Rook Blog Tour: Review

The summary for this book is completely entrancing. Described in it is a beautifully complex world that I absolutely couldn't wait to dive into. See for yourself!

Rook by JC Andrijeski

The world is dying. Everyone feels it, and yet, no one knows.
They said that when the end was near, a Bridge would come, and lead them out of the darkness of that dying world.
Allie Taylor's life was relatively normal...
Until Revik showed up.
And told her she was that Bridge.


"You are the Bridge..."

Like most humans, Allie spent her life distancing herself from Seers, a race of human-like beings discovered on Earth in the early 1900s. Then she catches her boyfriend in the arms of a hot band groupie, and Allie goes from San Francisco artist slacker to the girl wearing the GPS anklet.

That's the least of her problems, though, compared to the shock of discovering who--and what--she really is.

Yanked out of her life by the mysterious Revik, Allie finds out that her blood may not be as "human" as she always thought. Through Revik she learns the truth: that Seers are nothing like she thought, that the world is nothing like it appears to be...and she has far more in common with Seers than she ever wanted to believe.

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JC Andrijeski writes new adult urban fantasy, dystopian, paranormal romance and crime fiction. Current works include the new adult urban fantasy series, Allie’s War, new adult dystopian series, Alien Apocalypse, and the Gate Shifter series, about a shape-shifting alien and a tough-girl PI from Seattle. She also has a new crime series in the works, with a quirky, brilliant and deeply dangerous hero named Quentin Black.

Her work has been featured in anthologies, online literary, art and fiction magazines as well as print venues such as NY Press and holistic health magazines. JC travels extensively and has lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia, but currently lives and works full time as a writer in Portland, OR.

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The concept for this book KICKS BUTT. If you've read the summary (and if not, then what are you already doing over here, hmmm?), then you know that much already. Renegade aliens, impending apocalypse, all shrouded in an air of mystery, both within Allie's own life and the world she's living in. Rook promises so much, and for the most part, it delivers.

Rook kicks things off with what may be one of the best introductory chapters I've ever read. Seriously, it's funny, it's candid, and it reveals so many interesting things about what's to come. It's just an amazing prologue, and it really gave me high hopes for the rest of the book. In a way, that was both a good thing and a bad thing.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of wonderful things in this book. Besides the AMAZING intro, the world building is incredible, and those few pieces where Allie was supposed to be hypnotized or entranced.... ooohhhh, let me tell you. Too often with pieces like that I always stop and think, mhmm, I don't know about that. There's always something that seems forced or out of place, but I NEVER thought that in Rook. Not even once. Those few sections were so well-written, so believable, there wasn't even a single blip that pulled me out of the story.

And then things started to get weird.

With books like this, where so much is different from our own world, certain things need to be explained. I don't need everything all at once, but somebody has to give me something. I was actually a little disappointed when Terian (one of the villains in the beginning) went away for a little while because he was the only one who told me anything! Yes, it was one of those "I have you right where I want you" evil-doer monologues, but at least he was helping me out!

At times, it almost felt like the story was dragging me along. Some things just didn't make sense, and Allie offered so little reflection in some places that I didn't know what to do aside from just keeping on and hoping I would figure it out eventually.

Still, no matter how confusing or grey the story got towards the middle and the end, there were still those bright spots wedged in there. The comedic timing in this book was FABULOUS. There were so many little moments that just made me smile, and quite a few longer conversations that had me laughing (I'm looking at YOU, Mr. Canadian Border Guard). Regardless of how out of tune I may have felt with it at times, Rook still has a lot going for it and is definitely something I would recommend to the right reader.

My Rating:

And here's my favorite quote, right from the beginning:

The real problem, as they explained to me much, much later in time, was that I made myself visible. That little freak-out of mine with Jaden and the broken bottle and the bimbo band groupie was like sending up a great, big, noisy flare, one that got all the wrong people looking in my direction.

Why is that, you might be wondering?

Well, it's simple. See, what I did was only crazy if you're human.

If you're not human, I was later to discover, it's pretty much run-of-the-mill normal.