Lisann's Reviews > Never Fade

“Then he was stepping back, away, letting distance flood between us again. His voice was low, rough. "Give 'em hell, darlin'."
"And for the love of God, bitch, don't get stabbed this time!" Vida added.”

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Okay after this important announcement we can now start the review.

Buddy read with Sunshine

The story:

At the beginning of the book there is a time jump of six months which I always like because it gives the characters the opportunity to have experiences without us having to accompany them all the time. According to an agreement at the end of the first book, Ruby will be trained as an agent during this time and will be prepared for various missions and crisis situations with her team consisting of Vida (thanks girl for adding some sass into this book), Jude and Nico. Ruby is no longer the naive girl who tries to keep her powers secret. She trains them within the six months to finally gain full control and to be able to interact with people without fear. Ruby is now so in control of her powers that she is being used to interrogate people by entering their memories and finding out what really happened in different situations. That's all I can tell you about the plot of the book, because everything else would spoiler too much.

“Oh, I'm sorry," Chubs said, 'apparently the middle of my sentence interrupted the beginning of yours. Do continue.”

The characters:

In this book, Ruby goes through several character developments that I've wanted to see since the first book. I love reading the darker sides of characters because it just makes them more human. Ruby also likes to dive into moral grey areas which I always find great. There is nothing better than to see a protagonist grow from a broken child into a self-confident, courageous teenager who is committed to the well-being of her group and can keep a more or less cool head in crisis situations. The author manages to emotionally bind me to all the side characters from Ruby's team and her friends, which I was all the more enthusiastic about as they all met each other. Oh and to everyone who has already read this book: am I the only one who ships Vida and Chubs? I can see these two slowly starting to get friends and maybe something else?



My thoughts:

The end of the first book promised drama and heartache. In addition to that there is a lot of action and plot twists in the second book that make it almost impossible to put the book down. Unfortunately I had to do exactly that because Sunshine and I agreed on reading 8 chapters in 2 days. It was really hard to stop because the tension is rising especially after the first third of the book.

“I don't want to just see someone's face; I want to know his shadow, too.”

The plot of the book just blew me away and it was a huge step up from the first book! This story has exactly the right action moments where people get hurt, die and are kidnapped. The “bad guys” in this world are, as always, not the people with powers but the society that does not accept people but wants to eliminate them, simply because they are different from the norm. Therefore I think that their society has to change, or rather the politics which from the beginning made sure that everybody is afraid of their children and acted as if they were treated in camps for their own good. If someone would have been in power who would have acted in the interest of the children by offering them to train their powers, just to not endanger others. So much good could have come out of it!



The only thing I don't love is the relationship between Liam and Ruby. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Liam in general but he is just too nice for me. I would love to read about other kind of man but that is exactly the problem. There are no men and women here, but boys and girls. They are teenagers and so I can overlook the fact that my heart is not directly addressed in this book.

I am really hyped for the third book and I can't wait to find out what goes wrong next, who dies, who survives and how the political situation changes. This series developed to be one of my favorites and I'm so really glad I've discovered it!

Special thanks to Joshita for letting me steal her little images!