SHARD: Book One of the Shard Trilogy

Kaia Davis has a real future in sight as she travels to France for a foreign exchange visit. She’s been passed around foster parents for almost all her life but none of those placements has stuck. But this experience might be the one to turn things around for her. Then she’s flagged as a terrorist on arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport only to be whisked away by another teenager, Connor, to a secret organisation where teens with special powers help rid the world of crime. Or something along those lines. It’s not long before she comes to know several peers who already seem like a real family to her.

This is a variant of dystopian and teen hero fiction where the teen is saved from a prior life and through special ability is able to make a real difference in the world. I found the story started really well and I was hooked early on. But then it flagged quite a bit in the middle and I spent a lot of times thinking of how ludicrous it was for teens to be doing these missions. It’s not like I haven’t enjoyed stories like this before but I felt the story didn’t quite build it up in a way that was believable, even in this alternate universe. That’s how it went for a while until the last third of the book when it suddenly caught my interest again. I can’t say this was sustained to the end but it did give a lift to my impression of the book.

Overall the story-telling was uneven and there were quite a few plot holes that couldn’t be overlooked. The whole notion of how these teens came to be and to be where they were just didn’t work for me. The backstory being told via flashbacks wasn’t terribly effective for me either. It seems to be a common way of providing background in many books today, but it really must be done well to be effective. Here I found the transition between current action and backstory was really poor and appeared to just be inserted into the main story.

Despite the faults, I did find the characters engaging in many ways and I did feel some investment by the end of the book. There was a lot of untold story where things are left in volume one so there is potential to really improve the story. Hopefully the next leg of the journey will be an improvement over this part.

Overall, I found this story to be okay but could be better. I give it 2.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Books Go Social for sharing an advanced reader copy for free. I am voluntarily providing this review.