Review: Earthquake by Aprilynne Pike

What: Earthquake (Earthbound #2) by Aprilynne Pike

Who: HarperCollins Children’s Books

When: July 31st 2014

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Harper Collins Australia for review.

The heart-stopping sequel to Earthbound – an epic love triangle you’ve never seen before! Tavia Michaels is an Earthbound – a fallen goddess with the power to remake the Earth or destroy it. The Reduciata, a rival faction of Earthbounds, has created a virus that is wiping out swathes of the planet. But before Tavia can act on this discovery, she is captured and imprisoned. Huddled in a cell with her eternal lover, Logan, she loses track of the days until they are mysteriously rescued…. For Tavia isn’t like other Earthbound. As her powers awaken, her centuries-long relationship with Logan is threatened, and when Benson – the best friend who’s always stood by her – returns Tavia must again face a terrible choice between those she loves. Can Tavia stop the destruction of Earth and uncover the ultimate truth about the Earthbound before it’s too late?

I think the best aspect of Earthquake was how it handled change so well. The setting and characters are completely different to what they were in Earthbound, and yet the progression felt very natural, and not forced in the slightest.

Another great aspect of this book was the characters. As I just mentioned, there is a whole new and different cast of characters in Earthquake, and a lot of the time is spent wondering who is trustworthy, and who isn’t. Which is always fun, in my opinion. I love being sceptical of characters, and wondering what their evil master plans are.

I recently posted my review of Earthbound, and was reminded of how I felt when the book ended. I was all for this certain thing, and then that kind of completely changed as I read Earthquake.

So, Earthbound ended and I was very much: woo, yeah! This thing has to go down because of back story and love and all those shenanigans. YUS.

And then I started reading Earthquake, and this character that I had been so keen on turned out to be a bit of a bust … which is kind of sad, but also kind of good because then I did a complete 180: ohmygosh EW NO get away from that one, get with this one. Yesssss, this one is precious.

The precious ship is just adorable, and I very much prefer his character to the other one (even though I was all for the first ship at the beginning of the book – but I guess that speaks for how awesome Pike is for being able to change my mind).

The overall storyline was a lot more intricate and in depth than that of Earthbound, but I found that it added to the story, rather than took away from it. However, I felt that it was lacking in some places as the pacing was quite slow – to allow for character development, I suppose, but during some points it did lag a little.

Unfortunately, I found it hard to relate and emotionally invest in our main character, Tavia. I’m not sure why, but my emotions are just not there where she is concerned. Sure, I am rooting for her and cheering her on, but not with the passion that I have for other characters in other books.

Earthquake answers quite a few questions that were raised in the first book, but there are still a whole heap of questions that are unanswered. The ending was definitely one that had me wishing for the next book to appear in my hands so I could figure everything out once and for all.

I am hoping that there is not too much of a gap until the third book is released, but I have a feeling there will be quite a wait – it’s not even on Goodreads yet. *wails*

This doesn’t really have much to do with the book itself, but rather my cover judger coming out, but I was sad to see that the beautiful simplicity of the first cover had morphed into this extremely colourful one. I like it, but I would have loved to see that trend of the first cover continued in this one.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

Your Turn: Have you ever switched ships in the second book of a series?