Title: The Prophecy of ArcadiaAuthor: M.H. Soars
Series: Arcadian Wars #1
First Published: January 17, 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 416
Genre: Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Young Adult
Format: eARC
Source: Review Request
Rating:
Synopsis:
Would you sacrifice friendship and love in order to save your planet?
Being a teenager is tough, especially when you have to pretend to be something you’re not, and you’re in love with someone you shouldn’t. 115 years ago, a small planet called Arcadia was invaded by a vicious alien race and nearly destroyed. Cut off from their resources, the Arcadians turned to Earth for help. A group of Arcadian explorers discovered a Prophecy that claimed their salvation lay in the hands of two children from Earth. To ensure their safety, the Arcadian Council sent their most gifted youngsters to Earth to act as protectors. Samantha is one of them.
To succeed in her mission she must learn to control her Arcadian powers and keep her true identity from her best friend, and the girl she swore to protect, Alexia. But Samantha will soon realize that nothing is as it seems. Someone is trying to prevent the Prophecy from taking place and the prophecy boy hasn't been found yet. There is also a new drug circulating at school that is turning students into freakishly strong menaces.
To make matters worse, distractions keep getting in her way. Such as her love/hate relationship with her “cousin” Matthew. Or her confused feelings toward popular and mysterious Julian. She wants nothing more than to be free to live her life. But the survival of Arcadia depends on her and her friends. Free will is not an option.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
Prophecies and aliens take a backseat to high school drama and hormones in this young adult paranormal romance. The Prophecy of Arcadia is a debut novel about a teenage girl that finds herself at the center of a prophecy of an alien race called the Arcadians. I had read this book when it was first released in 2014 and it was one of the first paranormal romance books I had ever read. I had always intended on getting back to the series, however, it seems to have been dropped by the author after the second book and is no longer for sale nor are the books listed on her website.
I liked the idea for the story, the prophecy sounded interesting, but the execution was lacking. The science fiction portion of the story remained shaky at best throughout the entire book and gets really confusing near the end. It just felt like there were too many side plots being juggled at once and nothing is really fleshed out the way that it should have been. One of my primary concerns with the story is the heavy focus on the teenage soap opera. I couldn’t stand that many characters fell under the California celebrity rich kid stereotype. There were high school parties and a club with under aged drinking galore and I found all of the drama to be exhausting.
The main story involving the Arcadians and the prophecy feel like background filler for the love stories of both Alexia and Samantha. Alexia’s love story I completely understand and actually rather liked considering the role that she plays, but Samantha’s constant drama rubbed me the wrong way. The prodigies are supposed to be there to protect and watch over Alexia while still being covert, not knowing who to trust, but Alexia was left her unsupervised throughout most of the book.
Sam spends a great deal of time going back and forth between whichever guy got her hormones pumping the hardest and it really kind of turned me off to her character completely, and I got bored with her conflict with Matthew. I liked the other prodigies despite their limited appearances. I would have liked a little more story to focus on the group dynamic, the discovery of their powers and training.
I’m also a little bit picky about the use of aliens in this book. The term seems to be applied rather loosely, since the “aliens” in this book are really just humans with super powers. Issues with species is only brought up very briefly once in the book, which was the one positive nod to many of the protagonist’s other worldly origins. Fans of young adult paranormal romance or high school romance would find this enjoyable but it just wasn’t for me.
Quote
“To be fair, I hadn’t broken his heart intentionally. I had wanted to love him as much as he’d loved me, but, unfortunately, being in love didn’t work that way. You couldn’t force yourself into it.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About M.H. Soars
USA Today bestselling author M. H. Soars always knew creative arts were her calling but not in a million years did she think she would become a novelist. With a background in fashion design, she thought she would follow that path. But one day, out of the blue, she had an idea for a book. One page turned into ten pages, ten pages turned into a hundred, and before she knew, her first novel, The Prophecy of Arcadia, was born.
M. H. Soars resides in The Netherlands with her husband and daughter. She is currently working on the Love Me, I’m Famous series.
M. H. Soars also writes Sci-Fantasy under the pen name Michelle Hercules.
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