March 04, 2013

Review: The Rules by Stacey Kade

The Rules
By Stacey Kade
Hardcover, 416 pages
Expected publication: April 23rd 2013
by Disney-Hyperion

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1. Never trust anyone.

2. Remember they are always searching.

3. Don’t get involved.

4. Keep your head down.

5. Don’t fall in love.

Five simple rules. Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane’s survival—and that of her adoptive father—depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans in a small Wisconsin town, to hide in plain sight at her high school from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) “project.”

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts her in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief’s son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening—and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules…


One thing I love the most about Stacey Kade’s writing is that she can create characters that seem very believable, and that readers can relate to in one way or another. I am a huge fan of her GHOST AND THE GOTH series because of this and she pulls it off again in The Rules.

Ariane isn’t exactly human and she knows it. She’s been trying to live a normal life as a human for years. She has it all down pat and follows every rule that her father gives her. She’s been off the radar for a long time, but all that changes when Ms. Popular at school decides to bully one of her friends. Her life begins to crumble immediately, and to top things off, Zane enters the picture.

Now I really liked Zane as a character, but there were sometimes I wanted to just reach in the book and yell at him to grow a pair. He just annoyed me at first, but I think that was Stacey Kade's goal because it was the same for Ariane. She can't stand him and pretty much thought the same things I did about Zane. But somewhere near the middle of the book I began to fall for him. The relationship he builds with Ariane was both beautiful and heartbreaking. He pushed her buttons and made Ariane question everything. Her struggle to follow rules or let go and fall in love was just so sad. I was so emotionally lost in the book while reading.

I won’t share a spoiler, but there is one scene where Ariane is talking to her father about Zane, and it broke my heart. I really felt for her. Zane's story is just as sad as Arianes, too. The more I learned about him, the more it helped me fall in love with him.

Anyway, The Rules covers a bit of everything from bullying, parental issues, romance, and more. Stacey Kade took real life issues and mixed it with a sci/fi feeling, and she pulled it off perfectly. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next in the series. It has a great opening and action packed ending.









5 comments:

  1. I also really love her Ghost and Goth series so I can't wait to get my hands on this one. I really hope that the emotional roller coaster works for me since lately I feel like emotions in books are not strong enough.

    Thanks for the great review, so glad you liked this one!

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  2. Great review! I enjoy her other series, so it was cool to find out that Stacey Kade came out with another book.

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  3. Love her Ghost and Goth series. This sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing! :)

    Jennifer @ Dream Reads

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  4. Thanks for the review! I've had my eye on this one and I'm definitely going to add this to my want list :)

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  5. Great review! I love Stacey Kade's other books as well, so I can't wait to read this one. The characters sound really exciting too. :)
    -Cali W.

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