Review: Activate by Adele Jones

Excellent End to Series

This is the third and final novel in Adele Jones’s trilogy about mitochondrial disease patient Blaine Colton, and I don’t recommend you read this without reading the other two books first: Replicate and Integrate.

Activate has the same fault as the final book in many other Young Adult series: you’re desperate to read it to find out what happens to characters you’ve come to know and love (or not!) through the previous books, but at the same time you don’t want it to end because that means saying goodbye to those same characters.

And while you’d like to believe it’s going to have a happy ending, the previous novel killed off a major character, which means you’re not entirely sure if Blaine is going to get his happy ending … after all, he has an incurable degenerative disease. Odds are, this isn’t going to end well.

I’m not going to say too much about the plot. Suffice to say it met expectations (which were high, given how much I enjoyed the earlier novels). Yes, there is a lot of science stuff. No, I didn’t understand it all, but that didn’t matter. Yes, there is plenty of suspense—not just in the main plot, but in the underlying race against time to find a cure for Blaine.

Overall, Activate and the other books in this series are fast-paced Young Adult thrillers with a male protagonist—so great options for any teenage boys you know who love reading but don’t want novels with any of that silly romance stuff (although Blaine does have a romantic relationship, it’s not the focus of the plot). The series is also unique in that it’s set in modern-day Brisbane, Australia, not some dystopian future version of the USA, and it reflects a Christian world view.

Thanks to Rhiza Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. Click here to find out more about Adele Jones at her website, and you can read the introduction to Activate below:

Review: Replicate by Adele Jones

Thrilling YA Suspense Series

If you’re the kind of reader who doesn’t like endings that make you want to read the next book NOW, then you’ll want to wait until the final book in this trilogy releases later in 2016. And do read the series in order: Integrate, Replicate, Activate, because while each novel follows on from the previous one.

Replicate continues the story of eighteen-year-old Blaine Colton, beneficiary of Ramer’s Cure, which has cured his hereditary degenerative mitochondrial disease, but may itself be a death sentence. His childhood friend and potential girlfriend, Sophie, is now working in scientific research at the Institute that produced Blaine’s cure. But when Blaine finds embryos with his name on them at the Institute, it’s apparent that the unethical and sometimes illegal activities introduced in Integrate didn’t end there.

The plot is excellent—clever, tightly plotted, plenty of tension and suspense, all enhanced by the consistent fast pace that feels as though you’re living the chase in real time with Blaine. There are plenty of twists and turns, some more unexpected than others, and it kept me turning pages until the end. I will admit that I didn’t understand all the science, but that could have been because I was reading quickly, wanting to find out what happened and whether . . . no. That would be a spoiler.

The characters are also excellent, although there were a few times I got annoyed with Blaine or Sophie for doing or not doing something, or for making stupid decisions. Then I remembered they’re teenagers, and logic isn’t high on their list of attributes. Yes, for fictional teenagers in an unreal situation, their behavior was all too real.

All in all, an excellent YA suspense novel. Recommended. You can find out more about Adele Jones and the Integrate series at her website ( www.adelejonesauthor.com), or you can read a sample here:

Thanks to Rhiza Press for providing a free book for review.