Review: Shades of Earth

Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3)
by Beth Revis
Published January 15th 2013

by Razorbill

Summary from Goodreads:

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.

RULED BY CHAOS.

ALMOST HOME.

Thoughts:

There are so many reasons for me not to read this book. One. it has a really horrible cover. I mean after the beauty of the first and second book, so many people are surprised and turned off by the publisher's decision to change the cover to this one. Second, I really didn't like the first book which is evident in my almost scathing review of it which almost seemed like so long ago. Check out my really short review of the first book HERE.

But why..why..why did I picked it up in the end? Let's just say I'm so..so curious as to what will become of the Godspeed passengers. The fate of these people haunted me so much. Will they die a horrible death in the middle of nowhere? Will they overcome adversity and returned back to Earth? Or will there be a miracle and found themselves at long last at the new planet they've been headed for hundreds of years?

I was so ready to abandoned the series after the first book but finally I caved in to my curiosity. And I'm so glad I did! Shades of Earth is nothing like the first book. It's all action from the get go. And although Amy is as whiny as ever, Elder is trying to hard to prove that he has what it takes to be the leader of his people. If only Elder is like this since the beginning and not obsessing so much on Amy then a lot of things get resolved from the very first book. There's twists and turns abound in this book and so many new characters popping up here and there that it's hard to determined which one to trust.

Ultimately sometimes I think that I'm reading a book based on the Lost tv series because there are so many threats and obstacles that the Gospeed people had to faced once they landed on Centauri Earth. People are dying one by one, there's scary birdlike monsters, mysterious aliens hell bent on killing them and a big, big secret that no one had expected. Seriously gripping stuff.

I would have never thought that I would learn to appreciate and love a series that I used to hate. The last book really redeemed the series for me. I mean that big twist really is out of this world for me.

In my Fantasy & Books in a Series Reading Challenge
Verdict: 5 stars.
Available on: Amazon