Deadfall by Anna Carey

Deadfall is an amazing suspenseful sequel to Carey's Blackbird. In the first novel "Sunny" who found herself inexplicably in Los Angeles with no previous memories of her life before, discovers she is part of a terrible game in which adults are hunting people for sport. The hunt has moved from an island which Sunny barely remembers, to various U.S. cities.The hunt is organized by A&A Enterprises (AAE) and consists of Watchers who keep track of the people being hunted making sure they are healthy and stay in a designated area, Stagers who tip off the hunters as to the location of the target and who clean up the dead bodies, and the hunters. The humans who are being hunted have been branded with a barcode tattoo on their wrists for identification.

Deadfall picks up where Blackbird left off. Sunny is preparing to board a train to Chicago when she runs into the boy she remembers from the island.  He tells her they are on the same train except he is going to New York and convinces her to go with him. On the train Sunny finds the private compartment that the boy has bought tickets for. He reveals to Sunny that they were supposed to meet up in San Francisco on the Friday of the second week. His memory returned and but Sunny's did not and she did not make the scheduled rendevous. When she doesn't remember he asks her why her memory has not returned when his has. The boy reveals his name as Rafe and hers as Lena Marcus. He tells her that they decided to meet in San Francisco because she has family there. Rafe also fills Lena in on what she told him about her life before the island - that her father died of a heart attack when she was fifteen and her mother abandoned her and her brother, Chris. She brought her brother to live with her aunt but eventually had to leave.

Rafe tells Lena that he is going to New York to find other "targets". Lena knows there are more targets in various cities across America because she saw pictures of the targets with code names next to different cities at an AAE meeting. While Rafe was waiting for Lena in San Francisco he found one other target, Connor in New York, who had also found one other target. Rafe explains how he was tricked into becoming a part of the hunt. He also explains to Lena how to successfully pickpocket a person, a skill that will lead later on to Lena making a crucial discovery.

At a McDonalds in New York, Lena discovers they are being watched by a hunter. Lena and Rafe manage to outwit the hunter and escape to the top of a building. While they are waiting, Lena continues to have dreams about the island. She tells Rafe about Ben, her Watcher in L.A. whom she fell for but who betrayed her. She also tells him about the police officer, Celia, whom she has told about the hunt. Rafe is shocked that Lena would trust the police but she tells him Celia believes her and is committed to helping her. Lena calls Celia who tells her that Izzy is recovering and that Goss is now in custody. But their case is not strong enough yet because Goss's lawyers are saying that he shot Izzy during a breakin to his house. Celia tells Lena that police found nothing in his house but that another body, that of a girl with a tattoo similar to Lena's has been found in Seattle. She's trying to prove now that this is much bigger than just Goss. Lena tells Celia that she's now in New York trying to find the other targets.

Lena and Rafe's hunt for Connor ends quickly when they discover that he has just been killed in a park. Rafe notices fresh graffiti, WBD + WY on a wall near Connor's body. They soon realize that they are being watched by a blond haired woman who along with a middle aged man begins pursuing them. Lena and Rafe split up, with Lena running into the subway and running onto the back of the last subway car. The woman manages to find Lena but before she can kill her Lena escapes onto the station platform and into the crowd. She finally escapes to a rooftop only to watch four hunters meet on the street below puzzled as to where she went. It is at this point that Lena realizes this is much bigger than just one hunter after her. They realize she was the one who turned in Goss and now they are determined to kill her.

Back in Los Angeles, Ben is being driven to the airport by someone from AAE but he has no idea what they want from him. A friend of Ben's father meets him at LAX and tells him that the girl he was watching has been spotted in New York. He wants Ben to find Lena for him and advises him to do everything AAE requests.

Lena heads to the library on Fifth Avenue where she posts an ad for Rafe on Craigslist, which is how he found Connor. Just before closing, Lena is found by Ben who insists he is there to help her. He tells her that he was sent to New York to locate her but that he now knows something terrible is going on. He became involved after his family discovered that his father, who did finances for Artemis & Acteon Enterprises, had been stealing money from the company. They offered Ben a job for a year in return for everything being forgiven. When Lena tells him what is actually going on Ben is shocked.

