książka ,,Wirusy" szybko zdążyła mnie zaskoczyć. Byłam ciekawa, co to za tytułowy wirus będzie się panoszył po świecie bohaterów. Miałam już nawet kilka teorii, lecz żadna się nie sprawdziła. Jednak to nie jedyna rzecz, która potrafiła wprowadzić mnie w zdziwienie. Podczas czytania nie dało się nie snuć własnych hipotez na temat dalszego rozwoju wydarzeń. Niestety prawie nic nie udało mi się odgadnąć (a to pisarze-chytrusy). 

Świetnie się bawiłam czytając ,,Wirusy". Historia, jaką stworzyli autorzy, wprowadziła mnie w niezwykły świat pełen przygód młodych, inteligentnych nastolatków, z której mogłam nauczyć się kilku nowych rzeczy. Nie raz mnie zaskoczyła, nie raz mnie zaciekawiła i nie raz na mojej twarzy pojawiał się uśmiech. A po skończeniu czytania tej książki, od razu miałam ochotę zatopić się w kolejnych przygodach naszej czwórki przyjaciół. Na szczęście będę mogła to zrobić, gdyż ,,Wirusy" są pierwszą części serii, która liczy już kilka tomów. 

Dear Beneficiary by Janet Kelly

Terminal by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs

You Belong to Me by Samantha Hayes

Tuesday Falling by S. Williams

You Think You Know Me by Clare Chase

Second Life by S. J. Watson

Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

Last year, I had a final list of 10 Best Reads for the year, the top spot being taken by Sarah Hilary's fantastic debut Someone Else's Skin, published by Headline.

With 16 fantastically engrossing novels making it to the shortlist so far, it looks like I'm going to have a really tough decision to make at the end of the year.

I welcome your comments !

Publication Date: 26th March 2015

Publisher: Random House UK, Cornerstone

ISBN: 9781448134366

Source: Publisher provided review copy, via NetGalley

Rating: 4*

Synopsis:

A terrifying new Virals adventure for Tory Brennan – great niece of Dr Temperance Brennan – and the Virals team as they come face to face with their greatest enemy. From the producer of the hit TV series Bones and No.1 Sunday Timesbestselling author of the Temperance Brennan series.

Tory Brennan and the Virals are forced to confront the existence of a rival pack – The Trinity – who wants them off the scene – declaring war by engraving ‘One Territory. One Pack’ on a local landmark. What’s more this pack’s powers seem stronger and their eyes glow red rather than golden when they flare.

Chance Claybourne, who now owns his father’s pharmaceutical company, shares The Trinity’s powers – he accidentally infected himself and his ex-lab tech Will Speckman. Chance claims he’s on Virals’ side but can they trust him? And if Speckman is one of The Trinity, who are the other two?

As the tension mounts between the two packs an even greater threat looms. Covert government agents are closing in on them, determined to find out exactly how their powers work, to experiment on them. Have The Trinity pack given them Virals to save themselves? Or are both packs at risk?

Review:

An exciting fifth installment of the brilliant YA Virals series featuring Tory Brennan and the boys from Morris Island.

A well written, terrifically entertaining story that held my interest throughout - it's a real page turner. One of the things I love about this series is the interaction between the Virals - Tory, her wolfdog Cooper, neighbour Ben and schoolfriends Hi and Shelton. They are all such different characters and the banter between them is great. It's funny enough to make you chuckle yet serious when needed.

The new gang in town threaten the Virals' very existence and cause no end of trouble for Tory and her friends. But they won't be let off lightly. When the gang seek an unlikely ally in Chance, fireworks really do go off and a battle commences. I couldn't put it down!

A love triangle develops to complicate proceedings further - I adored that! I honestly couldn't see which way things were going to go and was surprised at the very end of the book, when the choice is made.

Brilliant stuff!

Very angst. Much unbelievable. Such bored.

And there you have it. But seriously, each new book in the series gets progressively worse. The characters, by which I mean Ben and Chance, get more annoying, the book is always at least 100 pages too long, and the plot for the individual books are pathetic or ill-written.

For example, Chance. Chance is something like 19. He's a multi-billionaire. And he IS Jackson Whittemore from Teen Wolf, no joke. His whole life is consumed with finding out what Tory and her gang pack are and becoming it too. He cannot rest till he has accomplished his goal and he's a giant jackass, to boot. Despite being a bajillionarie, I find it highly unbelievable that he can literally do whatever he wants and experiment in labs and wander in and out of anywhere and everywhere and no one ever questions him or wonders what he's doing or anything. Urgh.

Or, and here's a gem, why would two teenagers who wish to fake their kidnapping in order to get ransom money from their (apparently) horrible stepfather ASK A COP TO HELP THEM? Like, how did that even come about?

Kids: *wander into police station*

Cops: *eating donuts*

Kids: *spot a likely candidate*

Kids: Hey, mister. Want to help us fake our kidnapping for $5 million ransom, which is entirely too much to ask, so that we can use that money to make our own way in the world, even though this is an ill-fated plot that will never work out?

Likely Candidate: *silently ponders*

Kids: Oh, pretty please, mister cop!! We'll give you $1 million of it.

Likely Candidate: Okay!!

And like any good self-enterprising cop, Likely Candidate plans to double-cross the Kids, kill everyone in his way, and abscond with the $5 million.


Just not getting into this series and, after picking up the last book and paging absentmindedly through it, I shan't be finishing the series. I simply don't care enough.