Review Tour - Dead of Night by Carlyle Labuschagne

 Title: Dead of Night

Author: Carlyle Labuschagne

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Romance
Expected Release Date: October 2014
Publisher: Hallowed Ink Press

 

Blurb: In a dark and desolated After Earth, love still does exist, but the cost of bearing such a flaw is death.

World War III has left Earth in utter turmoil. People’s beliefs are said to be the cause of the worldwide destruction. After The Clearing new laws are set about - to show certitude in anything besides the law is weak and chargeable as mutiny. To be illogical and have faith in religion is illegal, to be limitless is dangerous. And Illness is seen as a defect – all flaws that are inexcusable.

But to love is the greatest betrayal of all mankind. It is a fault the world has long forgotten and punishable by death, a fatal risk Aecker and Opel are fully prepared to take - because in love there is freedom. But how far can they push back before it claims their lives and of those they care about?

Goodreads

Author Bio:Carlyle Labuschagne is a South African award winning author working her way into the hearts of international readers with her first two books in the Broken Trilogy. Her first young adult dystopian novel "The Broken Destiny" reached top 3 in its YA debut Category. The Sequel Evanescent won YATR literary award for best Sci-Fi book 2013. 

Her become a published author programme for students launched Feb 2014. 

She is not only an author, but works as a marketing manager by day. She holds a diploma in creative writing through the writing school at College SA. 

Carlyle loves to swim, fights for the trees, and is a food lover who is driven by her passion for life. Carlyle also writes for IU e-magazine India, an inspirational non-profit magazine that aims at inspiring the world through words. The drive behind her author career is healing through words. Carlyle is also the founder of the first annual book drive – Help Build A Library in Africa Project. And hopes to launch her very own Indie book festival in Johannesburg March 2015.

“My goal as an author is to touch people’s lives, and help others love their differences and one another.”

Author Links:

Goodreads * Amazon * Twitter * Web * Blog

Goodreads * Facebook * Web * Twitter

My review:

Dead of Night started off on an interesting note. Our main character is attacked, rescued, and wakes up with little memories, not even remembering the connection she has with her rescuer.

 

Oh, but she feels it. Opel, as she chooses to call herself, feels an immediate attraction to the boy whose face she wakes up to. Aecker, he's called. Oh, and they're in love.

 

Okay, okay. It didn't happen as fast as all that. But is WAS one the worst cases of insta-love(*cough* lust*cough*) I've read. It was weird, mainly because the attraction was between two characters I didn't know yet, and they didn't even really know each other. That was  probably my biggest pet peeve with this book. I just didn't feel any genuine love between the characters, even though LOVE plays a huge part in this story.

 

I did like the characters. I thought each and every one introduced through the course of the story was interesting. I do wish the author would gone more in depth with her characters, though. I never really got a good sense of who any of them, major or minor, really were. But some of them intrigued me.

 

I will say that the writing was beautiful. That's what drew me in, in the first place. There could have been more dialogue, but the descriptions were so well written, and the writing was gorgeous at times. The only thing about it that really nagged me was that it wasn't suspenseful enough. And it really should have been.

 

I mean, we have a girl who wakes up without her memory, and finds herself alone with two guys. One who thinks he's in love with her, and one who wants to kick her out. Why does he want to kick her out? Because he thinks she's a Tracker.

 

What's that, you ask? Trackers are cultivated hunters, coded with perfect DNA, that want nothing more than to complete their mission: kill the Inborns. But wait, what's an Inborn? Basically, they're outlaws. Well, the people Opel wakes up with are the outlawed. And none too happy that she's there.

 

So what does she do? You'll have to read it to find out. Personally, I wasn't too happy with the way things turned out. I love the premise, but I just wasn't made to care enough about what happened to everybody.

 

I hate be such a downer, especially for a review tour, but this just wasn't my taste.

 

Content: Several uses of profanity, implied homosexuality, innuendo. I wouldn't classify it as clean; some things just left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

**I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.