However Lena soon discovers that a hunter is in the library. The hunter corners Lena whom she calls "Blackbird" and is about to kill her when Ben intervenes, saving Lena. They flee to the Holiday Inn in Soho where they tend to Ben's shotgun wound, which turns out to be superficial. In the hotel room, Ben tells Lena that he found a cheque in his father's papers made out to Dr. Richard Reynolds, a neurologist at Bellevue Hospital. Reynolds ran drug trials for a memory suppressant drug funded by AAE that was used to treat soldiers suffering from PTSD. Lena now knows this is what she has been given so that she can't remember her past. She also determines that the graffiti near Connor's body is an address where the other targets meet. When she checks in with Celia in Los Angeles, she tells Lena that Goss was murdered in jail and that they need another suspect.

At West Broadway and Franklin, Lena and Ben find more graffiti, UR + HRE in the subway. They enter the tunnel and manage to meet up with Rafe who is upset about Ben's presence. They also meet more targets, Devon, Connor's girlfriend Salto, and Aggy. The group, after hearing about Dr. Reynolds, decide they need to track him down at Bellevue. Salto goes with Ben to the ER pretending to be sick, while Devon and Aggy watch the hallways and Rafe and Lena confront Dr. Reynolds.  Reynolds tells them that he was approached by a man who called himself Cal. He also tells them that there is a laudromat on Long Island in Hicksville, where he treated  several of the hunters and that it's used as a meeting place. The information that they received from Reynolds comes at a high price however, when Salto is shot through the shoulder.

At the Laundromat they confront a Stager named Krista Pollack who tells them that she overheard there is to be a meeting "on the ones". As Lena, Rafe and Ben pick up more clues that lead them closer to uncovering the truth about the hunt, the cat and mouse game with the hunters ramps up. Each clue leads Lena closer to a show down with the one man behind it all who will stop at nothing to save the hunt. Can Lena stop him and save herself and all the other targets?

Discussion

Deadfall is simply an exhilarating, action packed finale to Carey's duology.  As in Blackbird, Carey employs second person narration for each of the characters who tell a part of the story. It works very well because it places the reader at the center of the heartpounding action as it occurs.  Tension is maintained throughout the novel as readers experience the discoveries and revelations along with Lena, bit by bit. The slow reveal leads to a thrilling confrontation and a terrible twist. Although the main narrative is that of Lena, Carey does employ several other narrators including Ben Paxton, a hunter named Theodore Cross and Dr. Reynolds, all of whom use third person narration.  These narratives help fill in some of the back story for characters who reappear later on in the novel and allow for breaks in the fast pacing of the novel.

Besides the obvious suspense that develops as Lena, Rafe and Ben attempt to track down the people responsible for the hunt, Carey sets up a minor conflict between Ben and Rafe. Although Lena has a past with both guys, she doesn't know who to trust, Rafe who she can't really remember from the island or Ben who betrayed her yet took a bullet for her. When Rafe and the other targets want Ben to leave, Lena tells them they need his help.  "You look between Rafe and Ben. Rafe, who you have known for so long but hardly know at all. And Ben, who you thought betrayed you but who says he loves you. You believe him." Thankfully this triad does not really evolve into a love triangle because Lena remains focused on catching the person leading the hunt. 

Memorable scenes from this novel include the discovery by Lena and Rafe of Theodore Cross's hidden room and the depth of the evil he has perpetrated. On Cross's wall are thirty medallions, each one bearing the silhouette of a different animal and eight numbers and letters and representing a person Cross has killed. Another well written scene is the final confrontation between Cross and Rafe and Lena which lasts a full six chapters and is filled with many tense moments.

The main character, Lena Marcus is a strong, intelligent and resourceful young woman who is determined to stop the hunt and to not allow what she has experienced change her for the worse. Cross insists that he has made Lena who she is now but she tells him, "You didn't make me anything...I am more than you -- than your twisted, messed up game." When Cross tries to get her to shoot him by provoking her to anger, Lena doesn't bite, She knows what Cross is trying to do and she does what she has to. 


Deadfall is a gritty thriller with a heartbreaking but satisfying conclusion. Teens who are looking an exciting mystery/thriller novel will enjoy both of Carey's offerings in this duology.


Book Details:

Deadfall by Anna Carey
New York: HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins    2015
243 pp.

Blackbird by Anna Carey

Blackbird is the first book in Anna Carey's duology about a girl involved in a deadly cat and mouse game that sees her being hunted by a series of unknown assassins.

