Shannon Hale is definitely one of our favorite authors! She’s written quite a few best-selling young adult books including Princess Academy, Book of a Thousand Days and the popular Books of Bayern. We also really enjoyed reading one of her adult novels, Austenland (recently released as a movie). And thanks to NetGalley, we read an advanced copy! Check out our review below…
Dangerous by Shannon Hale
Buy it on Amazon: Hardcover or Kindle Edition
“How far would you go to save the world?
When Maisie Danger Brown nabbed a spot at a NASA-like summer boot camp, she never expected to uncover a conspiracy that would change her life forever.
And she definitely didn’t plan to fall in love.
But now there’s no going back—Maisie’s the only thing standing between the Earth and annihilation. She must become the hero the world needs. The only problem is: how does a regular girl from Salt Lake City do that, exactly? It’s not as though there’s a handbook for this sort of thing. It’s up to Maisie to come up with a plan—and find the courage to carry it out—before she loses her heart . . . and her life.
Equal parts romance and action-adventure, this explosive story is sure to leave both longtime Shannon Hale fans and avid science fiction readers completely breathless.”
What I Think:
Like I said above, we’re really big fans of Shannon Hale. And I think it’s really brave for an author to write across several genres too. But I will say that this is just not my favorite of her books. I was expecting the same level of development and interest in the Bayern or Princess Academy books in a fast paced YA action, but I didn’t feel the pull as much as I would like. There are several things I did like about the book though. Maisie Danger Brown is a fantastic main character. I like that she’s not perfect in a physical sense instead of an emotional sense and I like that she has a supportive and strong family. I also liked her habit of nicknaming that kept appearing throughout everything, it was one of my favorite personality quirks that I’ve read. Unfortunately, there were other characters like Howell, who drove me nuts! Even at the end of the book, I still didn’t know what to think of her.
I felt like there were just too many twists and turns and additions to the plot that I wasn’t ready for. I felt like I was reading possibly three different books all crammed into one. I also struggled with knowing/not knowing who had good intentions and who had bad intentions. Please still read this book! I want to know what you think too! Was I totally off base? I know I’m a harsher critic when I go in with high expectations, it just happens.
