I just couldn't connect with this book.

I am obsessed with this series. I tap into the Sophie Davis blog sporadically to find out when the next instalment is ACTUALLy coming out because they aren't real spot on with release dates. But I digress.

Talented introduces us to Talia, a young woman with a Talent which is essentially a mutation caused by a great apocalyptic contamination that changed the face of the planet a hundred years ago. She is dating Donovan and working with a special little team of operatives for an organization called T.O.X.I.C. Take that how you may, it's not the best name for the good guys.

The concept is a little X-Men-esque with the talents varying from person to person but with levels of proficiency and so much repetition that they are classified into categories. These talents are used by TOXIC to fight the revolution against people who are against their very existence and who are trying to gather territory from TOXIC. This battle has been raging for years past and will continue on for years to come.

I have to agree with a few other reviewers on the point that Talia is positioned as the most special Talent in all the Talents and her happiness and well-being is put above most everything else which results in some trouble down the road. The dialogue is quite juvenile, the issues that take up the majority of the storyline in Talented are quite juvenile but hang in there, this series gets better and better. As Talia squares off with larger problems and her world begins to morph into something wholly different I felt that she grew as a character, perhaps as the Sophies were growing as writers.

I fell madly in love with Talia, Erik and Penny and have a strange hate-affection for Donovan that is not settled by the end of book one. The core relationships are not solid throughout the series, the storyline is constantly changing and throwing new twists and surprises; the relationships you start out rooting for in the beginning will shift and change with the plot line making for a dynamic read. ( )

I love Talented! :)

Here's a bit of the synopsis...
"Talia Lyons is Talented. Born after a nuclear spill, she is part of a new generation that possesses special abilities; Talia can read the minds of others and manipulate their thoughts. Whether Morphers, Light Manipulators or Telekinetics, the Talented are taught to control their abilities under the protective eye of the government- to use their Talents for good. But all Talia wants is revenge."


I don't really read dystopian books, but I find myself enjoying them more & more when I read them, & this one is no exception.

The book is staged in a world much like ours, but where politics are much different (and not explained all that much), & some children grow up with a wealth of different "talents". This book strangely reminds me of a short story I wrote as a kid, where all the kids have magical abilities, including the one Talia Lyons (the main character in Talented) has, the ability to not only read people's thoughts, but manipulate them as well.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about, was there are quite a few storylines in the book that are rather predictable, at least to me, but it didn't make the book any more enjoyable or fun to read. It is a young adult book, after all. I can't wait to read the next book.

There are some minor typos, words missing or written in the wrong order, but nothing major. I usually won't read books if they aren't edited well, but this one only has a few & they don't occur (or at least I didn't see any) until the latter half of the book.

I received a review copy of this book for free. ( )

READ IN ENGLISH

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Talented is the first book in the Talented series.

I love Dystopian worlds, I don't seem to be able to get saturated by reading them. Besides what this might say about me, it was the reason why I supposed I would like this novel.

Meet Talia, a special snowflake if I've ever seen one. She's Talented of course, which means that her DNA is modified by nuclear waste and she's born with some supernatural abilities. But where these abilities most of the time seem quite limited to me, they are limited to certain areas. However, not for Talia. She's a mind manipulator (do I need to say this is extremely rare?) and her abilities include reading other people's mind, telepathy, planting thoughts in other people's brains and making them do things, and telekinesis. That last one really doesn't make sense, even if I'm willing to buy that the first three are real abilities and not easy plot devices. She's a mind manipulator, does she manipulate the mind of the pillow she's about to throw?!

Talia went to a school for Talented kids, eventually, and this seems quite normal. But it's suggested that ALL the Talented children in the USA go there. They even have students there that are from other countries. I hear you think, these talents must be very rare, but that's the weird thing. They aren't. It's stated that up to 25% of the children born at that moment develop Talents. There is no real mention to suggest that there are just very few people left, there are at least enough people left to fill a great number of cities. I think it must just be a very busy school then.

Afterwards Talia graduates into the Hunter training program. She's basically just training to become a spy (how useful her Talents are in this!). Spy school has a very practical way of training their students and student-endangerment is no problem. Talia and her new found buddies are trained to live in suboptimal conditions in very sober cabins, but but for some reason they can always order food from room service (I mean that even easier than ordering pizza) and after throwing a lot of clothes on the ground you can just call a maid to clean things up. So much for hardship.

The most boring part however was the less than original romance. The following is a recipe so you also can enjoy your own love triangle... Take one way too perfect boy with a tragic backstory, and one who might not really be who she thinks he is. Add some tablespoons of confusion and top with a layer of misunderstandings. That will taste great

And I haven't even started to talk about the fact I just couldn't find out how old they are supposed to be. Sure, the book tells me both Talia and Donovan are 17, but if this is so, why did Donovan graduate 2 years up front of Talia? Talia was a brilliant student it says. So, is this some way of sexism? Or is it because he's the son of the big boss? Or is it something else? BTW, who would send 15-year-old boys to do the spying? I suppose this goes with the suggestion that everything will be done best when teenagers do it. I would definitely trust my countries security in the hands of 15-year-old spies with a half year training.

It may now seem that I think this is a terrible book. It's not, I quite enjoyed myself reading this book, except for the romance part that is. But there are quite some things that don't really make sense to me. And as I read this was already a newly proofread/edited edition, I just wondered... ( )

This was one I received as a free review copy, and as soon as I finished it, I went on amazon and bought the rest of the series. To put that in perspective: I have about a year's worth of books unread on my shelves.

I couldn't put the book down. It was an amazing read for me. Fast paced, full of action, solid characters, great plot.....great book. ( )