Completed 02/08/15
5 of 5 stars
411 page Kindle book
I received this book from the publisher for my honest review.
True Calling is set in a distant time where Earth has been mostly abandoned and citizens are now living on Novo, a planet that has recreated many of Earths ecosystems while maintaining a firm grip on those who were brought to Novo. A memory eraser has been used on the population, so they would forget their time on earth and everything is held under strict guidelines so that they may thrive as a society.
Ariana is a cadet in the military facility, who is content enough on Novo, until she is forced to participate in a pageant called "The Calling" where she must date a certain amount of guys, have a suitable mate chosen for her and, eventually, marry and settle down to have her mandated amount of children. It's not the path that Ariana wanted for herself and she begins to resist, until everything starts to go wrong.
I loved almost everything about this book. In the beginning Ariana WAS a little annoying. When we meet Ariana, she's living out her life, doing all her training, hanging out with her best friend and ignoring Cal, who annoys her to no end. She finds him rude and self centered which is all well and good, but her feelings don't stay that way and it's a bit childish and annoying. She first can't stand the guy, then she thinks she might like him, then she is completely jealous when he's talking to another girl, then she decides she really really really likes him and wants to be with him.
UGH!! Luckily, this all happens really quickly and she settles down after that. If she had been this wishy washy the whole time I definitely wouldn't have enjoyed the book, but she wasn't, and it was just a minor annoyance to deal with in the beginning but then the book gets so enjoyable, I pretty much forgot she annoyed me for a while.
I wasn't sure how I would handle the whole forced pregnancy / marriage thing (I don't read books with pregnancies) so I'm glad to say that it doesn't come into play yet. We'll see what further books bring, and I'm glad that it didn't. The whole concept of the Calling, while appalling (which was the point) is pretty neat and it was great to see all their reactions to it. There's so much going on than just a simple dating pageant and the powers in charge are not against changing things to conform to what they are looking for.
In addition to Ariana and Cal, there is Zane. Ariana has been dreaming of him for months, though she has no idea who he is or even if the dreams are real. I was surprised to get Zane's story partway through the book and I really liked seeing that side of the story. I'm definitely a Zane fan.
I highly recommend this book for fans of YA Dystopia with some romance thrown in. I'm not a huge romance fan, so there was enough other things going on for me to enjoy the book as a whole. I made the mistake of reading the blurb for the next book, before I finished this one ~ Don't Do That! It contains spoilers you may not want to see. Definitely give this book a try, I think you'll enjoy all the different aspects of it, as there is so much going on packed in one book! I can't wait to get my hands on the 2nd one!
Setting = A+
Plot = A+
Conflict = A+
Characters = A
Theme = A
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