Riven is sent from her universe to a parallel universe to locate and retrieve her Prince's clone. She's betrayed her father, a high-level governmental official, in order to side with the Prince, her childhood friend. When she locates the clone she discovers he's more than a copy of her Prince, he's a person in his own right. He's also a person she's starting to fall for.

In this battle for control of the universes, Riven finds her beliefs and memories tested. She decides where her ultimate loyalty and responsibility lie.

I liked this book and this universe. The science was fascinating. I'm looking forward to another book in this series.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. [...] But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.[...]For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more. (Source)

From the description, I felt I was taking a risk with this book because the plot has the potential for a terribly annoying romance. Fortunately, the romance wasn’t as bad as I expected. There were a few times I couldn’t believe the characters were thinking about romance. There was one forceful kissing scene I may rant about later. But overall, Riven was extremely sensible. It was hilarious and gratifying to see her recognize high school drama as completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even when Riven was in high school, the dramatic analogies and dark descriptions helped me share Riven’s focus on her mission. In fact, the author did a great job setting the tone throughout, starting with the third-person prologue to add mystery. Than the transition to first-person for the rest helped draw me into the story.

The author’s writing impressed me a lot. The plot and the world building were fairly standard, but were also unique enough to be exciting. The constant action and slow reveal of information about Riven’s world kept me glued to the pages. In particular, I was impressed by that the slow information reveal didn’t get annoying or break up the story. Riven’s thoughts always felt natural. Flashbacks were short and triggered by related events. Her focus on particular facts always made sense. And even though I had questions, I never got that annoying feeling that the author was working too hard to keep me in the dark. Overall, this was one of the best written YA books I’ve read and also a ton of fun.

This review first published on Doing Dewey. ( )

The Almost Girl falls into a middle ground for me. One where I can’t always put my finger on the reasons why I only just liked or ok’d it. With a gripping prologue and a suspenseful sounding premise the progression of the book was a bit uneven for me. But then on the flip side when action scenes appeared they were well written and engaging.

Character development!
Again I experienced this flip flop reaction when it came to the characters. Riven was such a strong female lead and a General in the military on her own world, that I found some of her behavior incongruous with what I was expecting. I know, I know I shouldn’t expect a character to behave a certain way, but I’m sure we all have those moments. I did love her character development and how she seems so rock solid in the beginning to being more vulnerable and human towards the end. I’m going to lump my romance thoughts in here and say…It’s there. I’m usually a hit or miss person on the romance in the ya fiction that I read. I love reading young adult books but for some reason I only enjoy about half of the romances that in the ones I read…and if you don’t know already, almost every young adult book features a romance.

Thoughts on editing.
Keeping in mind that I read the advance reader edition of this book, some things may have been changed in the published version. But in the bedroom I read I really felt the book needed more editing. I don’t mean there were typos or anything like that, I just mean a plot or character nudge here, a removed scene there, providing more varied ways of delivering world building information – those sorts of things. I think it had the potential to have been a much smoother and gripping read. I can’t really complain tho because I’m not a writer or editor and wouldn’t know how to accomplish that perfect balance.

World building!
Once we get away from our reality things get good. I struggled more so with the portion that takes place in our reality, but once the characters make it to Neospes my interest was definitely peaked. What a world! The technology and the creepy vector android zombies?, the technology, pretty much everything there had my sci-fi itch jonezing.

Fans of strong young adult heroines and alternate worlds may very well find The Almost Girl to be a winner. ( )

The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard is the first book I've read by the author. It caught my eye because it looked like a different sort of YA SF and also by default, being a Strange Chemistry book. The blub could be punchier, but isn't full of spoilers so I'm including it.

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.

Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows. Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.

Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

Honestly, I found this book very disappointing. First off, the first chunk was set mostly in a US high school, which I wasn't expecting (and which I thought might be because I'd forgotten the blurb, but no, it's right there, no mention of it) and wasn't in the mood for. I am, generally speaking, increasingly sick of reading about US high schools these days, and prefer to be warned so I can be in the mood to enjoy it more. Mind you, my favourite scene did occur in the high school setting when Riven beat up a bunch of would-be gang rapists and rescued a drugged girl, so there's that going for it.

I don't think Howard has done a perfect job of capturing Riven's voice. At times I felt there was more "telling" me she was a hard-as-nails soldier than showing me. I do acknowledge that this is a very difficult kind of voice to capture, and certainly isn't my biggest complaint. But although I usually like anti-heroes and morally questionable characters, I never warmed to Riven throughout the book. I think at some times the author was playing it safe instead of going all in and showing us her real homicidal thought patterns. Not that there aren't homicidal thought patterns, but they were often along the lines of "I could easily kill [whoever]" instead of anything more creepy or shocking. A bit of unrealised potential here. I was hoping for a story which spent more time (like, any) questioning the nature of humanity, which is what I was expecting from the title.

Once I started reading and found myself in the US, I was looking forward to finally seeing the other world that Riven comes from. Mostly I liked that aspect. The zombie soldiers (Vectors) were suitably creepy and difficult to kill and the half-animal, half-machine creatures that lived in the wastelands also added to the setting. The society, however, wasn't quite as consistent or interesting as I would have liked. It was inconsistent, particularly, on the topic of gender equality. At first all signs pointed to fairly equal, if brutal (the main character, a teenage girl, is a general after all) but later there were some throw-away elements that belied that impression (the role of courtesans, a girl being punished for a boy liking her), leaving me unsure what to think. My issue, by the way, isn't with the nature of the society either way but how it was portrayed.

And the science. Oh goodness, don't go into this book expecting anything resembling actual science. To explain the universe jumping technique of eversion, it looked like the author just threw sciencey-sounding words at the page and hoped. For example "sub-quantum" mechanics was thrown up several times — often in conjunction with string theory and/or gravity distortion — and let me tell you the very definition of the word quantum ensures that it makes no sense with the prefix "sub" in front of it. This annoyed me. So did a later section which talked about natural selection on a cellular level over the span of a human gestation, which just, buh? And I'm no biologist.

This book didn't work for me. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but I don't think I'll be bothering with the sequel. Readers looking for an action story with lots of fighting may enjoy The Almost Girl. Readers looking for science fiction in their YA would be better off looking elsewhere.

3 / 5 stars

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