Gravity by Melissa West

Title: Gravity
Author: Melissa West
Series: The Taking #1
Publisher: Entangled Teen (December 18, 2012)
Length: 400 pages
Format: Paperback


Description from Goodreads:

 In the future, only one rule will matter:

Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.


My Thoughts:


      This book had me so excited! There aren't a lot of young adult books involving aliens out and this is the perfect book to ease you into this type of genre. Ari has always followed the rules and living in this future society her life depends on it. Everyday is spent training, fighting, and following in her father's footsteps, while the night she concentrates on letting the Ancients draw from her what they need. Of all the rules the number one is never look. The Ancients are mysterious and the only reason the human race is still alive. They must be obeyed at all costs. One night changes everything for Ari and the ripple effect not only has consequences for her, but the entire world. She breaks the cardinal rule..she looks.
      I really like this book so much that it is hard to know where to begin. Ari is a conundrum of a character. There is no doubt that she is seriously kick-ass, but along with that she is caring, loving, and a questioning rule breaker. In Gravity readers see her go from dutiful daughter who wants nothing more than to live up to her father's expectations, by the end of the book Ari has grown into her own person, making her own decisions, and seeing through her own convictions. She is an amazing character full of growth. Jackson is one intriguing character. He is charismatic, caring, playful, protective, and a little mysterious. Just when I thought I had him figured out...I'm just not sure.
      To have a really good book you need not only good characters, but world building as well. Melissa West does just this with Gravity. I could picture the barren and artificial world she has created, see the Ancients hovering above beds, the new technologies, and training facilities. Add to that plot twists and turns that I never saw coming (and still has me thinking and contemplating) and you have a wonderful debut from a new author. Gravity gets a 4 STAR rating.