Format: Kindle, 370 pages
Release Date: April 17, 2020
Publisher: Starfall Press LLC
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: YA / Dystopian / SyFy
My name is Maia Graystone: prisoner, rebel, and reluctant savior of a dying world.
In exactly 552 hours, an asteroid will end life as we know it. Not that I'm counting or anything. Trapped inside a hellish prison, I spend my last days worrying about the brother I left behind, the not-so-friendly inmates, and the bounty on my head.
Then a mysterious benefactor offers the impossible: a chance to compete in the Shadow Trials. Win and my brother and I receive a coveted spot on the space station in the stars.
But the opportunity comes at a steep price. Partner with a dashing psychopath, enter the court that once condemned me to death, survive the ruthless trials created by my own mother, and kill the Emperor--the very man who's hunting me.
In this cunning game of life and death, nothing is as it seems and everyone expects me to fail. But they forgot one tiny detail.
Never underestimate the girl with nothing left to lose.
"The things that pleased us withered into dust. And the things that haunt us sprouted from their remains. Until the rotting harvest, watered in the blood of our children, grew so tall it hid the sun— And we forgot we ever loved the light."
Shadow Fall is the first installment in author Audrey Grey's Shadow Fall trilogy. Once upon a time, Emperor Laevus created a population of genetically superior human beings to restart humanity after an asteroid named Pandora crashes to Earth in 552 days. Maia Graystone is one of them. The Chosen are supposed to take their places on the space station Hyperion orbiting the Earth. Born of a Gold mother, and a Bronze Father, Maia is now one of the most wanted fugitives in the Empire along with her brother Max who have pieces of a puzzle their father left behind that could save the planet.
She was once matched to the Crown Prince Caspian himself. But that was before her father was accused of being a traitor, and before her mother abandoned her. After her father Philip was labeled as a traitor and was murdered by loyalists, Maia and Max ran away and hid. Until one day Maia was caught scavenging for food. For 7 years, Maia has hidden away in a 6x6 foot hole in Rhine Prison thinking about how she failed her brother. She even got the nickname of Digger Girl because she managed to keep away from the trouble that kept hounding her.
Until one day she is dragged out of her hole by the Emperor's attack dog, Archduchess Victoria Crowder and a boy named Riser who was told he gets a one way ticket out of the prison if he finds Maia and brings her to Victoria. Victoria is after the part of the puzzle her father left behind which means that torturing Maia is the only way she believes Maia will break. Then a mysterious benefactor and leader of the rebellion breaks Maia out and offers the impossible: a spot in the Shadow Trials-a competition for the children of the fallen Gold families to get a chance to restore their name and earn a place on Hyperion, the Space station where Maia might find her brother.
But the opportunity comes at a steep price. Maia has to partner with Riser aka Pit Boy, who has his own agenda, enter the court that once condemned Maia to death, survive the ruthless trials created by my own mother who left when she was 9, and kill the Emperor. The reality is that Maia can't compete as herself. She has to have a complete makeover into someone who isn't the girl who was once in love with Prince Caspian, the Emperor's son. Maia has to become Lady Everly March, a ruthless and skilled young woman who was much more brazen, deadly and cold than Maia.
Maia was a survivor not weak. A lot of this book is focused on Maia/Everly struggling to figure out who she really is and who she wants to be. To win the competition she needs to be Everly but she cannot seem to get rid of her conscience and softness that comes with being Maia. The romance between Maia and Riser aka Pit Boy aka Lord Thornbrook, was a slow burn. Maia really loathed Riser because he reminded her of the girl she was in the Pits and it took a while before she started to feel more for him and to trust him.
I think readers of this might immediately think of the Hunger Games as well as maybe Divergent with the factions being separated into Gold, Silver and Bronze. The golds are obviously very rich while the bronze are the poorest of the lot. Silvers are a little better off but they serve the golds. I think that the final chapters of this book are the best without hesitation. It's where all the action is. It's also where some heart break happens and Maia finds herself once again on the door of being dragged into hell once again.
The only real negative that I have is that I found it to be confusing in certain area's. I wish the author gave us a bit more background information on the society they lived in and explained a little bit more on the groups mentioned.
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