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Free eBook & Review: The Moon Dwellers by David Estes – An emotional, heart-wrenching dystopian

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Free eBook & Review: The Moon Dwellers by David Estes – An emotional, heart-wrenching dystopianThe Moon Dwellers by David Estes
Series: The Dwellers #1
on June 30, 2012
Source: Author Review Copy
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
Amazon


four-half-stars

In a desperate attempt to escape destruction decades earlier, humankind was forced underground, into the depths of the earth, creating a new society called the Tri-Realms. 

After her parents and sister are abducted by the Enforcers, seventeen-year-old Adele, a member of the middle-class moon dwellers, is unjustly sentenced to life in prison for her parents' crimes of treason.

Against all odds, Adele must escape from the Pen and find her family, while being hunted by a deranged, killing machine named Rivet, who works for the President. She is helped by two other inmates, Tawni and Cole, each of whom have dark secrets that are better left undiscovered. Other than her friends, the only thing she has going for her is a wicked roundhouse kick and two fists that have been well-trained for combat by her father.

At the other end of the social spectrum is Tristan, the son of the President and a sun dweller. His mother is gone. He hates his father. Backed by only his servant and best friend, Roc, he leaves his lavish lifestyle in the Sun Realm, seeking to make something good out of his troubled life.

When a war breaks out within the Tri-Realms, Tristan is thrust into the middle of a conflict that seems to mysteriously follow Adele as she seeks to find her family and uncover her parents true past.

In their world, someone must die.

It’s time to start a revolution!  And maybe read about one, too! The Moon Dwellers, the first book in the Dwellers Saga by David Estes will be FREE on Amazon Oct 7-9!!  On those dates, you may download the ebook on Amazon for FREE!  This is a super-dee-duper deal, so you’ll want to take advantage of it!

The Dwellers Saga was mentioned in a recent Buzzfeed article as one of “15 Books Series to Read If You Enjoyed The Hunger Games,” along with many other well respected series:  The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth; Delirium by Lauren Oliver, The Gone Series by Michael Grant, along with others.  You can read about the books that make up the list HERE.

Download from Amazon HERE – Will activate from 12am US Time.

My review: An emotional, heart-wrenching dystopian

Adele is a strong, capable fighter who is stuck in a juvenile prison called The Pen. We meet her when she gets picked on by another inmate, someone who’s bigger and stronger than her. With her unexpected fighting skills however, she bested the inmate and catches the attention of three different people – two other inmates called Tawni and Cole, and Tristan, the prince of the Sun Realm.

Then begins the journey where Adele learns to trust her new inmate friends, who escape the prison together on a mission. The story is told from two perspectives, that of Adele and Tristan. From the first sight, they both feel some unexplainable chemistry and Tristan sets out to find this girl, unbeknownst to him that she’s on a mission that will take her straight into the warzone.

It took me a while to get through The Moon Dwellers. I’m not quite sure what it was, perhaps the characters were undergoing such a journey that I felt like I had to let parts of it sink in before moving on to the next scene. There’s just such a build up of each character and the brief parts of world-building that there was quite a lot to take in. However, once I was well and truly through the book (about 60% of the way through) the action-packed scenes and the climax of the book really takes off and I was captured until the end.

The dystopia setting of the Tri-Realms (The Sun Dwellers, Moon Dwellers, and Star Dwellers) felt a lot like the Hunger Games. Each realm is based on a class based system where the Sun is the richest, most powerful realm (ie. The Capitol) and the Moon Realm & Star Realm felt like different sectors from the Hunger Games, with the Star Realm being the poorest one. As with any political struggle, the Tri-Realms break into a war and our main characters are in the middle of it. This definitely felt like the 2nd and 3rd book of the Hunger Games series.

Usually the whole insta-love thing would bother me as it seems to be a main theme in a lot of YA books, but here it didn’t. The book focuses on the situation and character development so much that the whole love thing seemed to be secondary to it’s focus. When it’s worked in with so much forethought, coming to a mind-blowing explosion at the end, that’s when it’s actually done well.

David Estes is skilled at conveying emotions and insights unique to each character, that by the end I found myself emotionally vested in the characters that he has created. Adele has an inner strength about her that allows her to take care of others, such as the fragile but caring Tawni, and the haunted by his past Cole. Tristan’s struggle against his father and single focus in finding the girl he’s so enamored with was a welcome break from Adele’s painstaking emotional and physical journey.

I really enjoyed The Moon Dwellers and can’t wait for the sequel! Thank you to David Estes for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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About the Author:

David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife and soul mate, Adele, who he’s now been happily married to for more than two years.

A reader all his life, David began writing novels for the children’s and YA markets in 2010, and has completed 14 novels, 12 of which have been published. In June of 2012, David became a fulltime writer and is now travelling the world with Adele while he writes books, and she writes and takes photographs.

David gleans inspiration from all sorts of crazy places, like watching random people do entertaining things, dreams (which he jots copious notes about immediately after waking up), and even from thin air sometimes!

David’s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, an obsessive Goodreads group member, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table. He loves responding to e-mails, Facebook messages, Tweets, blog comments, and Goodreads comments from his readers, all of whom he considers to be his friends.

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