I received [b: The Murder of Adam and Eve|23316424|The Murder of Adam and Eve|William Dietrich|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412629055s/23316424.jpg|42871102] by [a: William Dietrich|59608|William Dietrich|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1368634961p2/59608.jpg] from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I read the Amazon Kindle e-book version.

When I read this ARC book, I was in the YA Programming department, and recommended this for purchase. Our library did buy it, and it is still a highly circulating novel.

There are many Dystopian, other world stories that teens and young adults love. Me; not so much. It is my taste. I cannot go against best seller lists, extreme circulation numbers or book to movie ratios of Y/A literature. I just do not love it.

I enjoyed reading [b: The Murder of Adam and Eve|23316424|The Murder of Adam and Eve|William Dietrich|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412629055s/23316424.jpg|42871102] because Nick is an adventurous and smart kid. He is a free range young person and I like that in his character. His unlikely friend Eleanor is an intelligent and thoughtful teen who is comfortable with herself and her abilities. These characteristics in teen characters always win me over.

Nick and Eleanor are chosen by an alien race; the Xu, and via transported to ancient Africa for a do-over.

The environment from the beginning of man's history until now is highlighted, as well as how humans treat each other, and the propensity for war.

This is a well written book, and if you have deep Y/A, Tween, Teen or Juvenile readers, I highly recommend this book.

Content: I cannot recall any bad language. There is no graphic sex. There is some violence. ( )

According to my own rating system, I would give this book a solid 3 stars: good book, entertaining or informative. But I have to give it an extra 1/2 star (rounded up to 4) based on the author's obvious ambitions of theme and his skill with with words. It could have been a solid 4 stars on its own if it weren't for a somewhat whiny teenage protagonist, silly aliens, several pesky plot holes and a tendency to get preachy and overly philosophical.

Looking past all that, there's plenty of tension, oodles of adventures, pages of wonderful travelogue and wonder, and more than enough controversy for anyone.

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

Nick is co-opted into helping Ellie judge humanity to decide whether they should be saved or the Earth "reset" by an alien race who is disturbed by how humans are poisoning their world. These two teens are sent back in time to prehistoric Africa to make this call, and if they do not deem humans worthy of saving, they are to murder the original Adam and Eve (not religious, just the ancestors of all humans). What a daunting task!

I wanted to read this book because of the unique premise and because I love time travel stories. I had a bit of trouble really connecting with Ellie, but the character development was solid. The story was told from Nick's POV so I felt like I got to know him a little bit better.

My absolute favorite part of the story was the world building! William Dietrich brought prehistoric Africa to life and made me fall in love with the beauty of it.

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and would like to read more of William Dietrich's work.

5/5 stars. ( )

I don't know about you, but I've been seduced by a nice cover and a cool title a couple of times in my life. Alright, it happens quite often...

The Murder of Adam and Eve is a book that I should have thought twice about before I decided to download it from NetGalley. Mostly because I usually try to stay away from YA, especially if it is a love story. But then again the blurb on NetGalley don't give away that much of the story and I think that I was blinded by the interesting cover to really care that it's all about two teenagers that must save the earth.

Apparently an alien raise called Xu has decided that Nick Brynner and Eleanor Terrell is the ones that have to decide if the human race is worth saving, and they have to go back in time to Africa and save the original Adam and Eve. Not the Bible Adam and Eve, but out genetic forebears. So Nick and Ellie have to adjust to the prehistoric life and also decide if the human race is worth saving or if the planet is better off without the humans.

I won't lie, I had a damn hard time getting into the story, but I felt that the book was way too short for me to quit. There was just something about the storyline that just didn't work for me, two people had to go back to the past to decide if the humans were worth saving? The explanation to why the alien race just didn't didn't decide for us comes at the end of the book and sound quite reasonable in a way (they must have a logical reason for not doing everything by themselves you know), even though I found it a mostly ludicrous. I mean there was some test in the beginning of the book they had to go through before they got sent back in the past, why? Why just not sent them back? No, let's make them go through some teamwork exercises first.

Of course Nick falls in love with Ellie, it's a love story, no matter that the human race has to be saved, there is time for some romance on the savanna.

So why the two-star rating? I was quite sure it would not be as good to earn more than one star, but the ending was better than I expected, and also more surprising than I expected. I still find the idea of a chosen person or two saving the whole world by going back in time quite ludicrous. And, I'm amazed that they actually survived out there before they found "Adam and Eve".

But still I can see that it would appeal to younger people that likes reading about teenagers saving the world. Personally? I will think twice the next time I see a book with a nice looking cover!

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! ( )

I don't know about you, but I've been seduced by a nice cover and a cool title a couple of times in my life. Alright, it happens quite often...

The Murder of Adam and Eve is a book that I should have thought twice about before I decided to download it from NetGalley. Mostly because I usually try to stay away from YA, especially if it is a love story. But then again the blurb on NetGalley don't give away that much of the story and I think that I was blinded by the interesting cover to really care that it's all about two teenagers that must save the earth.

Apparently an alien raise called Xu has decided that Nick Brynner and Eleanor Terrell is the ones that have to decide if the human race is worth saving, and they have to go back in time to Africa and save the original Adam and Eve. Not the Bible Adam and Eve, but out genetic forebears. So Nick and Ellie have to adjust to the prehistoric life and also decide if the human race is worth saving or if the planet is better off without the humans.

I won't lie, I had a damn hard time getting into the story, but I felt that the book was way too short for me to quit. There was just something about the storyline that just didn't work for me, two people had to go back to the past to decide if the humans were worth saving? The explanation to why the alien race just didn't didn't decide for us comes at the end of the book and sound quite reasonable in a way (they must have a logical reason for not doing everything by themselves you know), even though I found it a mostly ludicrous. I mean there was some test in the beginning of the book they had to go through before they got sent back in the past, why? Why just not sent them back? No, let's make them go through some teamwork exercises first.

Of course Nick falls in love with Ellie, it's a love story, no matter that the human race has to be saved, there is time for some romance on the savanna.

So why the two-star rating? I was quite sure it would not be as good to earn more than one star, but the ending was better than I expected, and also more surprising than I expected. I still find the idea of a chosen person or two saving the whole world by going back in time quite ludicrous. And, I'm amazed that they actually survived out there before they found "Adam and Eve".

But still I can see that it would appeal to younger people that likes reading about teenagers saving the world. Personally? I will think twice the next time I see a book with a nice looking cover!

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! ( )