Gravity by Melissa West – a Review

Gravity by Melissa West, is her debut novel, and a wonderful start in her sure to be a successful career.  Gravity is the first book in her The Taking series. This is Y.A. with a SciFi and Romance theme.  Yes, there are so many YA books out there now, but this one is a bit different, and has a real catchy promotional phrase…..Don’t. Ever. Peek.  Once you start Gravity, you will not put this book down.  Below is a description from the cover, and my review.  Since this is an early review, I will try to avoid spoilers, and yet give you my thoughts of this book.

Description:
In the future, only one rule will matter:

Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

Review:

We learn early, that after a major war, with much destruction, an uneasy truce was made between the humans and Ancients, who are aliens that look human.  They live in peace, with the humans helping the Ancients; and the Ancients, who live off planet, will not hurt the humans.  But the agreement was that after many years, the time would come when the Ancients would become acclimated to Earth, and they want to coexist on Earth together.  But things are about to change. 

Ari Alexander is our heroine, and we meet her immediately, as she is in bed awaiting an Ancient to come to her and take the necessary nutrients/vitamins/immunity, they need to survive.  Each human is assigned an Ancient, who comes to them to take what they need to survive, at no harm to the humans.  As the story starts, Ari awaits her unseen Ancient for his taking, and right before the Ancient is expected, she moves to put on her eye piece that disables her ability to see what the Ancient looks like. Humans are not allowed to look at their Ancient….”Don’t Ever Peek”.  But Ari cannot find the eye patch, and when the Ancient comes, she does peek.  Did we doubt she would, after all just the tempatation of Don’t Ever Peek, is enough to peek. lol  We meet our hero, Jackson Locke, who surprisingly to Ari, is an Ancient. A surprise, since Jackson is the most popular guy at school, and he is a gorgeous hunk, nothing like a hideous monster she expected to see.  Jackson has never paid much attention to Ari, or at least he avoided her.  But now with his secret out, he confides to Ari that he wanted her to see him, and he needed her help.  The world as they know it, was about to change, and if she didn’t help him, humans were all in danger of losing their lives in another war. 

Melissa West has done an excellent job of this world building.  In the beginning, it took a short time to learn all the particulars, but as the story unfolds you totally get into the flow.  The Ancients are tired of the humans delaying the agreement of them to coexist and live together on Earth, especially now that they have become fully acclimated. Hence the danger that Jackson has explained to Ari.  But unbeknownst to them, the human hierarchy has been planning secretly for years to stop the Ancients.

West has also created some wonderful characters.  Ari is a great heroine.  She is not only pretty, but smart, tough, a brilliant fighter, as well being well liked & respected by her peers.  Her father is the Commander, under the President.  Ari is considered a legacy, destined to be trained to be his replacement in the future. She is also promised to Lawrence, the President’s son, who is also being trained to replace the President in the future.  Both Ari and Lawrence accept their destined future together, and are good friends.  Then there is her friend Gretchen, who becomes part of the behind the scenes fight to save the world.

This is an emotional story also, as Ari and her friends become aware of what is being done to secretly fight the Ancients, and the lies that have been told to all of them.  There a number of surprises, and twists along the way that will totally blindside you, especially the ending.

Gravity also has a very nice romance between Ari and Jackson, that has you rooting hard for them to make it together. There were a lot of dark moments during the action paced last half of the story, that were somewhat horrifying, but understandable in war.  This was a thrilling, fast paced and exciting book that I had to keep reading to find out what happens. 

Will Ari betray her family to save them all?  Does Jackson truly care about Ari, or is he using her?  Is there a future for Ari and Jackson? Will the humans unleash their surprise attack against the Ancients? Will the two species end up in a full scale war again? As I said before, Melissa West leaves us somewhat hanging a bit at the end, and I dare you to not come back for the next book.  Great debut for Melissa West.

LINKS TO ORDER
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / The Book Depository

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher