Review: Heart wrenching romance story, with an alien twist.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 4, 2012
Determinant is separated into 5 different books where each book is from a different POV, alternating between the two main characters, January and Rykerian. All the books continue on the story one after another and it is interesting to see how both characters process the situations they get into.When I began reading the first book from January's POV, I was really shocked! January has had one of the worst childhoods from an emotional perspective. She wasn't physically abused, more emotionally abused. You can see that her parents treat her poorly and it really crushed me. She is highly intelligent, finishing High School at 16 and was also the Valedictorian. What parents wouldn't love that?? All January has wanted from her parents is for them to care about her and what she has accomplished, but they give her nothing. It was so frustrating..... I wanted to jump into the book and shake some sense into these people.January was able to continue on by herself, but she lacked all confidence due to her upbringing. She was accepted to College and tried so hard to get ahead by working two jobs as well as doing her studies. After three years of hard work she was able to secure an internship for the holidays. By the end of the first book January still lacked self esteem and she almost burnt herself out with the workload. I really sympathised with her because no matter what she tried to achieve it was never good enough.Book two is Rykerians and this is where the twist comes in. It's fun to see what he thinks of January. He has felt an attachment to January from the moment he set eyes on her, so he works hard to help her and show her his feelings. She is quite hesitant as she has no idea what love is, so she finds it hard to trust him and to see herself like he does. Together they need to work to help Rykerian's family prevent war within the universe.The only issue I had with this book was the massive change in January's personality in such a short timeframe. She is so timid in the first book and you can see the effect Rykerian has on her in Book two, but in Book three she is now confident, opinionated and outspoken. She is quick to argue with people and is a nonstop chatter box. I found it a bit hard to believe that someone could have a complete change in personality after a few days.Other than that, the story was fast paced, and fun to read. I liked the new January and was happy she found Rykerian. Rykerian is very protective and will move heaven and earth for January, isn't that what we all want in our men?? I read Determinant as a standalone and A.M. Hargrave fills us in when details occur in earlier books, so I was able to follow the story easily. There is a lot more adventure in store for fans of this series as the story continues!