I’m so happy to have been invited to participate in this blog tour for L.E. Sterling’s new book, TRUE NORTH. It’s the second in the True Born series and I was really excited to have the opportunity to read it! It’s been so hard to keep this post under wraps but I’m glad I’m allowed to share it with you all now.
If you haven’t read True Born (book #1) then I’ll post some info on that first.
Keep scrolling for my review on True North (book #2), more about the author, an international Giveaway, and other exciting tour stops!
TRUE BORN (True Born Trilogy #1) by L.E. Sterling (2016)
YA Fiction | Dystopia | Paranormal
Blurb:
“Welcome to Dominion City.
After the great Plague descended, the world population was decimated…and their genetics damaged beyond repair.
The Lasters wait hopelessly for their genes to self-destruct. The Splicers pay for expensive treatments that might prolong their life. The plague-resistant True Borns are as mysterious as they are feared…
And then there’s Lucy Fox and her identical twin sister, Margot. After endless tests, no one wants to reveal what they are.
When Margot disappears, a desperate Lucy has no choice but to put her faith in the True Borns, led by the charismatic Nolan Storm and the beautiful but deadly Jared Price. As Lucy and the True Borns set out to rescue her sister, they stumble upon a vast conspiracy stretching from Dominion’s street preachers to shady Russian tycoons. But why target the Fox sisters?
As they say in Dominion, it’s in the blood.”
-Goodreads
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TRUE NORTH (True Born Trilogy #2) by L.E. Sterling (2017)
-ARC Review-
YA Fiction | Paranormal Sci-Fi
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Published: April 4th, 2017
Blurb:
“Abandoned by her family in Plague-ridden Dominion City, eighteen-year-old Lucy Fox has no choice but to rely upon the kindness of the True Borns, a renegade group of genetically enhanced humans, to save her twin sister, Margot. But Nolan Storm, their mysterious leader, has his own agenda. When Storm backtracks on his promise to rescue Margot, Lucy takes her fate into her own hands and sets off for Russia with her True Born bodyguard and maybe-something-more, the lethal yet beautiful Jared Price. In Russia, there’s been whispered rumors of Plague Cure.
While Lucy fights her magnetic attraction to Jared, anxious that his loyalty to Storm will hurt her chances of finding her sister, they quickly discover that not all is as it appears…and discovering the secrets contained in the Fox sisters’ blood before they wind up dead is just the beginning.??
As they say in Dominion, sometimes it’s not you…it’s your DNA.”
–Goodreads
pooled ink Review:
First of all thank you so much L.E. Sterling for inviting me to join your blog tour for True North!! I absolutely loved your first book, True Born, so I was thrilled to have the chance to read and review the sequel and I absolutely cannot wait to read more!
Well, overall this was just as addicting as the first book. The story picks up about four months after Margot disappears and their home is destroyed. But from the ruins of what once was rises the lurking shadows of bigger players as they cast their chips and join the game. Worryingly enough we find that they’ve always been pulling strings and biding their time, but as Lucy begins to take more and more of her life into her own hands she will discover their many secrets, both new and long hidden.
Alongside devious players, Lucy begins to unravel the hardened bones concealing the depths of this world she’s a part of and the unexpected mysteries that lie hidden in her DNA. Lucy and Margot are both a question and an answer, a lock and a key, and they will discover just how far people are willing to go to find out why, especially when such knowledge comes with sweet profit and power.
In this sequel we depart from Dominion and risk everything to reach Russia’s borders. With Margot gone it was only a matter of time before foreign lands swept them away. Lucy only gives so much before she puts her foot down and demands her sister’s return, never mind what agendas anyone else has, good or otherwise.
Along with this we watch as Storm continues to weave his web boosting him up the ladder one rung at a time aided by the lovely Lucy, born with power in her name. He’s as confident and calm as always but as Lucy’s desperation grows you’ll also find yourself questioning his loyalties and suspicious of what grand schemes he hides. He’s clearly a man on a mission for good, but what cost does good come with? His agenda remains paradoxically both clear and secretive.
Any romance in this sequel? Of course! But there’s a lot of push and pull/hot and cold between Jared and Lucy in this book. As their feelings for each other escalate so do the complications in their relationship as well as the mind-spinning pushing and pulling. With every page there is a tension between them as they’re torn between duty and love.
Alastair is a very intriguing character introduced to us. Mysterious, charming, clever, roguish. He’s a perfect guy to tease the plot with. You’ll be pondering his motives with every smile and favor he gives while also finding yourself comfortably friendly with him. There’s definitely some mystery with Alastair but it’s saved for another day. I hope to learn precisely who this convenient stranger is in the next book.
