Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.
Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.
She's different. She survived. Why?
When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.
Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.
I received an e-arc copy of this book from Netgalley, and I'm SOSOSO happy that I requested it! Ok, so this book did take me like 10 days to read, but in all fairness I had uni work to finish and I was watching every episode of The Vampire Diaries so that is my excuse as to why it took me so long. If I'd actually sat down and just read this, it probably would have only taken me 1-2 days to finish it. But other stuff got in the road.
I was so excited to get my hands on this. I'm a massive fan of The Caster Chronicles and I was just so excited for this one.
For me, the storyline did start out pretty slow and I found myself getting confused - this may also be why it took me so long to finish it - but by about a third of the way in, I started to understand what was happening and my interest in the storyline grew and grew as the book went on.
There were 4 main characters in this book (The Icon Children) - Dol, Ro, Lucas and Tima.
Dol was the one I had the biggest connection with. She was the one telling the story so I got to learn a lot more about her than the rest of the characters. I really liked Dol's character, she was kind, compassionate and strong. Her strength grew throughout the book when she found out who she was and what her purpose was. She also has an incredible power that I still don't fully understand and I think I'll need to re-read this at some point to understand exactly what it is she can do. But Dol was just such an amazing main character.
I'm on the fence about Ro. There were times when he was so caring and loving, but when his anger kicked in he was a monster. Full of rage and anger he kill someone very easily. The only person who could calm him was Dol. I'm hoping that Ro will managed to control his anger (even though it's his power) in the second book and maybe I'll get to see more of the nice side of him.
I'm on the fence with Lucas too. For most of the book, I didn't know what to think of him. Being the ambassadors son meant that he's grown up in the society rules by The Lords and trying to get him to fight against them was hard. He was a genuinely nice character and he helped Dol, Tima and Lucas a lot, but he was also kind of two faced when it came to fighting against The Lords. I kind of lost all respect for him at one point, but then at the end he managed to earn my respect again because of what he did. I'm still not too sure about his character and I can't wait to see more of him in the next book.
Tima was just fantastic! At first, I thought I wasn't going to like her. But then as the book went on, we learnt about Tima and her past and I grew to like her. When Tima was discovering what and who they were, she came out of her hard outer shell and became such an amazing character. She was so intelligent and friendly that I found myself wishing we had seen this girl the whole way through the book, but I knew the other side to her was necessary too. I'm really excited to see more of Tima in the next book and find out exactly what she can do with her power.
In my opinion, the romance in this book was unneeded. There was Dol & Ro and Dol & Lucas and I just felt myself getting annoyed. Sure Dol and Ro have been best friends for years, but is there any need for Ro to have romantic feeling for Dol? No. So what if she's helped him over the years, they just don't have the spark and it really annoyed me. And Dol and Lucas? Don't even get me started. I actually thought Tima and Lucas were together, but no, Lucas has to like Dol instead just to add a twist in the story and make Ro want to kill Dol even more. The worst part is that Dol likes him too. They haven't even known each other that long, and now they're together? No. Just, no.
To start with, I felt like the storyline was pretty confusing and I couldn't get a grip of it. I don't know if it was the layout of the e-arc or the actual storyline, but I just couldn't get into it. But about a third of the way in, the storyline starts to pick up and I managed to get a grasp of what was actually going on and start to have an interest in the story.
From then on, everything just started moving really fast and there were so many twist that I didn't see coming - like how and why the Icon children came to be and why The Lords came to Earth. There are still some things to be explained like the projects, I'm not sure what their purpose is, but I'm sure we'll find out.
There was some action in this book, especially at the end, and it was done brilliantly.
The ending was the best part of this book. There was a lot uncovered and a lot that happened. There was even one part that almost had me in tears and I just didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe it, not after everything that had happened and everything else that was yet to come.
Overall, I highly enjoyed this book. Even though I had some issues with it, the plot was just so amazing that it deserves:
So this is the exciting part! I have a finished copy of ICONS to giveaway! Harper Collins were kind enough to send me one to giveaway to you lovely people. It's going to be a UK giveaway only because I can't afford international delivery.
GIVEAWAY STARTS AT 12AM.
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I just reviewed this book on my blog as well! Great review!
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