The novel opens with a girl, who awakens to find herself on the subway tracks at the Vermont/Sunset Station, hearing the screeching of the train as it stops over her. "At first it is all sound, the grinding of the wheels in the metal track, the rush of air as the train barrels forward. Its hot breath musses your hair. You stare into the train's underbelly, metal and pipe and wire. As the train finally slows, stopping in the station, it takes you a few seconds to process it: You are still lying there, just inches below the train. You're still alive."

She finds herself just lying there, "specifically positioned, arms crossed over her chest, shoulders just inside the tracks." After the ambulance arrives, they back the train up and the girl sits up. When they try to place her on the board, asking her her name and and what happened, she doesn't know, gets up and runs out of the station.

The first thing she notices about herself is that there is a mysterious tattoo on the inside of her write wrist; FNV02198. In her backpack she finds a notepad, mace, a pocketknife, a map and one thousand dollars.  Inside a supermarket, where she's fled, she bumps into a guy who notices the gash on her forearm. The boy lets her use his phone to call the number on her notepad. When she calls the number, an unknown man tells her to meet him at the building marked on her map. She then asks Ben, the guy she's met, to give her a ride to the area where the building is located, which he does. When Ben asks her her name, she makes up the name "Sunny". Ben drops her at the building, giving her his phone number. In the building Sunny goes to Garner Consulting on the 9th floor. When no one meets her there, she decides to break in to the office, only to find the safe forced open and money spilled over the floor. Terrified and suspecting she's been set up, Sunny flees the scene. After spending the night in a playground, she finds a hotel room, changes into new clothing and then experiences a flashback about attending a funeral.

Soon Sunny begins to realize that she is being followed. She notices a man at the diner and when she attempts to lose him, he gets into a silver car and follows her. Trying to outrun him, she ducks into a huge music store and seems to lose him. Meanwhile the narrative switches to a wealthy woman who is attending a dinner reception and who receives a cryptic message that happens to identify Sunny's location - the Greyhound bus station on Hollywood Boulevard.  Meanwhile Sunny's second person narrative reveals that she is now at the bus station intending to travel to San Francisco, hoping to lose whoever is following her. However, Sunny never makes her bus because she is attacked by a woman wearing a unique medallion. This woman chases Sunny and tries to kill her. Sunny is saved at the last minute by the same man who was tracking her earlier, when he shoots and kills the woman.


When Sunny returns to the scene of the murder very soon after, she finds almost no evidence of the life and death struggle that took place between her and the woman; her body and the gun are both gone. Back in the hotel and having difficult sleeping, Sunny dreams about a boy in a forest and how they are being hunted. Remembering Ben, Sunny decides to call him and they meet at the diner. She tells Ben what has been going on and decides to return with him to his house where he lives with his mother. Searches on Ben's computer reveal no information about a missing girl nor about a woman killed by the 101 Freeway. Sunny also meets Ben's next door neighbour, Izzy who seems friendly.

After taking her to a party Ben and Sunny spend time at the beach relaxing. Sunny continues making notes in her notepad and then realizes that the man who was following her found her twice, only a day apart. This seems too coincidental to Sunny who now believes she's being tracked. She searches her backpack and discovers a hidden tracking device. She decides to set up a third meeting with this man, on her own terms by hiding the tracking device in a park where she can ambush him.

When Sunny does take him down she learns that his name is Ivan Petrovski and that he was paid to track her. Ivan tells her he was paid to make it look like she robbed Garner Consulting and that he doesn't know the identity of the woman who tried to kill her nor who has hired him. He also reveals to Sunny that he told them that she killed the woman. Using Ivan's phone, Sunny calls a number on Ivan's phone, telling them that she has Ivan. This sends them after both Ivan and Sunny. Sunny manages to escape and follows Ivan's captors to a house where he is interrogated and beaten.

After leaving Ivan to the mercy of his captors, Sunny is once again being followed and finds herself cornered in the washroom of a fast food joint where the man tries to kill her. Again Sunny barely escapes due to luck. Sunny begins to sense that these people are hunting her because they don't actually want to use the tracking device. Instead they want clues to her whereabouts. She is part of an elaborate game. Realizing that she is in over her head, Sunny reaches out to the police. Can anyone save her in this elaborate cat and mouse game, where she is the prey and others are the hunters?

