Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh – a Review

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Description:
Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It doesn’t pay much—Alex Holliday’s stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers—but it helps him and his mom make the rent. No one knows where the brilliant-colored spheres came from. One day they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better: an inch taller, skilled at math, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the greater the improvement—and the more expensive the sphere.

When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. One day they find a Gold—a color no one has ever seen. And when Alex Holliday learns what they have, he will go to any lengths, will use all of his wealth and power, to take it from them.

There’s no question the Gold is priceless, but what does it actually do? None of them is aware of it yet, but the fate of the world rests on this little golden orb. Because all the world fights over the spheres, but no one knows where they come from, what their powers are, or why they’re here.

Review:

Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh is a YA Sci-fi novel. I have never read Will McIntosh, and when I was given the chance to read this book, I accepted after I read the description. It looked like something I might enjoy, and I am happy to say I loved Burning Midnight.

This is a very different and unique world, which is set in a somewhat modern day setting. Years before, hidden spheres were discovered, each in different colors, with different powers. If you burn a pair of the same color spheres, you will receive special abilities. The lower range spheres can offer white straight teeth; or make you a little taller; middle to high range spheres can erase bad memories, make you become more attractive, faster, or smarter, etc. The rarer the sphere, the more powerful it is, not to mention most expensive.

David Sullivan (Sully) is our young hero in Burning Midnight. Sully lives with his mother, and they just barely make ends meet. Sully a while back discovered a rare sphere, and sold it to powerful millionaire Alex Holiday, who holds many spheres. But Holiday cancelled the 2.5 million dollar check he wrote to Sully, when he said the sphere did not do what was expected. Sully continues to search for spheres, trading and selling the small or medium range spheres to help pay the bills. Then he meets our heroine Hunter, a young girl, who sells him a medium range sphere. Sully and Hunter then begin to work to gather in an arrangement that will help both of them financially.

Hunter excels at finding spheres, and with Sully’s help they find another high range sphere that will make them a lot of money. But a betrayal by friends, cause them to be attacked and losing the sphere. Hunter doesn’t trust Sully friends, and their new found friendship will suffer. In a short period, Sully convinces her to trust his friend Dom and Mandy, and when they find a new powerful sphere (gold), all four of them will embark on finding the second gold. Along the way, they are also hunted by Alex Holiday, who wants the gold sphere and will kill to get it. They are thrown into a wild dangerous situation, when the world as they know it will cause destructions and possible loss of lives. How can they stop this massacre?   Who can they trust?

Anything more would be spoilers. What follows is an awesome exciting and captivating story that will have us on the edge of our seat. I could not put this book down, as I needed to know what would happen. McIntosh has created some wonderful characters and villain, and despite this unusual world with spheres, he had us believing it. Though the ending was exciting and climatic, I would have liked a little more explanation about the spheres. However that being said, I loved Burning Midnight.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher