Tarah Benner

I've never read any other books by Tarah Benner but saw this one and it piqued my interest - having now finished it I must say I will certainly be looking at some of her others as this was fantastic.

Maggie is a disgruntled journalist stuck writing fluff pieces and finally cracks and blasts her employer via her column after her serious story is bumped and she's informed AI will be taking other from some journalists at the paper. As a result she comes to the attention of one of the men behind show more a company opening the first manned space colony and is offered a job reporting there.

Jonah is a troubled ex-soldier struggling to fit into regular civilian life, an old colleague returns to his life and offers him a job working to train soldiers for the 'Space Force' on the new space colony.

Upon arrival at the space colony things aren't quite what they seem, there are far too many soldiers for a civilian colony and an abnormally high amount of expenditure. Maggie decides to look into things still searching for a real story instead of writing fluff and gets help from some inside sources to enter the Space Force disguised as a recruit.

I found it extremely hard to put down, the pages flew by and after managing to peel myself away once in the afternoon I was back into it in the evening and finished it in two sittings. The writing style was good, things flowed well and the changing perspective from which the story was told was clear cut and well executed.

Would recommend! show less

This is set in a post-nuclear war world, where the inhabitants of the US retreated to compounds. In this new world, everyone has a purpose and Recon is a group of people tasked with keeping the compound safe. Eli is tasked with training recruits for Recon, and we soon meet Harper, a tough young recruit who was mortified when she didn't get the bid from Systems she expected. The two are attracted, but life in Recon is tough as nails and there is little room for feelings or attachments. show more Survival depends on it. When Harper starts asking questions about the behind-the-scenes manipulations of Bid Day, Eli does some digging on his own . . . and their digging sets a chain of events in motion that literally shakes the foundations of their society.

If you like books like The Hunger Games, The 100 or Wool, you will enjoy this book. I couldn't put it down, and can't wait to read the next in the series. show less

The audio book on Youtube is narrated by the author herself, which is nice - as many other authors run their books through a text-to-speech AI and let it read, which can result in a somewhat uncomfortable listening experience (especially if you can't tolerate computer generated voices). The premise is also good, a decent little slice of life "we might have to sell the only home we've ever known" story that has magic involved. A house belonging to a family of witches is the house potentially show more up for sale, and supernatural happenings are preventing the house from being sold, or at least dissuading the current owners of the house (a pair of sisters) from selling it - and should they go through with it, they face their bloodline ending and doom upon their hometown of Mountain Shadow.

Interesting premise, but I feel like everything past the reveal that something bad could happen should they sell the house and move away from their hometown - the town that their family has lived in for generations - it just doesn't provide anything exciting. It's fine I suppose, but I didn't feel satisfied with it's conclusion and it would've been interesting to have just a little something more... show less

Interesting story line. Love the chemistry between Harper and Eli. As with most first books in a series there is plenty of build up with no climatic scene. I do want to read on to find out what happens next.