Discussion

Readers will find the point of view in  Blackbird different because it is written in second person using "you" pronouns. It's unusual to have a book written from the second person narrative because generally it is difficult to make it work, but Carey succeeds, having crafted a novel filled with suspense and mystery. Through her use of second person narrative, Carey pulls the reader into the action especially when Sunny is being attacked or being chased, which based on the premise of the novel, happens frequently.

"She grabs your head with one hand, watching you as she holds you there, the smile still curled on her lips. Then she raises the knife. The pain in your head is white-hot, your back scraped and bleeding on the pavement, and you know this is it."

Carey has indicated that she wrote Blackbird in second person because she felt this was the best perspective for a character who had no memory of who she is and because it makes the reader feel like they are the ones who are in danger. She also felt it was a new approach to writing a thriller and would push her out of her comfort zone. It is a different narrative that most readers will not often experience and Carey makes it work here. It's fresh and intriguing.

The story is mostly action driven, partly because the character doesn't remember who she is and with the second person narrative we learn along with her, bits and pieces of her past. Sunny appears to be a very intelligent, quick-thinking girl with considerable street smarts and someone who seems mature beyond her years. She also appears to have had some kind of self-defense training and is athletic. She's in a city where she seems to remember how to get around, but can't remember her own name or past. We learn through another narrator that this might be because she has been given some kind of drug to erase her memories, but that the drug is beginning to wear off, as evidenced by the recurring dreams and flashbacks she's experiencing. She's adaptable and resilient, determined to uncover her past and her identity and to learn why she's being hunted.

There are plenty of secondary characters in the novel, most of whom we meet only briefly and therefore are not very well drawn. Ben and Celia Alvarez are the two main secondary characters. Ben appears to be on Sunny's side, providing a place for her to stay and driving her around to investigate certain areas and situations. However, when Sunny discovers a folder labelled she suspects Ben's motives and flees from him. Celia on the other is definitely out to help Sunny, letting her leave when she learns Sunny was involved in the arson in San Francisco as well as keeping in contact with her outside of her job. It is Celia who provides Sunny with the information about Hilary Goss, the woman who tried to kill her.

The cliffhanger ending leads nicely into the sequel, Deadfall, which will be released June 2015. In this sequel, the main character will meet the boy in her dreams, try to figure out what has happened between her and Ben, learn her true identity and come to understand her past and finally figure out who the people are who are trying to kill her and why.



***The remainder of the novel is summarized below for those who will read the sequel next year and want to refresh their memories as to what happened. It therefore contains spoilers.**

Sunny is interviewed extensively by the police who find her story unbelievable. When they question her about Ben after finding his name and number in her pocket, Sunny feels that she has to protect him and simply tells the police that he was just "some guy I met at the supermarket" who tried to pick her up. In an effort to locate the house where Ivan was taken, another officer, Celia Alvarez takes Sunny out in her cruiser, where they do eventually find the house. Incredibly, the house has been set on fire and the cops believe it  was the work of junkies. Celia tells Sunny that her prints indicate that she is wanted for arson at Club Xenith in San Francisco. Believing that Celia will arrest her, Sunny flees, although she suspects that Celia is letting her go.

Sunny returns to Ben telling him why she ran from him and that she eventually went to the police. Research on Ben's computer suggests that homeless teens are believed responsible for the arson in San Francisco. Sunny and Ben become intimate. Later on she remembers more about THE BOY, whom she loves and whom she realizes was being hunted on the island. The next morning, Sunny decides to investigate Parillo Construction, the name she saw on the boxes at the house where Ivan was. Ben takes her to Parillo Construction where Sunny makes a gruesome discovery - the body of Ivan stuffed into a garbage bag ready to be disposed of and evidence of a dog-fighting ring.

Meanwhile Celia Alvarez is certain that the unknown girl who came to the police is telling the truth. Celia meets Sunny unexpectedly in the parking lot outside the grocery store and the girl has new information for her about the man who was kidnapped after she met him in the park, about his body and where it can be found. Sunny also wants to know if Celia knows her name from the information given to them by police in San Francisco. but Celia tells her that one of the homeless kids stated her name was Trinie and that she was originally from a town named Cabazon, near Palm Springs.

While waiting for Ben to come home from school, Sunny reluctantly accompanies Izzy shopping but then discovers she's being watched and followed by the man from the park. Sunny flees but finds herself being chased and shot at by the unknown man. Although he tackles and brings Sunny down, she manages to escape. When she returns to Ben's house they travel to Cabazon to try to find Sunny's home. Later that night in a motel,  Sunny has another dream about being attacked by a man while on the island and being saved by the boy. When she awakes, Sunny remembers that the man who hunted her on the island is the same man who chased and shot her. He's hunted her before.

