Damselfly by Jennie Bates Bozic - Paul's REVIEW

*I received this book as an eARC from Jennie Bates Bozic LLC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title: Damselfly
Author: Jennie Bates Bozic
Year Published: 2013

Ashley's PRE-READING
Ashley's REVIEW

Paul's PRE-READING

Synopsis: In 2065, the Lilliput Project created Lina - the first six-inch-tall winged girl - as the solution to a worldwide energy and food crisis. Isolated in a compound amidst the forests of Denmark, Lina has grown up aware of only one purpose: learn how to survive in a world filled with hawks, bumblebees, and loneliness. However, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she discovers that she’s not the only teenager her size. Six 'Toms' were created shortly after Lina, and now her creators need to prove to the world that tiny people are the next logical step in human evolution. In other words, they need to prove that reproduction is possible.

Um. No thanks. Lina's already fallen in love with a boy she met online named Jack. Only he has no idea that thumbelina1847 could literally fit inside his heart.

When her creators threaten to hurt Jack unless she chooses a husband from among the ‘Toms’, Lina agrees to star in a reality TV series. Once the episodes begin to air, the secret of her size is out. Cut off from any contact with the outside world, Lina assumes Jack is no longer interested. After all, what guy would want to date a girl he can’t even kiss?

Slowly, very slowly, she befriends the six young men who see her as their only ticket to happiness. Perhaps she can make just one guy’s dream of love and companionship come true. But her creators have a few more twists in store for her that she never thought possible. 

She’s not the only one playing to the cameras.

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Review: I have really been enjoying books lately that walk that line between fantasy and sci-fi. This book does that with a story influenced by Thumbelina. It also even brings in a reality show aspect. The concept alone should be a good enough reason to pick this book up. And it definetely meets the hype. 

I am very surprised that this was self-published. I've read quite a few self-published works that just don't quite have the polished feel of more mainstream books. This book is well polished and written excellently. 

There are so many surprises throughout this book. I loved the way they were revealed. All the relationships also feel very real. 

There is just the right amount of science. I never like it when books try to sound more technical, but use terms incorrectly. The science just is the way it is and it is easy to accept for the story. 

I really enjoyed this story and would recommend it to fans of fairytale retellings set in futuristic worlds. I give this book a 4/5.

--PAUL

Damselfly by Jennie Bates Bozic - Paul's PRE-READING

*I received this book as an eARC from Jennie Bates Bozic LLC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title: Damselfly
Author: Jennie Bates Bozic
Year Published: 2013

Synopsis: In 2065, the Lilliput Project created Lina - the first six-inch-tall winged girl - as the solution to a worldwide energy and food crisis. Isolated in a compound amidst the forests of Denmark, Lina has grown up aware of only one purpose: learn how to survive in a world filled with hawks, bumblebees, and loneliness. However, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she discovers that she’s not the only teenager her size. Six 'Toms' were created shortly after Lina, and now her creators need to prove to the world that tiny people are the next logical step in human evolution. In other words, they need to prove that reproduction is possible.

Um. No thanks. Lina's already fallen in love with a boy she met online named Jack. Only he has no idea that thumbelina1847 could literally fit inside his heart.

When her creators threaten to hurt Jack unless she chooses a husband from among the ‘Toms’, Lina agrees to star in a reality TV series. Once the episodes begin to air, the secret of her size is out. Cut off from any contact with the outside world, Lina assumes Jack is no longer interested. After all, what guy would want to date a girl he can’t even kiss?

Slowly, very slowly, she befriends the six young men who see her as their only ticket to happiness. Perhaps she can make just one guy’s dream of love and companionship come true. But her creators have a few more twists in store for her that she never thought possible. 

She’s not the only one playing to the cameras.

Why?: A future Thumbelina story with a reality tv show? I love when books don't quite fit in the sci-fi or fantasy genre and it seems like this may be one of those books. I like reality show books, too.

Expectations:  I'm expecting a futuristic fairytale. I want lots of twists and turns

Judging a book by its cover: I like this cover. I like the shadow of the girl with wings . And the fantasy of the font of the title and the spider web. Plus the test tubes.

--PAUL

Sugar Plum (Damselfly #0.5) by Jennie Bates Bozic - Ashley's Review

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Title: Sugar Plum (Damselfly #0.5)
Author: Jennie Bates Bozic
Year Published: 2013

My Damselfly Review
My Damselfly Pre-Reading

Synopsis: At six inches tall with gorgeous purple wings, seventeen-year-old Sugar is the spitting image of a fairy - and that makes her the perfect spy. 

