Jennie Bates Bozic

What initially attracted me to this book was the unique premise about a genetically engineered six-inch-tall winged girl, Lina. She was created, for lack of a better word, "as the solution to a worldwide energy and food crisis." Lina was raised completely alone in a forest, with her every move controlled by a group of sketchy scientists. When she meets a boy online, Jack, and falls in love with him, she decides that she will find a way to be with him. The scientists have a very different future in mind for Lina, and it involves a reality show where she will date a handful of "Toms", boys her own size and also genetically engineered, from whom she will choose one to mate with and try to reproduce little genetically altered kids. Sounds bizarre, I know, but it does seem to work here. The story is full of action, and well written. Lina and the boys are written with distinct voices and personalities. The setting is very interesting, as well. All in all, I quite enjoyed this book.

4/5 stars.… (altro)

I guess I didn’t read the synopsis of Sugar Plum very well, and just saw the Christmas ornament on the cover of this book and assumed it was a nice Christmas story. I was completely taken by surprise when I read this story because it wasn’t really a Christmas story at all!

However, I was not disappointed in the least because what I read was a most unexpected and fascinating story. The world has changed and America is broken up into 3 sections Eastern, Midlands and Western. A 17 year-old-girl is shrunken down to 6 inches, given fairy wings, packaged as Christmas ornaments as are hundreds of others. These young people are given to children and told to keep them in their boxes until Christmas eve because if they do then they will turn into a real girl. Sugar is chosen by Clara. Sugar does not remember who she was before she became such a tiny being and believes that she will be released after a certain number of missions.

The author was able to pack in quite a lot of punch for such a short little novelette. I truly did not want the book to end when it did. There were a variety of surprises in this short edition that definitely seem to show that there is something more going on than what appears at first glance - like why is it that Clara’s family seem to be running for their lives? I’m looking forward to reading Damselfly, the next book available.

The best news is that Sugar Plum is permanently free on both Amazon and Smashwords! I rated this story 5 stars out of 5.

I purchased my own copy of this book on Smashwords. All opinions are my own.

This review was published on my blog Shelf Full of Books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-review-sugar-plum-by-j...… (altro)