Ben has to go meet his mom while Sunny decides to go meet Celia at her home. Celia tells her that she has uncovered two unsolved homicides of teenagers in which the bodies had the right hand severed at the wrist. Sunny shows Celia the bird tattoo on her wrist and is convinced that this is brand identifying her. Celia gives her an untraceable cell phone to keep in touch.

When Sunny arrives back at Ben's home she finds him not home. A call from Celia yields startling information - that a man came to claim the car of a woman whom he says is his wife away on business. The woman, Hilary Goss is the person who chased Sunny and a search online reveals the man with the scar who chased and almost killed Sunny as her husband, Henry Goss. Sunny decides to go to Henry's home, breaks in and in a secret compartment in the bedroom closet finds a dossier on her, showing her scars, and labelling her as Blackbird, Los Angeles Target, who survived 15 days on the island. A contract between the Goss's and A&A Enterprises in the folder states that he has been reassigned to "Blackbird" as a result of his wife's death. There is mention of a "Watcher" and a "Stager", though they are not identified.

The situation becomes complicated when Izzy shows up at the house and they are confronted by Henry Goss. Goss shoots Izzy and chases Sunny who manages yet again to escape. When she arrives at Ben's home safe, she decides to search online, understanding now that this game is huge with many participants. That's when she notices the AAE folder on Ben's computer and realizes that he's her Watcher. Sunny's narrative is broken by a scene on the island of a woman who doesn't know that her husband is on the island hunting humans. When she sees a sign for help she assumes her husband is in trouble and goes into the forest to find him, only to be shot dead by another hunter. Sunny flees first to check on Izzy at the hospital and then to Union station where she plans to catch a train to Chicago. There at the train station is the boy from the island.


Book Details:
Blackbird by Anna Carey
New York: HarperTeen      2014
245 pp.

Rise by Anna Carey

This novel is the third and final installment in the Eve series, picking up where Once left off. Caleb is dead and Genevieve has been married off to Charles, her father's right hand man. Genevieve's (Eve) father continues his draconian control of the City. Moss, a rebel who goes by the name of Reginald in the City, seeks out Eve as the plans for the attack by the rebels on the City move forward. He brings her a substance to poison and kill her father, so rebels can gain control of the City. They were unable to procure ricin, a deadly poison and instead Eve is given oleander extract to use. Moss instructs Eve to place the poison in her father's medication and that this will signal the start of the attack on the City. Once the attack begins, Eve is to leave and remain in a safe place for several months until order is restored.

Shortly after, Eve learns that she is pregnant. Her father believes this is Charles baby, however he is unaware of the true nature of Eve and Charles' "marriage". When Charles is told of the pregnancy, he does not reveal the truth that the baby is not his but tells the King that he is very happy.

Eve manages to place the poison in her father's medication and he becomes ill immediately afterwards. At this time the attack on the City by the Outlander rebels commences but does not appear to be succeeding. When Eve witnesses the execution of several rebel leaders and her father begins to suspect that she has played a part in both the attack and his illness, Eve knows she is in great danger and must leave. She barely manages to escape the City, taking with her Clara and many girls from the hospital. Originally, Eve had wanted to take Charles and his mother with her when she left, but that was not possible.

The group led by Eve travel west, hoping to reach Califia and safety. When they finally reach the colony of Califia, Eve is told by Quinn what has been happening in the City since her escape. Her father, in an attempt to discover her whereabouts, continues to arrest and interrogate Palace staff. Those who are interrogated do not return. The bodies of those executed remain hanging in front of the Palace. Eve realizes that unless she kills her father, she will never be safe, that he will continue to hunt her. She also knows that young girls will continue to be abused under her father's government. With this in mind, and despite being more than 3 months pregnant, Eve decides to travel back to the City with the expressed intent of confronting her father. Can Eve save what is left of her life and prevent other young women from meeting the same fate as Ruby and Pip?

Rise was a somewhat disappointing anti-climatic ending to the Eve trilogy. Readers will find themselves somewhat disappointed with the ending of the novel which is somewhat subdued, despite Carey tying up some of the lose ends. Readers are left with many questions; what happens in the City after its collapse, what happens to Eve, who were the fathers of all the babies, and is New America reunited? And what about Eve's a heart-stopping discovery? What comes of that?

