2.5 - 3 stars

Burn Out by Kristi Helvig was a solid book one and a fast paced, quick read. It is full of action and quite a few twists and turns.

Tora is seventeen and living on her own on an Earth that is now a wasteland. The sun has wiped out all of the sources of water and a good portion of the population. On top of this, before Tora’s father died, he told her all about the weapons he created for the Consulate (the government) as well as the fact that for her security and to thwart the Consulate, he keyed them so that they would only work with her vibrations.

Spoiler

I didn’t really get the “vibrations” thing and it was never explained why James was able to bypass the lock. I wish we would have gotten a bit more explanation of both things.

Tora is tough – she has had to be and I thought she was a good character. She tried hard to keep the weapons out of Markus’ hands but when he came back with help, she really didn’t have much choice. I appreciated her sarcastic wit and her ability to maintain her attitude even when faced with odds that were not in her favor.

James is still a mystery to me. I have no idea what his agenda is although it is clear he is some sort of double agent…at least that is where I think that storyline is going.

The other characters were interesting. Britta did a complete 180 and there didn’t seem to be a real explanation. I liked Markus but when he and Tora had their first interaction in the book I had the sense that he was pretty much all about doing what was right for him and again, his character completely changed about halfway through the book.

Alex confused me as I wasn’t sure what he was supposed to add to the story. We got brief snippets of his background story but I’m curious about what he is going to add to this one other than being someone that Kale can manipulate.

Speaking of Kale – it would have been great to get more information about his motives and what he was trying to accomplish. Yeah he wanted to get one over on the Consulate but I feel like there is more to it than that.

Don’t think that I didn’t like this story because I did and I think it has a lot of potential. My challenges mostly come from the fact that this story was short. It comes in at about 270 pages but there didn’t seem to be enough time for me to get everything I needed from this book and the ending felt really rushed and abrupt.

Overall this was a solid story that pulled me in and had me rooting for the main character. There is quite a bit of action, a little bit of romance, and a lot of question about who can be trusted and who can’t. I will be interested to see where Helvig goes with the rest of this story and will definitely pick up the second book when it comes out.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.