Shelf Full of Books: Book Review: Truth (The Geneva Project Book 1) by Christina Benjamin

Truth (The Geneva Project Book 1)

By Christina Benjamin

Publisher: Crown Atlantic Publishing

Published: Mar. 27, 2014

ASIN: B009CKRKD4

Amazon Synopsis:

Runner Up - London Book Festival
Top Choice - www.litpik.com
Gold Medal - FAPA Awards

Trapped on a flood ravaged island full of orphans, natives and wealthy citizens of the prosperous city Lux, a young girl named Geneva finds herself enslaved at an orphanage with no future and a past she can’t remember. That all changes when she meets someone who promises her that there’s more in store for her than she ever could have imagined.

Her once dull life rapidly spirals out of control as she starts to acquire new magical powers that may be the key to unlocking an ancient legend along with her true identity. But first she must master these powers, all while trying to keep them secret from her friends and the evil head mistress at the orphanage. Before she knows it, Geneva is in

over her head and has inadvertently wrapped her friends into her web of magic and lies and now all of their lives hang in the balance once the head mistress finds out her plan to prove that the legend of Lux may not be a legend at all! Who will Geneva trust and how far will she go to save her friends and find out her true identity?

Book Links

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My Thoughts:

Jane #65 didn’t know her real name. Only the one tattooed on her shoulder - LXV. She was an orphan on Hullabee Island and as such lived and worked at the Troian Center where she went to school in the mornings and in the afternoons she searched the rubble piles for anything valuable left from the floods that had destroyed much of the island. The lucky people lived in the city of Lux. The unlucky ones lived as locals outside the city in the villages and gathered food from the forest or grew what they could. Jane #65 wanted more.

Truth (The Geneva Project Book 1) was a wonderful book to curl up with and set aside the cares of the world as you delve into the mystery of Jane #65’s life. For the first 13 years of her life she has basically only had one friend but as she discovers abilities she never knew she had, she also finds herself surrounded with with 3 other youths with magical abilities too. But these abilities have to be kept hidden from the headmistress who will punish them if she finds out they are different from everyone else.

#65 has been told that there is a legend on the island that someone will come who will bring back harmony to the island. The group of youths seek to find out more of the legend. What they find surprises them.

I was completely captivated by this story. Part romance, part suspense, part thriller, this book has something for everyone. The storyline flowed very smoothly. I liked the addition of the marmouse. He both lightened the story and brought added tension where needed.

I loved the twist near the end of the story. I won’t elaborate on it as it would be a spoiler. I certainly wasn’t expecting it though. It has given me even greater incentive to want to read book 2!

The author did a beautiful job of describing the forest and the activities that took place there when she was learning to use her skills there. It was easy to visualize the globes of lights all amongst the trees.

There was one thing that I found bothersome in this edition of the book and that was the number of editing errors. I found mistakes in tense where present and past tense were both used in the same sentence or paragraph. I also found incorrect word usage such as shutter for shudder, ruble for rubble, cure instead of curl, crowed instead of crowded. I don’t know how much these errors would bother other readers, but I know I like to read books that have been thoroughly edited.

Despite the errors in the editing, I thought this book was pretty exceptional and I would recommend it to young adult fantasy readers everywhere. I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.

Thank you to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

Young adult author Christina Benjamin grew up in the small town of La Plume, PA, where at an early age her playful imagination lent itself to love the art of story telling. She began to write short stories in grade school and continued practicing her craft all the way through college where she attended the University of Central Florida to complete her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Technical Writing.

After spending some time writing for blogs and websites, she was inspired to get back to her true love of telling stories, and dove head first into The Geneva Project, her first novel.

Christina now lives in Central Florida with her husband, dog and cats and spends her free time writing the 2nd book of The Geneva Project series.

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