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A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi. (In front of you, a precipice. Behind you, wolves.)

Saturday, June 27, 2015

AN UNCOMMON BLUE Review

It's been a while. But that's because this has been a crazy summer. I did a friend's wedding, got a new puppy to train, my daughter's getting married next week, my son came home from his two year mission to Russia, we had a family reunion in Utah, and I went through my SUNRISE OVER SCIPIO book and did re-writes in anticipation for its second printing (addressing all the problems critics had with it).

So today, while it's thundering, I'm going to review this book: AN UNCOMMON BLUE by R C Hancock.
I met RC at a book convention this year. We were trying to sell books in the face of heavy hitters like Brandon Mull and Regina Sirois and having a rough time of it. But he bought mine and I bought his and it was all good.
Then later in the year he contacted me about Beta reading his newest offering. So I did it. RC is a fabulous guy. That book was so wonderful that I immediately bumped this book up to almost the top of my mountain of waiting reads.

Boy was I glad I did!

The premise of AN UNCOMMON BLUE is that the people of Telesphore have a fire in their right hand. The color of that fire defines their whole life: their caste, their income, where they'll live, their livelihood and how the people in general will treat them.

Bruno is born a blue--the best color. He should have all the perks society has to offer. But right before he's classified into a livelihood, a random boy runs up and reacts with him, changing his fire, tainting it with green. This automatically ends Bruno's chances at going to medical school, or living with his parents.

Worse than that, there is an altercation and a police officer dies. Now Bruno is on the run and wanted.

I really love it that Bruno does the best he can with what is thrown at him. He's basically a moral, principled person and goes out of his way to protect the downtrodden and misunderstood, even while being bullied and hunted himself.

Bruno is presented with the perfect way to prevail over his 'enemy.' Instead, he makes a string of selfless choices which have unimaginable repercussions.

The book was fast-paced and well written. I was fully invested in Bruno's life, hoping the people he helped would mean good things for him. He made the same mistakes any boy would. He stood by his mistakes with grace and loyalty. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

And you can't know how easy it would have been to spoil the ending...;o)

Buy AN UNCOMMON BLUE here. And tell RC I sent you...:o)

Write faster, RC.