It’s the year 2081 and the USA hasn’t been united for five years. Now it’s divided into three bitterly feuding sections - the West, the East, and the Mids, and thousands of families have been separated by the conflict. In order to figure out how spies are crossing from the right coast, the West is targeting caravans of families crossing the Mids illegally. Trouble is, the crossers are hard to track, and that’s where Sugar comes in.

Every week, she and hundreds of others like her are packaged as Christmas tree ornaments and “donated” to poor children. If they’re lucky, they’ll end up with a crosser kid and dig up valuable information about the clandestine caravans while their wings serve as a tracking device. If not, they fly back to the Candy Factory for reassignment. Wash, Rinse, Repeat until they’ve served enough missions to earn their freedom.

When Sugar is placed with a crosser kid named Clara, she quickly discovers that the conflict is more complicated than she thought. Clara’s uncle and his family were assassinated and now her parents are running for their lives. Every second that Sugar remains with the family, she puts them in danger. If she leaves, she’ll surely be caught and lose any chance at freedom. If she stays, she might lose everything.

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Review: A PSA before I get into my review: This little novelette is FREE on Smashwords (which, if you haven't used it before, supports all types of ereaders and is totally legit). At the time I wrote this post, Sugar Plum was $9.99 for Kindle, and I honestly couldn't explain that to you. So definitely check out Smashwords first. It's also free for Nook (straight from B&N), so I don't know what Amazon's deal is...

I really enjoyed Damselfly, so imagine my excitement when I stumbled across a novelette set at the same time in the same world with the same types of little people. I'll give you a hint: I was totally stoked. I was so excited to meet another six-inch tall girl and learn more about Lina's world. 

In Damselfly, we see little to none of the USA. A few glimpses of Hawaii and that's about it. So I thought it was really interesting that, while Lina thinks she's the only girl of her type, the US has created these little fairies to use as spies. It kind of gives a whole new depth to fairies and makes the traditional ornaments seen around Christmas totally creepy, but (apart from shrinking people down to six inches and giving them wings), actually sounds like something that isn't too far-fetched. It's kind of scary to think about, but it's not like we're not all being watched all the time anyway. Just... not by fairies. 

Sugar is a really interesting character, and I'm really excited that this is just her introduction. I felt like this story kind of just ended and didn't resolve much of anything, but I'm honestly ok with that because I found out there's going to be a sequel to Damselfly and Sugar will be reintroduced in it. So hooray! I enjoyed that this story was set in the same world, but in a totally different location and focused on a completely different character. I can't wait to see how Sugar and Lina meet, and what adventures they will have.

I would definitely recommend this story to anyone who read Damselfly, since it expands upon the world created there. I would also recommend the series to anyone who loves sci fi and fairy tale retellings. It's a great series, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. 3/5.

--Ashley

Damselfly by Jennie Bates Bozic - Ashley's Review

*I received this book as an eARC from Jennie Bates Bozic LLC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title: Damselfly
Author: Jennie Bates Bozic
Publication Date: November 11, 2013

My Pre-Reading

Synopsis: In 2065, the Lilliput Project created Lina - the first six-inch-tall winged girl - as the solution to a worldwide energy and food crisis. Isolated in a compound amidst the forests of Denmark, Lina has grown up aware of only one purpose: learn how to survive in a world filled with hawks, bumblebees, and loneliness. However, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she discovers that she’s not the only teenager her size. Six 'Toms' were created shortly after Lina, and now her creators need to prove to the world that tiny people are the next logical step in human evolution. In other words, they need to prove that reproduction is possible.

Um. No thanks. Lina's already fallen in love with a boy she met online named Jack. Only he has no idea that thumbelina1847 could literally fit inside his heart.

When her creators threaten to hurt Jack unless she chooses a husband from among the ‘Toms’, Lina agrees to star in a reality TV series. Once the episodes begin to air, the secret of her size is out. Cut off from any contact with the outside world, Lina assumes Jack is no longer interested. After all, what guy would want to date a girl he can’t even kiss?

Slowly, very slowly, she befriends the six young men who see her as their only ticket to happiness. Perhaps she can make just one guy’s dream of love and companionship come true. But her creators have a few more twists in store for her that she never thought possible. 

