https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2022/06/2022082-boy-from-reactor-four-orest.html ( )

This is the first of a trilogy about Nadia Tesla. She didn't really know much about her father and one day a man says he knows her father and says to find Damian who turns out to be her uncle. She heads to Ukraine where her father is from to meet this man who is her uncle she thought was dead. He lives in the "zone," the area in Chernobyl that you don't want to go into because it is the hot zone. While she is trying to find her uncle, several Ukrainian thieves are trying to track her down and get the allegedly $10 million her uncle stole years ago. This is a fast paced book as Nadia tries to outrun the thieves who are trying to steal the money and kill her. Is there money? I'm not telling. I've already read book two before this one and I'm glad I read this one as there are parts of book two that now makes sense. This is a really entertaining trilogy and will keep you attention and will make you want to read the next book. I can't wait to read the final book to see what happens to Nadia, the boy and the locket. ( )

The Boy From Reactor 4 by Orest Stelmach

The Boy From Reactor 4 is the first book in the Nadia Tesla series. These books are available to borrow for free on Amazon Prime. This book is a mystery/thriller that is a little weak on the thrills but did have some interesting cultural history.

Nadia is the daughter of two Ukrainian immigrants. She has solved her father's murder but now finds herself on the run from the criminal organization she uncovered. When she meets a stranger who knew her father, and he is shot dead in front of her, his last words lead her on a cross-country quest to solve a family mystery.

This is a fast-paced book and very much a series introduction. I wasn't involved by the characters or surprised by anything in the plot-line. I did enjoy the glimpses of the Ukrainian culture and of Chernobyl's exclusion zone after the nuclear fall-out. An unsurprising twist at the end will carry me on to read book 2 in the series. ( )

Suspense-filled with interesting views of another culture ( )

I learned a bit about Ukraine and the Chernobyl disaster reading this book, but as a work of fiction, I did not enjoy it. The author spends little time developing the characters, including the protagonist. As a result, the plethora of one-dimensional stock characters made reading very confusing. The book feels like the author had to research Ukraine for another purpose and then decided to write a story on top of his research: characters at time speak like they are reading from a history textbook, going on tangents about obscure historical facts as if it were entirely normal to do so. The story is quickly paced (albeit choppy) and occasionally exciting, but poorly written overall. ( )