Title: Altar of Reality
Author: Mara Valderran
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Published: January 21, 2015
Available on Amazon
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Sixteen year-old Madeline has struggled with epilepsy for most of her adolescent life, leaving her something of a social pariah. Things go from bad to worse when she wakes up from her first grand mal seizure in an extremely unfamiliar world but surrounded but familiar faces. Her hometown is in ruins, the aftermath of a Cold War turned hot.
Thomas, the boy that stomped on her heart a year ago, and his brother Brandon have been hiding her away since the explosion that killed her parents. The Lord Commander, now running the southern territories, believes Madeline died with them and the brothers need to keep it that way. The biggest problem? The explosion happened when she was twelve.
Madeline isn’t sure what to believe. The brothers insist her memories must be of a dream life she created while in her coma. But when she returns to the reality she knows, they insist this war-torn world must be the dream. She doesn’t know if she’s truly caught in the middle of a brewing rebellion or teetering on the brink of insanity. As she finds herself flipping between the two lives, her heart becomes torn between two versions of the same boy and the lines between her realities begin to blur.
Thomas, the boy that stomped on her heart a year ago, and his brother Brandon have been hiding her away since the explosion that killed her parents. The Lord Commander, now running the southern territories, believes Madeline died with them and the brothers need to keep it that way. The biggest problem? The explosion happened when she was twelve.
Madeline isn’t sure what to believe. The brothers insist her memories must be of a dream life she created while in her coma. But when she returns to the reality she knows, they insist this war-torn world must be the dream. She doesn’t know if she’s truly caught in the middle of a brewing rebellion or teetering on the brink of insanity. As she finds herself flipping between the two lives, her heart becomes torn between two versions of the same boy and the lines between her realities begin to blur.
Meet The Author
Mara Valderran is an author of young adult and new adult books, but she's more than just a madwoman with a writing box. She is an avid reader and fan of all things sci-fi and fantasy. She loves roller skating and movies, though typically not together. She hopes to one day meet Daniel Jackson from SG1, or at least the actor who played him. When she's not writing, you can find her reading, playing video games, or counting down the days until DragonCon.
Connect with Mara on Facebook.
Connect with Mara on Facebook.
Cheree's Review
4 Stars
A dystopian sci fi. I have personally never read anything like this before. Madeline is a 16 year old girl who has epilepsy, but it’s manageable. She has what are called absence seizures, where she just looks like she’s spacing out. When suddenly she starts to have full blown seizures when she gets very upset. And that is when her whole world changes. She wakes up in a completely different reality, a very ugly reality. The people are the same people, but they are not the same. In a world ravaged by the cold war that never ended and the Soviet attacked. Which left the US in shambles, and the people struggling to survive. Well with survival comes an evil, power hungry leader. As she tries to determine if she is dreaming, crazy or if this is real, she finds herself torn between which reality she really belongs in, and that she can’t leave the people alone to die in such a terrible world when she plays such a crucial part to the evil reigning down on them.
I really enjoyed this book, like I said, was very different from what I normally read. The writing was great and very descriptive, I could really get a sense of the scenery and how Madeline was feeling and experiencing. Warning tho, this book leaves you at one heck of a cliff hanger!
4 Stars
A dystopian sci fi. I have personally never read anything like this before. Madeline is a 16 year old girl who has epilepsy, but it’s manageable. She has what are called absence seizures, where she just looks like she’s spacing out. When suddenly she starts to have full blown seizures when she gets very upset. And that is when her whole world changes. She wakes up in a completely different reality, a very ugly reality. The people are the same people, but they are not the same. In a world ravaged by the cold war that never ended and the Soviet attacked. Which left the US in shambles, and the people struggling to survive. Well with survival comes an evil, power hungry leader. As she tries to determine if she is dreaming, crazy or if this is real, she finds herself torn between which reality she really belongs in, and that she can’t leave the people alone to die in such a terrible world when she plays such a crucial part to the evil reigning down on them.
I really enjoyed this book, like I said, was very different from what I normally read. The writing was great and very descriptive, I could really get a sense of the scenery and how Madeline was feeling and experiencing. Warning tho, this book leaves you at one heck of a cliff hanger!
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