Review: Kitty Muse Book Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2013
You do what you have to do to get through another day...  There were good guys and bad guys and some that fell in-between...Life wasn't always black and white.  But...I'd learned I had the strength and courage to do whatever it took to survive.Such is the life that faces Lily, her brother Zeph, and their uncle Sam every day.  In a world that has seen most of the population decimated by both a polar shift and a worldwide viral outbreak, many people become regimented pawns in the big cities in order to survive.  But more than a few still choose to live beyond the government's grasp.Lily and Zeph have another reason, outside of not wanting to be a nameless unit in the rigid government's big-city oppression.  The two of them have been genetically altered-and the government wants nothing more than to get its hands on them, to see what ways they can stretch and twist the kids' DNAs to its own purpose.However, one reason makes it imperative that Lily get to Albany; even with her healing powers, she can't save Sam from the cancer that eats at him daily.  If she can get in and obtain the meds on the black market, she can effect Sam's cure.With a caravan of townspeople going in to trade with the city dwellers, and a young man named Will who she found and healed, Lily makes it into Albany.  But with deception and deceit everywhere, even from those she trusted, will she be able to get out again?This was one exciting adventure after another.  Just when the reader thinks there is going to be time to breathe, a turn around another corner brings our hero into even more trouble.  Lily's resourcefulness, coupled with her uncle's inventions, pull her out of one dilemma after another-and often into another.Will, the young man Lily befriends, is one of those roller-coaster ride personalities.  First there's distrust, then trust, then wariness, then trust, and distrust-it rolls over and over.  He was my favorite and least-favorite character in turns.I've neglected to say much about Zeph-he is someone who has much more exposure at the end of the book; indeed, it is his exploits that lead our youths into the next book, "Western Desert".  I plan to read that one as well.Nicely done, Ms. Sharon!