Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky, #1) in YA and Beyond

Feb 10, 2014 Cinnamon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book

After a bit of a hiatus from Young Adult (curse you Brandon Sanderson), I delved back in to one of my favorite genres through UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi. I had purchased this book quite a while ago and had it sitting in my Kindle App since then. I'd come across it, think to read it, and eventually move on to something else. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get started. Perhaps it's because I hadn't heard much about it - I don't know. Anyway, to make a long story short, I began r After a bit of a hiatus from Young Adult (curse you Brandon Sanderson), I delved back in to one of my favorite genres through UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi. I had purchased this book quite a while ago and had it sitting in my Kindle App since then. I'd come across it, think to read it, and eventually move on to something else. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get started. Perhaps it's because I hadn't heard much about it - I don't know. Anyway, to make a long story short, I began reading this book on Friday evening and by Sunday night I had started the last book in the trilogy.

Summary: Awesome book.

Long version: UNDER THE NEVER SKY was a great mix of dystopia, fantasy elements, and action that had me hooked from the first paragraph. Rossi did a great job really diving into the action and allowing the story to explain the elements of her world as it went along. Although fast-paced, there were a few slower moments in the book. They were long enough to catch your breath and then there you were, a reader thrown into a scary but awesome world fighting for survival along with Aria.

Let's talk about Aria for a moment. I love her. Like seriously - I love Aria. She is a great heroine. Although not the typical butt-kicking heroine that I'm usually drawn to, Aria has her own inner strength that makes her a fun character that is a pleasure to journey with. Her interactions with Peregrine, or Perry, add that extra element of depth to her story so that I never really felt bored with her. Each page brought something new in her past and present. Her relationship with Perry helped of course, but I won't go too much in detail there so as to avoid giving anything away.

Probably my favorite aspect of UNDER THE NEVER SKY was the world that Rossi developed and the dystopia surrounding it. I've read many stories where a people are split in two and over time those halves develop separately. Rossi took it a step further and really allowed us to explore those differences. She did so in such a way that made the situation and the environment feel very realistic. It was easy to see how a world like hers could happen and that made the story that much more realistic and addicting.

UNDER THE NEVER SKY took me a total of about five hours to read over the course of two days. That was while my husband built our floor downstairs and I bribed my children to play on their own and semi-quietly by promising treats later in the day. Yep, I was that mom; however, in the case of this book, I totally don't mind.

Have you read UNDER THE NEVER SKY? Leave your thoughts below. If you haven't, I suggest giving it a try. This was a great read and I'm glad that I finally gave it a chance. ...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Berenice rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

Aria’s world was simple, easy, the biggest of her worries was the regret of how she behaved the day her mother left the pod to continue her investigation out of Reverie. Now after a horrible incident is rumored to have happened on the pod her mother was doing her research in Aria will do everything in her power to get to her, and to do so she must first survive the outside world filled with savages, cannibals, world and worst of all Aether storms that have the power to burn and destroy everythin Aria’s world was simple, easy, the biggest of her worries was the regret of how she behaved the day her mother left the pod to continue her investigation out of Reverie. Now after a horrible incident is rumored to have happened on the pod her mother was doing her research in Aria will do everything in her power to get to her, and to do so she must first survive the outside world filled with savages, cannibals, world and worst of all Aether storms that have the power to burn and destroy everything in their path.

It has been a while since I finished a book and felt the unstoppable desire to write a review, and I guess I’ll be waiting a little longer as this is an audio book.
Because of the good combinations between Veronica Rossi’s story and Bernadette Dunne Flanger’s narration I find myself craving to read the physical book, to see how the taste of the story changes from Miss Bernadette’s words bringing this world to live to my imagination standing alone in Aria’s and Perry’s world.
Bernadetter Dunne Flanger made this audio book totally enjoyable, it was amazing to me how she made the story feel like it was just alive and how you could hear her voice transformed into a subtle laughter, sadness or whatever feeling needed to conveyed as she embodied Aria, Perry and Roar.
I really don't remember feeling like she cut the flow of the story or that she messed up at expressing what the story or its characters needed to show us. All I can say is that as the story grew to its climax I was unable to leave, even if I had had something important to do I was trapped in this story that wouldn't let me go and I wouldn't have gotten away from it either.
I am sad to see that Bernadette is not the narrator for the second book, I hope Michael Goldstrom does a fair job keeping the story alive the way that she did. When I ask myself what could I change about this audio book, its is just a piece of the story, part of the edition where the audio engineer didn't clear the "th", essing and strong sounds at the end of Dunne's words.
If you were thinking about trying an audio book or where looking for one to listen to, let me tell you this is a great pick, the swoon moments, the tension, the stress, surprise, relief and romance is well worked and played by both Veronica Rossy and Bernadetter Dunne Flanger. ...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Charmaine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book was slow reading at first. The world in this story is strange and is not exactly explained well by the author. The made-up slang words used by the characters seemed out of place. The male protagonist of the story can smell people's feelings, and even remarked that the main girl's period smells like violets (which is just plain weird)!

Aside from those issues, this book did have some interesting plot twists that I liked. I love it when a book has unexpected changes in the plot! :-) I tho ...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Stellabella rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I liked it so much I finished it in less than a day! A good 'dome people' story :) ...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Haley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012debut-author-challenge

One of the best dystopian books I have ever read, Under the never Sky is full to the brim with passion, fire, and flames of never ending tension.

More review latter I can't finish this one at the moment. ...more

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