Hi everyone! Welcome to my stop in the blog tour of Rimrider by L.A. Kelley! This is the first book in the Rimrider Adventures series and I had a blast discovering this YA Sci-Fi book, reason why I’m super excited to share with you all my thoughts about this book, a quick intro written by the author AND a great INTL giveaway you don’t want to miss! Thanks so much for stopping by and I sure hope you enjoy today’s post. ♥
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Rimrider
by L.A. Kelley
(Rimrider Adventures #1)
Publication date: July 30th 2016
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Teenager Jane Benedict is awakened by her father and ordered to memorize a mysterious code. Hours later, Mathias Benedict is dead and Jane and her brother, Will, are wards of United Earth Corporation. To evade the company’s murderous clutches and uncover the meaning of her father’s last message, Jane leads Will on a desperate escape across the galaxy aboard the Freetrader smuggler ship, Solar Vortex. Tangled in the crew’s fight against UEC, Jane saves the life of young smuggler Maclan Sawyer and learns her father’s code identifies a secret cargo shipment that may spell doom for the entire Freetrader cause and the extinction of an alien race.
Piracy, intrigue, romance, and a daring rebellion from Earth wait on the planet Rimrock. Will Jane answer the call to adventure and find new purpose on the galactic rim or will death for high treason be her fate?
*The Reader’s Review*
My rating: 4/5 stars
Rimrider by L.A. Kelley turned out to be such a fun read! I am honestly not much of a sci-fi reader but this one got me hooked. I mean, how can you NOT like a book featuring Space Pirates?!
What I liked:
Right from the start, I loved Rimrider’s pace. The story moves incredibly fast but not too much to get readers confused. We quickly get introduced to amazing characters and experience the great outer space aboard the Solar Vortex, a Freetrader ship (a.k.a. space pirates!).
This is the first time I read a book about Space Pirates but I really think I hit the jackpot by reading this one first. Not only because the characters are amazing (they are and I will talk about them shortly) but also because I could relate to all the talk about smuggling, trading and cargo shipping. I mean, this is my area of expertise since I studied Foreign Trade and Customs, and I enjoyed coming across terms such as broken labels, taxes and duties. Also how even the freetraders have to abide by INCOTERMS–which are the terms used in a contract where you specify where the responsibility lies when shipping goods from a customer to a buyer. But worry not! Rimrider doesn’t get too heavy on this type of stuff, this is just something that I particulary enjoyed and I could totally see myself working this way in Space, but not on behalf of the UEC because I am a Rimrider through and through! 😉
Anyway, the characters in this book are so much fun! I believe that’s what happens when you stumble upon a spaceship of good space pirates. There isn’t a single character that I did not like. Starting off with the MC, I loved how Jane was a girl of action, intent on helping whenever there was need, even risking her own life in the process. She also has a great relationship with her 12-year-old brother Will, who is also a bright, funny kid. I felt for their heartbreak since they become orphans pretty quickly in the beginning of the book, but I admired their determination to make a life for themselves.
And I would seriously need pages and pages to talk about the rest of the characters, however, I will say that Mac (swoony love interest!), Doc, Captain Kwan, Adelyn, and the rest of the Solar Vortex crew (including the kids) are such a joy to be around and I cannot wait to read more about their antics. Oh, and I cannot forget Gem, the super smart and always hungry Leewit. ♥
One thing that I found particularly interesting was how this time around, Earth is not the chosen place to live. It is still habitable, but the people running Earth under the UEC are the wrong kind, so no one is attached to our planet anymore, instead they try to colonize other planets. This is such a sad thought because even though I would love to visit new planets–and if I had the chance to visit I would–I’ve always thought that I’d come back to Earth. I hate the thought of people having the power to drive you away from things you love. Sigh.
With that said, Rimrider has lots of room to explore! A new planet, different space stations, a new species, awesome space food, and so much more. I cannot even begin to imagine what’s in store for the next installment!
What didn’t do it for me:
There are definitely a lot more pros than cons for Rimrider, but I do have to say that I wish to have read more about Jane’s and Will’s parents. Why they died is of great importance to the story and yet I feel they did not get enough recognition for it. I also believe that neither Jane nor Will were given enough time to grieve over their deaths and I wished to have seen that part. I was heartbroken by it, and I know they were too, but they hardly showed it. I needed showing.
Additionally, there were a few times when some of the characters come off a bit immature, especially in the beginning, so I did worry for a second that perhaps I would not be the right audience for this book and that it would be a pain to read. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that as the story progressed and I ended up loving the characters, but I can see how some readers might have trouble pushing through the first few pages.
Final Verdict:
All in all, Rimrider is a wonderful space pirate adventure that will appeal to many readers, even those who stray away from the sci-fi genre. It is action-packed with unique elements that will certainly entertain and have you wanting to catch the next trip into space aboard the Solar Vortex!
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*A Word From the Author*
One of the fun aspects of writing science fiction and fantasy is world building, especially if the setting is another planet. Space colonists will have to adapt to not only new climate conditions, but new sensory experiences as well; sights, sounds, smells, touch, and yes, taste. Embracing local (alien) cuisine is the first sign of adaptation in a space explorer. The strange starts to become familiar.
Knowing what’s for breakfast won’t advance the plot, but can give readers a real feel for a civilization’s priorities. There’s a big difference between people who care enough to grow fresh food in a hydroponics lab on a spaceship and those whose crew survives on prepackaged MREs. Inspiration for characters can come from people around you while inspiration for alien cuisine can be as simple as tweaking a few items from the kitchen panty. Make it sound tempting. Invite your readers to a seat at an imaginary table filled with foods not available on Earth. It’s all a part of building a believable world.
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About L. A. Kelley
Best-selling Kindle author, L. A. Kelley lives in Florida where the heat and humidity have driven everyone slightly mad. Every aspect of Mother Nature in Florida is evil and wants to kill you. The state has hurricanes, tornadoes, rip currents, floods, brush fires, and giant sinkholes that will drag you to hell without even time to pack a change of underwear. She considers it a favorable place to write fantasy/scifi adventures with humor, romance, and a touch of sass. Her favorite pastime is to call in Bigfoot sightings to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife. They are heartily sick of hearing from her.
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INTL GIVEAWAY!
Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a $25 Amazon GC, courtesy of L.A. Kelley! Good luck ♥
Thanks for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed Rimrider
Thanks for writing it!!!