Review: Broken Worlds by Anitha Robinson

Broken Worlds

by Anitha Robinson 

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: CBaY Books
Publication Date: June 2014
Edition: E-Book
Page Count: 200
Source: Netgalley (thank you!)

Goodreads Synopsis: When a brutal attack leaves her barely conscious, Kalli thinks that the young man carrying her away is an angel sent to ferry her to Heaven. After all of the abuse and months of homelessness, Kalli welcomes the relief that Heaven would bring. Handsome Ellis, though, turns out to be just as mortal as she is. A kind stranger, Ellis saves her life by taking her to a local clinic to be healed. Once better, Kalli finds herself staying with her unusual rescuer while being monitored constantly by his mysterious family. It s not an ideal situation, but it beats the streets. Now that she s safe and warm and appears to have found someone who cares for her, Kalli assumes the worst is behind her. She couldn t be more wrong. Broken Worlds was the very first Young Adult Winner in the Yummy but Brainy Writing Contest presented by CBAY Books."


GOODREADS

Review: If I am being honest, I clicked to request this book when I was in my Netgalley phase when every book listed sounded good, and I was requesting far more than I needed to. When I went back, I was very intrigued by the synopsis of this book, though. I am a pretty big science fiction fan, and reading on Goodreads have me some more information about the book as well. While I was worried the book might take a paranormal twist that I would not enjoy, I was wrong about that. While I'm not the biggest fan of vampires and werewolves in books, I will definitely take some aliens in my books, thank you very much. 

What I really enjoyed about this book was that it was not all about the unrealistic parts (sorry, not the biggest believer in aliens, oops!). One of the main focuses was actually on the abuse that Kalli had to endure before running away from home. Abuse, especially domestic abuse and sexual abuse, are serious issues affecting our world and I feel like they are often sugar-coated when they are put in books; especially young adult novels. However, I feel that Robinson did a wonderful job of showing things how they really are. 

Another thing I enjoyed about this book is how I could not guess what was going to happen next. The best books are the ones that leave you guessing, and this book certainly did just that. I could not put the book down simply because I needed to know what happened next to the characters, and because of this I finished the book in one sitting. While it was a quick read, there were some flaws that bothered me throughout the text. 

The romance was a little unbelievable for me. I am a huge fan of romance, but this one seemed unlikely. Not that it could not have happened eventually, but it happened far too fast. After everything that Kalli went through, it seemed unlikely that she would fall in love so soon and trust someone so easily, especially someone who was obviously hiding things and lying to her. The dialogue also seemed a bit childish and naive for a young adult novel, something that was a turn off for me. 

While I do love some of the other concepts and issues that were developed and talked about in the book, I do feel like the plot was very slow moving at parts. We got to the end of the book and all of these new, big things were revealed, but there was not enough time to go in depth about these things that were obviously pretty important. I do believe that this is only book one in a series, so I do hope that eventually all of these things will be extended and revealed. I did enjoy this book, but it certainly could have used some improvements. 

Rating: 3.0 / 5.0