Review: Lake Town by Jane Redd

I received this book via I Am a Reader. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

Lake Town by Jane Redd
Series: Solstice #2
Published by Mirror Press on 2017-03-01
Length: 300 pages
Reviewing eARC from I Am a Reader
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2017 Dystopia Reading Challenge, 2017 New Release Challenge

Jezebel James is on the run after her true abilities are discovered by the Legislature, and the only one who can protect her is Sol. In order to survive, Sol sends her into an underground hideout where she quickly discovers all that she thought was true in her dying world is false. Jez reunites with Rueben and his band of insurgents, and together they escape to Lake Town, only to find that the entire island is preparing to invade the City.

But Sol has been left behind and forced to join the ranks of the Faction, who are working against the Legislature from within. As Jez works with the insurgents and their plan to destroy the City, she learns that attacking the City might save thousands of lives, but it will destroy Sol, the man she knows she can’t live without.

Okay, I hate to admit it but I was not very impressed with this book. Lake Town by Jane Redd is the second book in the dystopian series Solstice. I really enjoyed Solstice so I was looking forward to continuing Jezebel’s story. However the pace of the book, plot holes, and poor character development led to a big disappointment for me.

Jezebel James is on the run with Rueben (the boy she met during her incarceration by the Legislature). He knows what she is and along with a small band of insurgents he plans to get her out of the city. Much to Jez’s surprise, Sol has been working with them the entire time. Everything Jez thought she knew about the outlying islands, her friend Sol, the Legislature, and her status as a Carrier is turned on its head. This set up should make for an explosive, edge of your seat read, but unfortunately it doesn’t.

First off, Jez goes from being a girl trained to hide all her feelings and emotions to a girl ready to fight the Legislature. Now I’m not saying she didn’t want to do this in the first book because she did. It’s just in the first book she struggled with how easily Rueben showed his emotions and well acted human because he told her he was also immune to the Harmony implant. Yet she still struggled, now in this book she flips the switch showing all her emotions and acting very human. There wasn’t a gradual progression as I thought there would be or at least what you’d expect from a girl who has lived her life scared to show these feelings.

Then there’s Sol. I liked that we get his POV in this book. I was extremely curious as to who he was after he showed up at the end of Solstice a friend of Rueben’s. Here is someone like Jez who fought the Legislature by hiding his emotions, yet apparently he was insurgent the whole time. Everything Jez knows about him is a lie except his feelings for her. Sol is one of the leaders of the insurgent and spends most of this book separated from them, working from the inside. It makes for a suspenseful read.

However as the author flips POV each chapter between Sol and Jez, I found myself getting lost in the time lime. Sol mentions weeks going by but then when we flip back to Jez, no time has passed for her. I found it hard to follow the two characters and separate their time lines. Then towards the end of the book it’s suddenly been a couple of months according to Sol yet for Jez it seems to have been just a few short weeks? I had a hard time reconciling that and it distracted me from the story.

Then the pace of the plot. It starts off with Jez on the run and Sol is trying to catch up to his insurgent friends so he can go with them off the island. It’s fast paced, edge of your seat, just what you would expect. Then for Jez’s chapters, it almost becomes tedious to read. Jez is on a boat to the outlying island, then there’s a lot of talking about whether their plans should continue since Sol was captured. For the most part until near the end, Jez’s chapters don’t add much value to the story. I had to force myself to read them. Sol’s chapters on the other hand are suspenseful and heartbreaking at times. The differing paces for the POV were distracting and hard to read through.

Overall Lake Town was just ok for me. The beginning and ending made up for the stop and go pace of the middle. AND for the most part the storyline was interesting. If you enjoyed Solstice, I recommend you continue with the series. I plan to 🙂

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