Quicksilver
Quicksilver (Ultraviolet, #2)by R.J. Anderson
Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenaged girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it.Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can’t escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual... talents.Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn’t escaped her past. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab.She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she’s always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori’s incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free. (goodreads.com)
Just when I was almost caught up with posts on the books I'd read, I went and read another 5 or so and am behind again. Go, me. Really, I just keep this blog as my own personal book journal so I don't feel guilty about not updating it, BUT I do feel out of whack when I don't because I'm OCD like that and I want to have a written record of what I have read in the year. Each time I think, "Maybe I'll combine the posts into multi-mini-reviews" I realize that the books I want to write about are too amazing to not have their own posts. Yes, my life is tragically difficult. I know.SO! Quicksilver! I have been waiting forever for this book since I read Ultraviolet many moons ago. I love R.J. Anderson's books and she always gets published in the UK first and I loooove the UK editions of her books. This one was supposed to come out earlier, but it got pushed back and ended up coming out in the US first (weird). But I'd had it on pre-order for so long, I just impatiently awaited it's arrival. (I did actually get approved for a PDF file off Netgalley, but the font was so tiny on my ereader that I couldn't enjoy the story, so I didn't really read much that way.)I remember being thrown for a loop at the end of Ultraviolet and I know I was unsure of whether or not I wanted a sequel to the story because I liked the loopy, open ending of the first book. However, as soon as I got three pages into Quicksliver I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. We follow a different character this time, Tori, as she and her family move far, far away (from one part of Ontario to another!) to try and escape what happened back in the first book. Tori is different and somehow her DNA was discovered in the first book as the investigation progressed. Now, a lab and an obsessed cop are after her to find out more and what REALLY happened.I don't recall liking Tori much in the first book, though I will admit my memory is a little foggy when it comes to her. But I honestly loved her in Quicksiver and her reluctant growing friendship with Milo. I really liked Milo, too. He was pretty chill and a good friend, who stood by Tori because he could see she was going through some stuff and rather than force her to tell him, he just stood by her when she needed someone there. Even if she didn't think she did. Sure, he likely had ulterior, romantic motives, but ultimately he was just a really good friend. I like books where friendship just happens and just IS, without it being a huge deal. I don't know how to explain it better than that but it was a subtle friendship and not a bells and whistles one?R.J. Anderson tells a story very well. I can be annoyed by characters (though not so much in this series. In the faerie series I used to get so annoyed by some of those characters!) and love characters and have my opinions of characters completely change through the course of a story. I love when characters noticeably evolve in a story (in a good way, not in a WTF just happened to this character development, sort of way) and Anderson has a knack for evolving the people within the pages of her stories. Not everyone can do that. At least not effectively that I have read.The action in the book moves swiftly and I was glued to the book for an entire afternoon. Yes, I read this in one day. I was on a reading roll this month. :) It was a truly enjoyable read and I am looking forward to anything else R.J. Anderson publishes in the future. I am never disappointed by her novels - even if they have an unlikable character or two in them. ;) If you have not yet read anything by this lovely, Canadian author, I don't know what you're waiting for. Her books are out in the UK and (eventually) out in our own country and the US. Middle Grade, Young Adult, Faeries, Sci-Fi (because that's sort of what this series is) and interesting characters surrounded by excellent writing - what more can you ask for?Ultraviolet series
- Ultraviolet
- Quicksilver