Sterling does a remarkable job of taking the bleak realities of this world seriously. Children shot in the street, families burned on a hunt, death and longing pressing in until it suffocates you. The harsh truths of the world do not waver sympathetically, but neither do they drown out all the small joys still to be found. Lucy has her sister, she has Jared, she has Storm, she has a hope for secrets divulged and cures to be unearthed.
This book has a quick pace that had me reading for hours unaware of how quickly time was passing me by. It was a very fast read! This series thus far I find is captivating, imaginative, and wonderfully unique. It’s not quite like anything I’ve read before and it’s holding me captive still. I anxiously await to read what happens next!
True North intertwines myth and science to create a future both frightening and intoxicating. Bursting with need, curling with mystery, and sighing with power, True North hauls the plot forwards seamlessly. Once caught in its claws you won’t be able to stop reading until you know all.
Cheers.
Purchase here: True North
Read the first 6 chapters here! https://www.wattpad.com/389011096-true-north-chapter-one
Check out the rest of the series! True Born (Book #1) & True Storm (Book #3)
L.E. Sterling
I was a voracious devotee of sci-fi and fantasy novels all through my childhood, so I suppose it doesn’t come as much of a shock that I’ve returned to the genre with a vengeance.
For a while I turned my back on the genre in favour of ‘high-brow’ literary texts. Ironically, it was my doctoral degree that saw me circling back. There’s something about the way postmodern literature plays with the arcane that had me utterly fascinated, and it wasn’t long until I fell headlong back into my old ways and haven’t looked back since.
My first novel, which isn’t in the Urban Fantasy or Fantasy genres, isn’t high literature, mind you, even if it tangles with some serious statements about politics and the way our western world runs. My editor described it as something between Charles Dickens and The Catcher in the Rye: Serious Fun, in other words.
My second novel, Pluto’s Gate, is where I’ve come home to myself: it’s a contemporary retelling of the Demeter-Persephone-Pluto story from Greek mythology. Folded into the mix is a Shaman-in-training, a magical book, Underworld Gods, a world covered in ice, a three-headed dog, and one lousy ex-boyfriend.
But I’ll tell you this much: I believe in the power of words and stories to transform our inner worlds. Whether the characters be vampires or vagabonds, a good narrative sucker punches so-called reality anyhow.
-via YAreads
Website: http://www.le-sterling.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/le_sterling
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7121486.L_E_Sterling
GIVEAWAY!
Enter for the chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
(Rafflecopter link: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/1cb554951075/)
Blog Tour Schedule
April 11th
Booklove – Review Book #1
By Hook Or By Book – Review Book #2
YaReads– Author Interview
April 12th
Lisa Loves Literature – Review Book #2
Lady with a Quill – Review Book #2
April 13th
Pooled Ink – Review Book #2
Book Nerd Paradise – Review Book #1
April 14th
Alice Reeds – Review Book #2
Love, laugh, and read – Review Book #1
Book Nerd Paradise – Review Book #2
April 15th
Everything Alyce – Review Book #2
Pages to Explore – Review Book #2
The Thought Spot – Review Book #2
April 16th
Under the Book Cover – Review Book #2
April 17th
a Bookish Escape – Review Book #2
April 18th
Book-Keeping – Review Book #2
Smada’s Book Smack – Review Book #1
April 19th
Wishful Endings – Spotlight Post
The Book Beacon – Guest Post
April 20th
Sue’s Reading Corner – Review Book #1
Smada’s Book Smack – Review Book #2
April 21st
Booklove – Review Book #2
Just One More Chapter – Spotlight Post
April 22nd
Maggie’s Literary Massacre – Review Book #2
Roxy’s Book Reviews – Spotlight Post
April 23rd
Riddle’s Reviews – Review Book #1
Crossroad Reviews – Spotlight Post
April 24th
Booker T’s Farms: Books & Nails & Puppy Dog Tales – Review Book #2
Sleeps on Tables – Spotlight Post
April 25th
Babbling Books – Review Book #2
Riddle’s Reviews – Review Book #2
April 26th
Goodbye Halcyon Days – Review Book #1
April 27th
Library of a Book Witch – Review Book #2
April 28th
Part Time Book Nerd – Author Interview
BookWorm8619 😉 – Review Book #2
April 29th
Folded Corners and Smudged Screens – Review Book #2
Les Chroniques Aléatoires – Review Book #2
April 30th
Goodbye Halcyon Days – Review Book #2
May 1st
A Leisure Moment – Author Interview
Urban Fantasy Investigations – Guest Post
pooled ink 