Week 23 Review: Terraformer

From Goodreads:
Warning all Astronauts:
COLONY BOUNDARY WARNING!
PERMISSION TO ENTER ALIEN FOREST IS REQUIRED
NOTE: NO RESCUE ATTEMPTS WILL BE MADE

In the future, a terraforming ship lands on a perfectly green planet.
Two perfect young men, one a budding colony leader, the other an engineer, compete for the affection of one perfect young woman training as a botanist.
The only problem?
She's not perfect.
Astra has a secret.
A big one.
And someone or some thing just maybe trying to kill her for it
.
.
.

Deadly toxins can be hidden inside the most beautiful flowers.

That's what Astra Meador's famous biophysicist mother taught her.

As her mother's apprentice, Astra has developed skills in botany, chemistry, medicine, and, most importantly, in keeping secrets.

In fact keeping Astra's secret was the reason her family decided to leave the Earth and join a terraforming mission to colonize a distant planet called Crillain IV. But when Astra wakes early from hypersleep, she discovers that her mother never made it onboard, her father died in transit and his body has been ejected from the ship, and she suspects that she's not the only one awake.

When the ship finally lands and she's reunited with her brother, Nash, Astra hopes to settle into a new life, especially when she meets the charming young engineer, Jax, and is recruited by the mission commander to train alongside his handsome son to be a future leader of the small colony.

Then Astra learns that she's not the only one with a dark secret.

As both young men contend for her affection, Astra searches for answers, trying to determine who to trust. But with theft and murder occurring in the colony along with the sudden disappearance of her beloved brother, Astra can't listen to the whisperings of her heart, especially when someone or something else on the planet is whispering to her mind even louder.

My Review:
I really enjoyed reading this book! I've enjoyed Colleen Houck's books before, but it's been a while, and this was a mix of futuristic sci fi and fantasy, where her previous books have been contemporary fantasy. So I was interested to see where this book would go.

Right off the bat, we know something is wrong. Between the beginning with the other narration, and then Astra waking up, well, things have not gone according to plan. Getting to know this world, these characters, blossomed so easily from there!

Part of the promotion that Colleen Houck did for this book was to post character profiles, and those, I was really interested in, because they gave details that were pretty interesting, and I couldn't wait to see how they'd play out in the story, like Jax living off the grid for most of his life.

I really enjoyed how it all came together. I'm a little confused about one or two details, but other than that, it was a fantastic ending! I really loved that ending, though, when we had that different narration again, it gave hints of the future, and I adored that!

This was a really fantastic read, and I really enjoyed it!

Author: Colleen Houck
Read: May 30th, 2020
Source: NetGalley
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded really good, and it's a 2020 Dystopia Book and a SAC 2020 Book!
Publisher: Colleen Houck
Published: May 12th 2020

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars