Spark
Waverly and Kieran are finally reunited on the Empyrean. Kieran has led the boys safely up to this point, and now that the girls are back, their mission seems slightly less impossible: to chase down the New Horizon, and save their parents from the enemy ship. But nothing is truly as it seems…Kieran’s leadership methods have raised Seth’s hackles— and Waverly’s suspicions. Is this really her fiancé? The handsome, loving boy she was torn from just a short time before? More and more, she finds her thoughts aligned with Seth’s. But if Seth is Kieran’s Enemy No. 1, what does that make her?
In one night, a strange explosion rocks the Empyrean—shooting them off course and delaying their pursuit of the New Horizon—and Seth is mysteriously released from the brig. Seth is the most obvious suspect for the explosion, and Waverly the most obvious suspect for releasing him. As the tension reaches a boiling point, will Seth be able to find the true culprit before Kieran locks them both away—or worse? Will Waverly follow her heart, even if it puts lives at risk? With the balance of power precarious and the clock ticking, every decision counts… every step brings them closer to a new beginning, or a sudden end…
I had mixed feelings for the first book in the series, Glow, and this the same could be said for Spark. As I say in my review, the main characters are frustrating. Just when you start to like them, they do something to drive you crazy. However, the action and the story intrigues you enough to push the character’s terrible decisions and keep reading. In the end, I think I liked Spark more than Glow, but there scores are pretty close.
Picking up where Glow left off, the girls are back on the Empyrean after being kidnapped by the other space ship, the New Horizon. However, the girls paid a price for their return. They left their parents behind as prisoners on the New Horizon. Now the Empyrean is left without a full crew to the run the ship and the oldest person on board is 16. The kids on the Empyrean try keep the ship functioning while they plan a way to get their parents and the rest of the crew back, but they are worn out and constantly at odds with each other. Waverly and Kieran, former boyfriend and girlfriend, are particularly against each other. Matters only get worse when a stow away from the New Horizon is discovered hiding on board and wreaks havoc on the ship.
I like this series, I really do, I just wished I liked the characters more. The author does a good job showing the characters’ different sides and it’s nice that you really do see where the characters are coming from. However, they make often make bad decisions that hurt everyone in the end. You can only imagine that 16 year-old’s and younger do not know how to run a ship or make difficult decisions. So as a result stupid things happen that could have been avoided if only they had set aside their differences and worked together. This gets tiring and after awhile and you start longing for something good to happen for once. But conflict and turmoil keeps things interesting and the pages turning.
What Spark did best is deliver action. It’s non-stop and there are lots of explosions, fighting, and people being thrown in the brig. The action scenes are often intense and leave you wondering what’s going to happen next. The book ends not on a cliff-hanger exactly, but ends in a moment of suspense. I now am looking forward to reading the next book in the series just so I can find out what happens to the crew.