She’s not the only one playing to the cameras.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Review: Retellings of old/classic stories are the one thing I cannot resist, especially if it's a story that I grew up with. So a reimagining of Thumbelina? Yeah, I had to read it. And I'm so glad I did, because this book was most excellent! 

Thumbelina is mostly a fantasy story. A girl, no bigger than your thumb, interacts with toads and moles and all other sorts of small creatures before meeting and falling in love with a small fairy prince who happens to be just her size. But Bozic gives us a sci-fi version of this tale. Lina, short for Thumbelina (of course) was created in a laboratory as a solution to the energy and hunger crisis. Because obviously people who are no larger than 6 inches tall will consume less food and energy. I was actually really surprised that this book has so little fantasy in it, and I think it made it even better. I enjoyed how Bozic portrays the advancements of science and I thought she did an excellent job of driing home the point that even science has its flaws. Especially when discoveries are led by a desire for money instead of knowledge.

I liked Lina a lot. She's 15, almost 16, but she acts much older than that. And I guess when you have to train every day to avoid falcons and other birds of prey and you have to learn how to do pretty much everything on your own, you grow up fast. She's strong-willed and smart and physically capable, but she's also naive and impulsive and she even struggles with physical limitations - even the science couldn't manufacture out her asthma. I loved watching her grow and struggle and try to figure out how to deal with her present circumstances. She makes real decisions, even if they aren't always the best ones, and it's very easy to sympathize with her.

I really hate reality TV shows that make one person choose between some number of eligible bachelors/bachelorettes, so I really didn't blame Lina for being pissed about having to participate. Because of that being a huge part of the plot, the romance was pretty heavy. Whether it was between Lina and the Toms or Lina and Jack, it was always a part of any major decision or any plot twist that occurred. Well, most of the twists anyway. I kind of expected that, but what I didn't expect was that it wasn't in your face and obnoxious. It was sweet and nurtured over time, and very much a fairy tale. 

This book was definitely a standalone, as all loose ends were tied up by the end, and I really appreciated that. Too many books nowadays are parts of trilogies or series, and it just gets really tedious. This was a short, quick read that left me with a few questions but mostly filled in all the blanks. I would totally recommend it to anyone who grew up with some version of the Thumbelina story, or to anyone who just likes retellings in general. Especially if you want to see a fantasy story take on a sci-fi twist! 4/5! 

--Ashley

Damselfly (Damselfly #1) by Jennie Bates Bozic - Ashley's Pre-Reading

*I received this book as an eARC from Jennie Bates Bozic LLC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title: Damselfly
Author: Jennie Bates Bozic
Publication Date: November 11, 2013

Synopsis: In 2065, the Lilliput Project created Lina - the first six-inch-tall winged girl - as the solution to a worldwide energy and food crisis. Isolated in a compound amidst the forests of Denmark, Lina has grown up aware of only one purpose: learn how to survive in a world filled with hawks, bumblebees, and loneliness. However, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she discovers that she’s not the only teenager her size. Six 'Toms' were created shortly after Lina, and now her creators need to prove to the world that tiny people are the next logical step in human evolution. In other words, they need to prove that reproduction is possible.

Um. No thanks. Lina's already fallen in love with a boy she met online named Jack. Only he has no idea that thumbelina1847 could literally fit inside his heart.

When her creators threaten to hurt Jack unless she chooses a husband from among the ‘Toms’, Lina agrees to star in a reality TV series. Once the episodes begin to air, the secret of her size is out. Cut off from any contact with the outside world, Lina assumes Jack is no longer interested. After all, what guy would want to date a girl he can’t even kiss?

Slowly, very slowly, she befriends the six young men who see her as their only ticket to happiness. Perhaps she can make just one guy’s dream of love and companionship come true. But her creators have a few more twists in store for her that she never thought possible. 

She’s not the only one playing to the cameras.

Why?: I love retellings of classic stories, so of course I jumped all over a chance to read this futuristic version of Thumbelina!  

Expectations: I expect a story that resembles the original, but with more science and twists and romance and badder bad guys and all of that jazz. I expect this to be a pretty heavy sci-fi book with more science fiction than the original fantasy. 

Judging a book by its cover: I think this cover is really neat. I love the blues and greens, and the way the winged girl is flying above test tubes and under a spider web makes me want to know more about her and the world in which she was created. I would most likely pick this up based solely on the cover! 


--Ashley