Review: Great first read out of a possible fantastic ten!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2014
Perception by Lee StraussINITIAL THOUGHTSI have had this e-book on my kindle a while, and it was brought to my attention again as being part of the fantastic, brilliant value box set called Girl's On Fire, which I purchased for the amazing price of 77p!! So I decided it was about time I read it. So what was I expecting? A decent sci-fi with a little romance thrown in. I was of course interested to learn about the dystopian society in this book.MY REVIEWSo as I have already mentioned I purchased the Girls On Fire Box Set for the remarkable price of 77p, though I admit to having downloaded Perception when it had been free on Amazon.co.uk.I love the shade of blue on the cover, it's so rich and draws your eye to it. So along with the lightening on the cover I'd guess this one would jump out at you on a book store shelf. Then once I read the blurb that was it I had to read the book.I was quickly hooked into the story and characters in this book. The divided society consist of the poorer "Naturals" and the privileged GAP society. GAP stands for Genetically Altered Person. The GAP are all healthy perfect looking beings. Both the Vanderveen children are both blonde haired and athletically built, as are their parents. All the population within the inner circle are good looking, blonde haired, with not a crooked tooth or blemish in sight.The main family that Perception is centred around are the Vanderveen family. the grandfather is one of the men that discovered the science of how to genetically enhance life and appearance. The other man who worked on the science and genetics is from the Brody family but he and his family did not believe in artificially lenthening life and altering looks etc so both him and his family remained "Naturals". Natural lead "normal" lives complete with pain, illness and normal life spans.The main characters are the grandchildren of Vanderveen and Brody. As Brody's daughter is the maid/cleaner at the Vanderveen's beautiful house. That is how Noah Brody and Zoe Vanderveen first meet. Noah has gone to clean at the Vanderveen's house in place of his ill mother. All the GAP kids and families live within the town centre circle that is surrounded by a wall and has checkpoints. Outside the inner circle is where the "Naturals" live or should that be exist as they are poorer and area is more rundown.Almost everyone has a chip in their wrist, which holds all their personal information and is linked to their bank account. So "money" is a rare currency. Some "Naturals" refuse the chip and still use money but it is somewhat frowned upon.All the GAP kids end up working at the "GAP University" working in scientific research to further develop genetics etc. That is where Zoe's brother Liam works. One day Liam doesn't return home, in fact he is missing, no one seems to have a clue what could have happened or where he may be, but Jackson, Liam's best friend and Zoe's boyfriend is acting suspiciously. It turns out Liam, Jackson and another guy have been working on some top secret possibly ground breaking research.Zoe soon learns that GAP's don't like any thing other than perfection, and when it looks like no one is trying to fins Liam, Zoe sets out to find him herself. Zoe goes outside the inner circle of the city and talks Noah Brody, the most anti-GAP "Natural" possible and his gang of friends. This book also has a romance within it. A case of opposites attract, the "Natural" anti-Gap protester Noah Brody and the perfect image of a GAP, grand daughter of the pioneer geneticist, Zoe Vanderveen. As Zoe, and Noah work together, fighting the obstacles of their two tiered society they become closer and closer and more dependent on each other. They both find out different things about their families like, how their grandfathers began as friends and were torn apart by the very technology they worked on together. It turns out those behind the research Liam was involved in, and those covering up what happened are much closer to home than Zoe or Noah could ever guess.This is a well thought out book, the society and the differences in the inner circle and outside is so well written and believable. You really want Noah and Zoe to be together, and to find out what happened to Liam Vanderveen. I was engrossed i this book from beginning to end and can't believe I waited so long to go ahead and read it.So Did I enjoy the book?  I truly loved it! Enjoyed it from beginning to end. Would I recommend the book? Yes I would, in fact I think my daughter is sick of hearing me rave about it lol. If I love a book I want to shout about it really loudly from the highest rooftops!  Would I read more in this series?  Yes! I didn't discover there was a  o.5, until part way through Bk#1, but I've downloaded it now(free from Amazon.co.uk) and intend to read it as soon as possible. Would I read other titles by this author? Yes, I intend to do so. I've added some more Lee Strauss/Elle Straus titles to my Want To Read List on Goodreads already!