Lightning by Bonnie S. Calhoun

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Lightning Revell (October 6, 2015) by Bonnie S. Calhoun

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bonnie S. Calhoun is Owner/Director of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, owner/publisher of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, Northeast Zone Director for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and the ACFW ‘2011 Mentor of the Year.”

She loves to write with body count, blood, or blowing things up. She also has mad skills at coding HTML, and website design. And she lives in a log cabin in the woods with fifteen acres and a pond full of bass, though she'd rather buy fish at the grocery store. Bonnie shares her domain with a husband and two cats, all of whom think she’s waitstaff!

Her latest series is a YA dystopian with Revell titled Stone Braide Chronicles. The first book Thunder published in 2014. The second book Lightning published Oct 2015. There are also two FREE e-book short stories. Tremors is the prequel to Thunder, and Aftershock (short story) comes before Lightning.

ABOUT THE BOOK

After she found her real father, life for Selah should have felt settled. But the horrors have just begun. In her broken world of toxic earth and tribal clashes, Selah must battle the forces of nature alongside those in the Mountain who are calling for her blood. Haunted by the pain of mounting losses, she forges on, seeking her lost family and uncovering new mysteries. But the ultimate betrayal of her own body may soon make her quest impossible as it becomes apparent that what has made her new could also drive her to a life of madness.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Lightning, go HERE.




My Thoughts: 

I had never read any of the Stone Braide Chronicles before receiving this book for review. I did have the other books on my Kindle, so once I finished the previous book I had for review I started this series. I've read the whole series within the last week and now I'm wishing the next one was already out. Seriously, it's that good.

If you haven't read the previous book and e-books in this series then you might want to do that before reading Lightning because this book wouldn't really do well as a stand-alone. You could probably just read Thunder and Lightning and know what's going on but since the e-book shorts are free on Amazon and they really do help with some understanding, I'd recommend reading those as well.

The series is based in a post-apocalyptic America, 150 years after the Time of Sorrows, and is about Selah, a young woman who started out trying to prove herself as just as good as her brothers in order to gain her stepfather's affection. Selah's entire life changed when she hunted and caught a Lander in Thunder. With the beginning of this book, Lightning, it seems like she's settled into a new life in TicCity and everything is going fairly well. Until she can't find the family she had to leave behind, her boyfriend tells her that he doesn't want to be with her, her father won't explain her role as the novarium, and she starts having "lightning" flashes in her mind.

Literally, the only complaint I had with this book was Selah's attitude while in the Mountain. She would go from being a strong, resourceful woman in one scene to being weak and needy in the next. I think that maybe this was to show how stressed and overwhelmed she was because of all that she was having to face but I just don't like it when the strong heroine gets whiny in a story. However, that's just me, and it didn't detract from the story at all.

Overall, I was completely drawn into this series/this book and really enjoyed them and am looking forward to the next one.