Thursday, January 27, 2011

Review: Military Brats: After Burn

Military Brats: After Burn by Sherry Ficklin

Publication Date: January 2011
Publisher: Rebel Ink Press
Genre: YA, Mystery
ISBN-13: 9780983151647
ISBN:
0983151644

(Received for review from the author)

Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, OmniLit

This book is in e-book format.

Sherry Ficklin on the Web: Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter

Book Trailer:



Synopsis (Barnes & Noble):

Reece Barnet and her father have just relocated to sunny North Carolina, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point to be exact. It's another new town and another new school. To make matters worse, just as Reece is starting to fit in a rash of bomb threats rock's her fathers experimental aircraft squadron. When the authorities track the threats to Reece's school, she decides to do some investigating of her own. Unfortunately, the more Reece digs, the more it looks like her new boyfriend might be the culprit.

When Reece's father is nearly killed, it becomes a race against time as Reece fights to protect her father, clear her boyfriend, and discover the surprising truth of the person behind it all.

Thoughts:

Sherry Ficklin's new YA series, "Military Brats" starts with a bang, literally. After Burn introduces us to Reece Barnet, self-proclaimed military brat. Ficklin uses her experiences growing up in a military family and later becoming a military wife to bring this story to life. Readers will be fascinated by the military world Reece lives in and on the edge of their seats when the action hits close to home.

Reece Barnet is starting a new school, making new friends and falling in love. When Air Station Cherry Point begins to get bomb threats that seem to be originating from someone in Reece's school she begins to worry. When her father is nearly killed she decides to take matters into her own hands. But, what she finds out could cause her to question everything. Could it be her new boyfriend? Is he responsible for what happened to her father?

After Burn is a book with lots of facets. Ficklin gives readers a inside look into the life of a military teen. Moving around a lot, new schools, trying to make new friends. The difficulties that are a part of military family. It takes a certain kind of person to devote their lives to the freedom of our country and it's not easy for them or their families. Ficklin shows this in detail, while still giving the reader the sense of purpose and reason behind it.

Reece's character is a typical teenage girl. She wants to go to school, have friends, meet a great guy, fall in love. All the things that most other girls want. But she also wants to help support her father in his work. She is loyal and shes determined, and has a healthy dose of teenage curiosity. When she figures out that the threats are coming from her school she doesn't shy away from her duty to herself and her family. She starts to dig into things. Being a student she knows she find out things that the authorities can't. I liked her character a lot. She didn't seem to think of it as a game, she was very serious about finding out what was going on.

You know me, I love a good mystery and Ficklin was able to provide that for me in spades. I have only recently become more interested in reading more Young Adult fiction and this one was a good fit for me. A lot of YA these days is based on the paranormal after the great success of Twilight. But, this one was something different. It was refreshing and interesting. The military world is a great setting for this series and I look forward to reading more. I recommend this one to readers who love mysteries and those who are looking for something different in YA fiction.

Military Brats: After Burn is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!




Check out Sherry's guest post for a chance to win a great prize pack.


A former military brat and later military wife, Sherry grew up all over the country. Now transplanted in Colorado, she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and houseguests. When she's not busy writing, Sherry can often be found haunting the racks of her local bookstore with a white hot chocolate in one hand and a stack of books in the other. Sherry received the 2010 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers PEN Award for debut fiction and is a 2010 Whitney Award nominee. She is the author of the "Gods of Fate" Trilogy and the "Military Brats" series.

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