That said, I think this is a good SCI FI book; the author does a very good job of painting the backdrop of the novel. Me thinks it is slightly above average. I actually found myself growing attached to the characters and sorta sad at the end of the novel; a sign of good character development. Cat is 15 years old and full of fire and rebellion to her dad who has arranged her marriage to someone she doesn’t love. She runs away shortly before the wedding and becomes a stowaway on a skyship. She is concerned with the children being collected in her country for war; as are the crew of the ship she has gotten to know and who have accepted her. They tell her the truth about the war; that it has been over for 7 years…so why are they still collecting the children? They aim to find out; and they do. In a suprising twist from SCI FI to Horror; it turns out that the government is experimenting on the kids by fusing weapons to their young bodies in place of their legs/arms/head… Now that they have this information they are going to broadcast it to the world and their country and stop them. During these adventures Cat and Fox fall in love; it is a volatile relationaship with arguments and fights since they are both type A personalities. Another twist as they search for who is in charge is they find Cat’s father at the head of it. After her father is killed by Fox, the group discovers that the successful experimental children are on a sky ship staged for an attack on the other countries. Once they notify the other countries of the plot; they proceed to the military skyship to save what children they can. Unfortunately, they find the children are not children anymore but they are completely machines. During a final struggle Fox is killed and Cat is devastated. During the earlier mission Cat and Fox found the missing monarchy (Queen and Prince). In one final twist the book ends with Cat marrying this prince against her wants for the sake of the country. The content in this book is completely gratuitous. I believe it would be possible to have a sequel to this. Interesting setup and world, but lots of pacing issues with stretches of nothing happening then a rush to finish. Apparently this is supposed to be a first book in a series, but it didn't feel that way. The story felt self contained, and if it had been or if the epilogue had been cut off I might have rated it higher.The Ending: I kind of appreciated the author deciding to kill off the love interest, but the epilogue felt like the ending that gets thrown on when a series is prematurely cancelled, not when the author knows she plans more. I thought the story was building for the obvious reveal that Fox was actually the lost prince, so I liked the twist when the prince showed up. Then when Fox died, I assumed future books would deal with rebuilding the nation after destroying the government and along the way the main character would realize she could love more than one man during her life and fall for the prince, which would have been a unique setup. Instead we have an epilogue where the character who spent the entire book saying she didn't want to marry except for love and definitely didn't want a political marriage marries the prince for political reasons. Did I miss something? At the same time part of me is interested enough now to want to see where the author is heading should future books be released.
What do You think about Take Back The Skies (2014)?
More like a 3.5*. Great story but the ending was really disappointing! REVIEW TO COME!
—Claudia
It is an amazing book that I really enjoyed. It is now one of my favourites
—trevor
