The Almost Girl

By Amalie Howard

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. But coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.
 
Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows.  Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.
 
Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781908844811

Amalie Howard

AMALIE HOWARD is the author of the Publishers Weekly bestseller, The Beast of Beswick, which Entertainment Weekly touted as “bursting with shrewd banter, inventively sexy interludes, and emotion with a capital E.” She is the co-author of the #1 bestsellers in regency romance and Scottish historical romance, My Hellion, My Heart and What A Scot Wants, and has also penned several award-winning young adult novels, critically acclaimed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, VOYA, School Library Journal, and Booklist, including Waterfell, The Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess, a Kid’s INDIE NEXT selection. Of Indo-Caribbean descent, she has written articles on multicultural fiction for The Portland Book Review and Ravishly magazine. She currently resides in Colorado with her husband and three children. Visit her at www.amaliehoward.com.

Reviews for The Almost Girl

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Riven is sent from her universe to a parallel universe to locate and retrieve her Prince's clone. She's betrayed her father, a high-level governmental official, in order to side with the Prince, her childhood friend. When she locates the clone she discovers he's more than a copy of her Prince, he's a person in his own right. He's also a person she's starting to fall for.

In this battle for control of the universes, Riven finds her beliefs and memories tested. She decides where her ultimate loyalty and responsibility lie.

I liked this book and this universe. The science was fascinating. I'm looking forward to another book in this series.

(Provided by publisher)

[doingdewey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. [...] But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.[...]For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more. (Source)

From the description, I felt I was taking a risk with this book because the plot has the potential for a terribly annoying romance. Fortunately, the romance wasn’t as bad as I expected. There were a few times I couldn’t believe the characters were thinking about romance. There was one forceful kissing scene I may rant about later. But overall, Riven was extremely sensible. It was hilarious and gratifying to see her recognize high school drama as completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even when Riven was in high school, the dramatic analogies and dark descriptions helped me share Riven’s focus on her mission. In fact, the author did a great job setting the tone throughout, starting with the third-person prologue to add mystery. Than the transition to first-person for the rest helped draw me into the story.

The author’s writing impressed me a lot. The plot and the world building were fairly standard, but were also unique enough to be exciting. The constant action and slow reveal of information about Riven’s world kept me glued to the pages. In particular, I was impressed by that the slow information reveal didn’t get annoying or break up the story. Riven’s thoughts always felt natural. Flashbacks were short and triggered by related events. Her focus on particular facts always made sense. And even though I had questions, I never got that annoying feeling that the author was working too hard to keep me in the dark. Overall, this was one of the best written YA books I’ve read and also a ton of fun.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.

[pabkins · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Almost Girl falls into a middle ground for me. One where I can’t always put my finger on the reasons why I only just liked or ok’d it. With a gripping prologue and a suspenseful sounding premise the progression of the book was a bit uneven for me. But then on the flip side when action scenes appeared they were well written and engaging.

Character development!
Again I experienced this flip flop reaction when it came to the characters. Riven was such a strong female lead and a General in the military on her own world, that I found some of her behavior incongruous with what I was expecting. I know, I know I shouldn’t expect a character to behave a certain way, but I’m sure we all have those moments. I did love her character development and how she seems so rock solid in the beginning to being more vulnerable and human towards the end. I’m going to lump my romance thoughts in here and say…It’s there. I’m usually a hit or miss person on the romance in the ya fiction that I read. I love reading young adult books but for some reason I only enjoy about half of the romances that in the ones I read…and if you don’t know already, almost every young adult book features a romance.

Thoughts on editing.
Keeping in mind that I read the advance reader edition of this book, some things may have been changed in the published version. But in the bedroom I read I really felt the book needed more editing. I don’t mean there were typos or anything like that, I just mean a plot or character nudge here, a removed scene there, providing more varied ways of delivering world building information – those sorts of things. I think it had the potential to have been a much smoother and gripping read. I can’t really complain tho because I’m not a writer or editor and wouldn’t know how to accomplish that perfect balance.

World building!
Once we get away from our reality things get good. I struggled more so with the portion that takes place in our reality, but once the characters make it to Neospes my interest was definitely peaked. What a world! The technology and the creepy vector android zombies?, the technology, pretty much everything there had my sci-fi itch jonezing.

Fans of strong young adult heroines and alternate worlds may very well find The Almost Girl to be a winner.

[zzshupinga · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

ARC provided by NetGalleyRiven is a 17 year old Legion General, in the service of Prince Cale of Neospes, a world ravaged by war. She is the young Prince's right hand and she has everything that she desires: rank, responsibility, and respect. But the Prince is about to send her on a mission that will turn everything upside down. She's to travel to modern day Earth and find the Prince's long-lost brother Caden. Riven now has to learn how to be a teenage girl in a realm that is so unlike her own. She must sort through emotions, duty, desire, and mysteries to find the truth and define herself.I...I have to say that I'm disappointed by this book. From the description I was expecting a teenage girl that could kick ass, something akin to...Trinity in the first Matrix movie. Sure there would be romance, but she could hold her own. Or perhaps River Song would be a better model. Either way, this would be a strong, string female character. Instead, I read of a girl that as soon as she enters into this world becomes...girl swooning over a boy she barely knows and faints at the sight of...well pretty much anything that moves. Where's the courage, the anger, the defiance that led to her being a Legion General and an assassin? Instead of kickass Trinity, we get lameass Trinity from the 3rd Matrix movie who swoons at the drop of a hat. And the entire book is like this! Everything seems to happen by accident as well. Looking for prince: oh look he rescues you after you miss seeing him so many times. He has a girlfriend, but you both like each other: oh look he thinks she's a horrible person, but that's acceptable and op now I'm going to break up with her to be with you. Legions of the undead coming at you: op look they suddenly stop and you don't have to do anything at all. Should I have read this book, given that it clearly alludes to romance (which isn't my thing)? Yes, because we were promised a strong female character, one that's a freaking legion general and the right hand of a prince! Instead I get a swoony teenage girl that faints at the drop of a hat and shows almost 0 skills as a general. If you like sappy romance stories then you'll enjoy this book. If on the other hand you'd prefer a powerful female character and a tale of strength...go look elsewhere. I give this book 1 out of 5 stars.

[brandileigh2003 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I connected with Riven, she wanted to do the right thing, and she had a protectiveness within her that I really admired. Though, the terminology and references almost turned me off. I got answers, but too slow, I didn't quite understand exactly what Riven was, and there was the mystery Cale. I loved reading her action scenes, learning about just how strong she is physically and mentally, but then watching her learn to depend on others when she finds herself weak or injured, and that sometimes strangers can be kind and worm their way into your heart. But I liked her chemistry and interactions with Caden, and I def wanted to know what made her special. The world building was good, just slower than what I wanted. It seemed really well thought out and I liked the other planet and tech that they used. The family aspect of this one took me by surprise in a good way. There is sibling rivalry and then a deeper relationship formed. There is also appearances and betrayal plot twists that were well written and captivating. The action scenes were heart pounding. And Riven can certainly hold her own with a sword, and hand to hand. Living vicariously through characters like this is always great because I am pretty weak and not at all kick ass like this. All of that said, I did skim through numerous parts of the book because it was slow. Yet I still wanted to know what happened, so I stuck with it. I chose Almost Girl because I liked the cover and the synposis on netgalley. I would def recommend for friends who like science fiction with a strong female lead and a romance. Bottom Line: Good science fiction with a strong main character but has slow parts.