Thursday, April 13, 2017

Review: The Castaways by Jessika Fleck

The Castaways
Release Date: April 3, 2017
Publisher: Entangled Teen
ISBN13: 9781633759183
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Review Copy Source: NetGalley
The Castaway Carnival: fun, mysterious, dangerous.

Renowned for its infamous corn maze…and the kids who go missing in it.

When Olive runs into the maze, she wakes up on an isolated and undetectable island where a decades-long war between two factions of rival teens is in full swing.

Trapped, Olive must slowly attempt to win each of her new comrades’ hearts as Will—their mysterious, stoically quiet, and handsome leader—steals hers.

Olive is only sure about one thing: her troop consists of the good guys, and she’ll do whatever it takes to help them win the war and get back home.

I requested a review copy of THE CASTAWAYS on a bit of a whim. It sounded interesting, but I wasn't quite sure that it would keep my interest. Thankfully it did.

Olive's life is anything but perfect. She is bullied daily at school and although she has a great home life, it ways heavily on her. She runs from her bullies after being cornered at the carnival and tries to get lost in the corn maze, but ends up on an island with a bunch of other kids from different places in time. Olive slowly puts together that everyone there, no matter where they came from, was running away from something. This discovery leads to others and brings forth some life lesson messages. I liked how in the end, they all wanted the same things and worked together to achieve them instead of just taking the easy way out.

I enjoyed the characters in THE CASTAWAYS. They were all interesting and well developed. The storyline was interesting and easy to follow. So why did I give it 3 stars? THE CASTAWAYS was a little too juvenile for me at times and the romance was just so-so.

If you're looking for a fast-paced, easy flowing story with interesting characters and some twists and turns thrown in, THE CASTAWAYS might be for you!

I gave it 3/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.