Forever Obsession: RELEASE REVIEW: The Girl with the Half and Half Face

The Girl with the Half and Half Face by Leslie Miller

ISBN: 9781312607
Pages: 226

Source: Author

Appearance:

Summary:

She’s been trained to follow wherever her Core leads.
Until it leads her away from everything she’s ever known . . . into mortal danger.
Eighteen-year-old Kayli-el discovers she’s part of a new, evolving species on her planet, with a powerful internal guidance called the Core. After her teacher is murdered for its secrets, Kayli-el runs for her life – right into the arms of Tamber, a boy who’s crossed the ocean on a mysterious quest . . . to find her!
When the same killers who murdered her teacher capture her best friend Serene, Kayli-el faces a choice with potentially deadly consequences: follow her Core’s wisdom and flee across the ocean to safety with Tamber, or defy her own guidance to try to save Serene’s life.

Hello everyone! Today I've got my release day review of The Girl with the Half and Half Face! This is a fun YA fantasy that I had the chance of reviewing. I did receive a copy for review but my thoughts are completely my own!

Kayli-el can't wait for her Day of Independence, the day she turns 18. When that day comes, she doesn't sleep a wink throughout the night, and then the Abbey is invaded by Cronin soldiers and her teacher Patriq is shot and killed. She runs off into the night and barely escapes with her life, only surviving after finding Tamber and his twin brother, Helvans who have come across the ocean on their Quest. Then Kay finds out that the people who murdered Patriq and are searching for her have captured her friend Serene instead. Going against her Core, Kay decides to save her best friends, dragging Tamber and Ti into the battle for their survival.

The Girl with the Half and Half Face was a very unique and different from anything else that I've read before. The idea of the Core or one's inner subconscious that helps to guide someone in making decisions sounds really awesome. What I liked how the author made the Core something you could count on, but at the same time everything is so up in the air it's up for interpretations. You could also go against you Core or manipulate it to show what you want to hear. There's also the different griesses, hopefully I'm spelling that right, where different people have different scents that tell them apart. Cronins from Helvans to Belorans. The differences between the cultures is very interesting and distinct, from their scents to their statuses and technological advancement.

I'm trying to sum up Kay in a sentence but I can't seem to do that. She's definitely an interesting character with her connection to the Core. When she defies her Core, it shows her loyalty towards her friends, but at the same time her recklessness. Despite that, I liked how she depended on her Core to guide her through the struggles that she had to face throughout the book. I had a couple of problems, not relating to her character, but to her purpose in the book. I understand the importance of being able to connect with one's Core, and I probably just missed it in the book, but I couldn't place how the Core was identified in a person. Kay mentions how the evil Cronin Lord had the Core, but his thirst for power shadowed it and that's as much as I remember. The second thing I was confused on was the half and half face. I mean, it's the title of the book, but I don't know what it means. Kay does think at one point if she's a bi-racial child which results in her half and half face but she quickly dismisses the thought as well.

The plot itself was very intriguing and I felt myself being pulled in all different ways as the book took me on a roller coaster ride. There are parts where you just freeze and your heart clenches in fear for what the next page holds. All in all, Leslie Miller did a really great job in keeping my interest throughout the book.

Overall, this is a pretty good start to a new series. Be sure to check it out on Goodreads for more information or click on the cover to access the Amazon buy link! Thanks so much for reading, I'll see you guys in December!!