Rise focuses more on action rather than the relationships between the characters, mainly because most of the important characters are absent in this third novel. Caleb is already dead, Moss is killed, and Charles and Eve's father remain in the city when Eve escapes. Carey removes all of these important characters from her story, thus taking away most of the emotional impact, the suspense and more importantly, the conflict and the romance. Eve spends most of her time traveling in Rise, as the novel focuses on her attempt to get nine girls to the safety of Califia. Focusing on the main character traveling from point A to point B and back to point A slows the pace of the novel, weakening the interest of the reader. There's almost no conflict and very little danger as a group of nine girls, one seriously injured and one pregnant, traipse through the wilds of post-apocalyptic America.

The death of Caleb in Once, turns out to be the emotional climax of the series, and yet is treated only superficially in that book. But Eve's discovery at the end of Rise should have been the emotional climax of the trilogy. Instead, it got a few bland paragraphs at the very end of the novel, leaving the reader disappointed. The same thing happens with Moss' death and also the death of another significant character in the novel. They are treated superficially, with almost no emotional investment by the main character, Eve. Overall, Carey had a good story but didn't take full advantage of opportunities to make her story really crunch.

Rise is not a bad effort, but it is a disappointment to those who truly enjoyed and were pleasantly surprised by the first two books of the trilogy.

Anna Carey is working on another set of books to be published in 2014 and 2015 called Blackbirds. You can learn more at her website, Anna Carey Books.

Book Details:
Rise by Anna Carey
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books 2013
310 pp.

Eve by Anna Carey

Eve tells the story of a girl and boy in a post-plague world. America specifically has been destroyed by a plague that killed anyone who received a vaccination against it. This meant that most adults were killed along with many older children. The result has been a catastrophic collapse of society and the emergence of a new order and a new country, The New America, ruled by one man, The King.
Eve, was five when her mother died. She along with numerous other orphans were sent to special schools where they received a special education that included the learning of Latin, writing, painting and piano. They also received a special kind of indoctrination - to fear men. Men, the girls are told, "could be manipulative, conniving, and dangerous." Through literature, they learned to avoid men at all costs.


The story opens the day before Eve's graduation, when she along with thirty-nine other girls will walk across the bridge to the giant windowless building to begin learning their trades. Eve is excited to begin this new chapter in her life. She wants to become a painter and paint murals in the King's capital, the City of Sand. She imagines a life of leisure and accomplishment. However, Eve begins to question what is going on when the school rebel, Arden, escapes. Arden tells Eve the true purpose of the building across the lake from the school - the graduates are enslaved to breed babies for the new world.

When Eve discovers that Arden is telling the truth, she escapes into the unknown wilds the night before "graduation" in search of a safe haven known as Califia. Eve stumbles upon Arden and the two of them starving, run into a young man, Caleb, who instantly is drawn to Eve. Caleb hides Arden and Eve from the government troops who are searching frantically for Eve. It is at this time that Eve discovers why she is being hunted - The King wants her for his wife.

Caleb takes her to a refuge camp in the wilderness. The camp run by a tough character named Leif, is populated entirely by boys of various ages. Eve who has been indoctrinated to distrust men, must now rely on Caleb and Leif for her safety. As Eve spends more time with Caleb she gradually begins to realize not all men are as The Teacher described in the school. Some men are bad, but some men like Caleb Eve identifies as a "good man". Gradually Eve finds herself falling in love with Caleb. From this point on, there are several twists in the story but essentially the remainder of the novel tells the story of Eve and Caleb and their attempt to reach Califia.

Overall, this novel was enjoyable and very exciting. The dystopian society is gradually explained throughout the book. After years of indoctrination, I'm not so sure Eve would have so quickly undertaken the task to learn about what was going on in the windowless building across the lake from the school. Nevertheless, this does set the stage for Eve leaving the sheltered world she has been raised in.
She also seems to quickly overcome her biased view of men and learns about loving and happiness from Caleb.

Eve is the first book in what will be a trilogy. The second book, Once, is due to be published next year. If you'd like to watch the book trailer and read about possible casting for a movie check out the website TheEveTrilogy.com

Book Details:
Eve by Anna Carey
Alloy Entertainment 2011
318 pp.