Resilience is book one of the Regina Shen series, which takes place in a dystopian-type world. Though I was initially put off by the book covers, the premise behind the series intrigued me enough that I was thrilled to sign up for the review tour.

Regina, of course, is our hero. She's a teenager, as they always are in dystopian books, and has a younger sister and a mom, both of whom we see little of in this book.

Regina has courage, is portrayed as smart, and is certainly loyal to her sister. Much of the book is spent on Regina's mixed relationship with her mother (which I can sympathize with); however, I did feel as if a lot of time was spent obsessing over Regina being mad at her mother for abandoning her and her sister, even though Regina (in the same breath) complains about how her mother was never there for them.

We never really get to know Regina's family, as book one focuses mainly on Regina's search for them. I was honestly bored at times because I didn't really care about her family.

That being said, the world the author creates is great. I do love the setting, and could imagine this future, alternative world rather easily, though the author's continuous descriptions of the setting also got a little old.

Regina herself is an interesting character - I'm not sure I like her, but I do applaud her spirit, her spunk, her "gumption" if you will. She is frustrated throughout much of the story, and grows as a person and begins to turn into an adult a little more. There are a lot of questions in her life that remain un-answered, and it'll be interesting to see how Regina will continue to grow as the series unfolds.



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book received for free as part of a book tour