Review: Blew me away
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2012
Samantha woke up in a hospital room, and because her phone never left her side, she was reading an article on the 24/7 Interactive website about a terrorist bombing of a school bus and the press was speculating that the twins might have been the target. Samantha and James were the only twins on the bus, so they must be talking about them, but why would anyone want to harm them? They were just ordinary teenagers. As she scrolled down the page, she saw another article about a teenage boy who had "fallen" out of a 36th-story window at the hospital she was in, Brent Valley General. James had told her he was going to the 36th floor and the thought went through her mind, could it be him?Lolly had videotaped the explosion and sent it to her Daddy. When she went to the hospital to check out Samantha, she took a gadget out of her pocket, made a small cut in Samantha's arm and rubbed a slide through the blood. When she ran the slide through the gadget and it came up Analysis complete, she saw the range was 60-80%. Her brother, James had tested the same.  Her Daddy was right. Before she left, she installed Spyware on Samantha's phone, just as she had done to James's.As Sam watched the news on her phone, she saw a photo that showed everyone, even the dead, being pulled from the burning bus. The press emphasized the fact that it was all done in nine minutes. She remembered the feeling she'd had of being carefully taken from the bus and a hand brushing the hair from her face. Who was the mystery man that had saved so many lives. While Samantha was staring at the window in her hospital door, she saw several patients wrapped in bandages walk by, but couldn't tell if any were her friends. As she watched, one of them stopped and put her hand on the window. Samantha's running trophy, flowers and cards went flying off the window sill. How had that happened?Chief Superintendent Alan Hardy was keeping a tight grip on the information being released from the investigation and had very firmly laid down the law to the press urging them to use restraint and to stay away from the injured kids in the hospital. Why were they being so secretive? Jasmin, from 24/7 Interactive news was determined to find out, so she staged spilling her coffee on her blouse during the press conference to gain access to the Mobile Command Center. She distracted the PC inside by removing her blouse, talking all the time, and pretended to remove her bra. She said she would be quick and went into the Chief's office, took off her bra and donned her clean blouse. She took the opportunity to hide a recorder. When she would retrieved it later after the Chief had left the scene she realized she had found her story.Samantha and James had always had a special connection, which they didn't think was odd because they were twins, but since they had been in the hospital strange things had been happening. James had been sleeping, thinking about how hungry he was and that there was a McDonald's downstairs in the hospital. James had vanished from his hospital room and woke up at the McDonald's unable to remember how he got there. Samantha told him about her running trophy, flowers and cards flying off the window sill all be themselves and the TV turning itself on. They were uneasy and afraid of what was going on around them. Samantha also told James how she yelled and screamed for help, but no one would answer her or the nurses alarm she kept pushing.As James went to get help, no one paid any attention to him. It was as if he wasn't even there, as if they were sleepwalking. When he looked back toward Samantha's room, he saw what looked like patients wheeling Samantha's bed from her room. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and still everyone acted as if nothing was going on. Had everyone gone crazy? Why was no one helping? Where were they taking Samantha and what were they going to do to her?I received this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All I can say is WOW! I was blown away by this book. I read it straight through, it took me six hours. I devoured it. The suspense built from the beginning and continued to the last page. The cover was interesting and caught my eye. I really liked the clean, crisp, simplistic look. The cover and the title were both descriptive of the book. It was very well written and the story flowed very smoothly. A lot of times, the books I read that are by authors from the UK can be difficult to read and the flow can be interrupted by the phraseology. Definitely not so here. The characters were both likeable and hateable. I loved Samantha for her goodness and naivety. I loved James for all his heroism and willingness to risk his own life, but he left me wondering what he would become in the future. I even felt empathy and sadness for the "villain". I can hardly wait until I can get my hands on the next book. The book would make an interesting movie that would be enjoyed by people of all ages, just like the book.A Class Apart (Class Heroes)