Its bad enough when a book is only mildly interesting, its worse when the author thinks they can pull a 180 and make everything you read a complete and utter waste of time within 10 pages.
I love a good twist, but this was not the right way to do it, I am highly annoyed by this book.

Two kids, Seth and Kiva, wake up from virtual reality to find they actually live in space, and they are selected to go on a mission to find a missing part their ship needs to continue their voyage through space. [Because yes it makes perfect sense to send two 15-16 year olds on such an important mission.] You spend majority of this book dealing with two teenagers who don't know how to deal with their "feelings" for each other, which was so frustrating and annoying to read through.
They meet up with another ship and the old dude on it is a psycho and Kiva magically is able to get them to safety from him [oh yah did I mention shes only been awake from this virtual world for like a day, while Seth has been awake from it for like 3 years], and then you go back to the two kids dealing with their freaking feelings AGAIN.

Then in the last 10 pages the writer tries to pull a twist, with meeting another ship, but we have EXACTLY no clue who they are, but apparently there are a few important people on this ship but we never find out why. Then Seth just backtracks EVERYTHING he felt about Kiva in 0.1 seconds, for a freaking ship part and is like "oh well sorry bye" Making all that suffering through of reading about their feelings completely POINTLESS. She introduces new characters, gives insight that there is important people, no one knows where this other ship came from and why it has the same signal as the main ship floating around, and then THE BOOK JUST ENDS.

Nothing is answered, everything you read through becomes completely pointless, you are left with more questions then anything else [like why you even bothered to read this]
Lets also not forget that the author did end it on some frivolous quote about, 'not really knowing someone', and that just ticked me off more. This was going to get a 2.5 star from me originally but after that "twist" end its lucky it even gets 1 star. ( )

Kiva lives a pampered life as one of the elite in ancient Alexandria. Her former best friend Seth is killed and she is chosen as a companion sacrifice. However, when she wakes on a space station, she is told that she has spent her life in virtual reality and has been chosen to go on a vital mission.

I know that this is a young adult book, but it was just overly simplistic. Kiva only had a slight reaction to being told that her entire life was a lie. For a hormonal teenager, this just did not feel realistic. It made no sense, even with an explanation, that a life or death survival mission would be left up to two 15 year olds. Maybe this book should be marketed to an even younger age group. Overall, a bust. ( )

Literary Merit: Okay
Characterization: Good
Recommended: If you have Bodeen's other books
Level: Grade 7-12

This is a quick read for those who aren’t into heavy SciFi. Lots of action and adventure and a little romance. No objectionable language or situations which makes it just as appropriate for middle grades as for YA. Appears to be the starter to a new series. Not as good as some of Bodeen’s past novels like The Compound and Fallout. ( )