Miki Jones has been going through life pretending to have
emotions ever since her mother died. That all changes when
Miki is pulled from her life into an alternate world where
Drau, terrifying aliens, are threatening to abolish human
life as we know it in the real world. Paired up with a
group of other teens that have also been pulled from their
lives, Miki at first doesn't believe what's going on, no
matter what Jackson, the groups unofficial leader, tells
her.
Miki has more questions than imaginable but no one is
willing to give her any answers. Though the majority of the
players don't know each other in real life, Miki goes to
school with Jackson and Luka, another member of the team
who won't answer any of Miki's numerous questions. When the
game takes a deadly turn, Miki realizes what's truly at
stake, and if she doesn't start to take things seriously,
there's more to lose than just her life.
I very much enjoyed reading Eve Silver's RUSH, the first
book in her new Game series, but I admit, after
finishing
it, I did have to question why. The premise is unexplained
for most of the book and I still have no clue why the
alternate reality is set to play like a video game where
you're only alive as long as you have health. If Silver was
going to go with a video game theme story, did she forget
that regardless of how many times you die in a video game,
the player returns again and again until you ultimately
complete the game? Then there's the love triangle, which
just seemed so forced. Heck, by the end of the book, I
think a third of that triangle forgot he was even supposed
to be into Miki. Miki's best friend comes across as a
classic frenemy and all you want to do is ask yourself why
these two are friends.
Now, even after all that, if you asked me did I enjoy
reading RUSH, I would have to say absolutely. Regardless of
how unbelievable the premise or how weak the world
building, Silver does what she does best; she wrote an
action-packed story that'll keep you entertained and
engaged with what's going on. Hopefully book two will
answer more questions and have better character development
because I will, without a doubt, be picking it up when it
comes out.
Rush pulls you headlong into the thrilling,
high-stakes world of Eve Silver's teen series The Game,
about teens pulled into and out of an alternate reality in
which battling aliens is more than a game—it's life and
death. This teen debut novel offers science fiction and
gaming fans romantic thrills at a breakneck
pace.
Seventeen-year-old Miki Jones's carefully
controlled life spirals into chaos after she's run down in
the street, left broken and bloody. She wakes up fully
healed in a place called the lobby—pulled from her life,
pulled through time and space into some kind of game in
which she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to
eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien
creatures.
There are no practice runs, no training,
and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but
maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says
that the game is more than that, and that what Miki and her
new teammates do now determines their survival and the
survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs.
He doesn't. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying
turn.
I felt the same way about this book! I was glad that the love triangle wasn't the main part of the story, because I thought it seemed forced as well. Miki's best friend made me shake my head through every time she was in the story. I think with her being such by-the-book character, the author could change that and give her a healthy dose of character development in the next book to bring her to life. But all in all, I did end up loving this book. (Samantha R 8:04pm July 20, 2013)