BOOK REVIEW: "First: Book One of the Live Once Trilogy" by Chanda Stafford

Dystopian young adult novels are a dime a dozen. There. I said it. You can't go through the Teen section of Barnes And Noble without seeing even more dystopian fiction than paranormal these days.
Joining the ranks of The Hunger Games and Divergent is the novel First by Chanda Stafford, Book One in the Live Once Trilogy.
500 years in the future, America is a disturbing place, where the state of Texas once rebelled and is now a slave state. Their only hope of greatness is if one of their children is chosenby a First to be Absolved...but no one really knows what happens to the Absolved, as they're never seen again.
Firsts have lived hundreds of lifetimes, despite still being nearly human, but how do they do it? And why are there rebels plotting against the Firsts and the rest of the government?
Chosen Absolved, teenage Mira, is determined to find out!

Teenage heroines are usually tough girls wearing leather and toting some sort of weapon. Mira is an enslaved Texan with little education and a LOT of personal baggage, a bad haircut and no weapons except for her wit and sense of self-preservation.
Socrates, her First, is actually a delightful old man with a strong sense of values and a great plan for freeing Texas. I liked him immediately, despite his many character flaws.
The secondary characters, from Mira's family, Socrates life partner, to the servants and guards in Washington D.C., are perfectly formed and each so essential in their own way. Without any of them, this story would not have been the same
It moves at a very fast pace and is very engaging, so young minds with short attention spans can still enjoy this book. Both men and women, adults and kids, will love this book and eagerly await the second installment in the trilogy. If I could go higher than a 5 with my rating, I would!

5/5--amazing!

Purchase First via:

Amazon

Red Adept Publishing

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