"Your body is not your own. Your mind is not your own. Your life is not your own."

You know that satisfied, giddy feeling you get when you enjoy an unexpected treat and it was even better than you anticipated it would be? That's how I'm feeling about this post-apocalyptic YA novel with both grit and heart. It's quite simply put - a gem of a book.

I found myself swept up in Kristoff's imaginative future world where robots and poverty are abound. It felt gloomy, desperate and strange. Yet, this wasteland was the perfect setting for his tale. You catch glimpses of the USA you know mentioned in passing and you can picture the long forgotten streets lined with scrap and trash. The people now living like scavengers - mice inhabiting a now forbidding land.

How then can I dare say the book was full of heart? The characters brought to life by Kristoff were the absolute strength of the book for me. He created a mismatched "family" - the kind that find themselves formed from circumstance and ultimately by choice, not blood - of robots and people that was funny, heartwarming and tragic.

Seventeen year old Eve is on a journey to save the only family she has left - her grandfather Silas. This journey is action packed, full of twists & turns, secrets, betrayal and plenty of emotion. Oh, how I came to love this band of misfits! Their chemistry was perfection for this reader - witty banter, genuine affection, courage and acceptance. The friendship between Eve and Lemon Fresh was one of my favorite dynamics. They were adorable. I'd join their BFF group in a heartbeat!.

The twists - there are plenty here to feast on. Some you will see coming and some you might have to stop reading and take a breathe to digest. Well, I certainly had to anyway. As for the cliffhanger ending - Oh Jay, you got me! All I can say is, I'm in this for the long haul.