Book Review: From the Sky by J.E. Nicassio

From the Sky
by J.E. Nicassio
YA/SF
Amazon | Goodreads


Blurb:

From the Sky from best-selling author J.E. Nicassio writes the kind of close encounter that will leave readers spellbound. When high school junior, Samantha Hunter, and her father move to New Mexico, it’s a chance to leave tragedy behind and start over. However, the arrival of a dark-haired stranger changes everything.

Lucien introduces Sam to the prospect of enjoying life again, and to the hidden world of aliens. But crazier than that, Lucien doesn’t feel entirely like a stranger. Redemption and romance follow Sam in her new life as she works to understand the alien-human romance she’s developing—a romance that feels beyond her control.

There’s something bigger happening around her, and to her, too, and this is just the beginning...

Review 4 Stars

Grieving after the death of her twin brother in an accident that she survives, Sam is devastated when her mother commits suicide a few months later. Her and her father are alone and after he accepts a new job in New Mexico, she has to leave all of her old life behind: her friends, her memories, everything feels swept away on a wave of despair and Sam needs to take anti-depressants to cope with all the recent upheaval.

Sam feels guilty about their deaths and wonders if she will ever climb out of the dark hole she finds herself in.

But things start to look up. She makes new friends in her new school and she falls in love with the strangest boy in the school, Lucien. But there is a reason for Lucien's strangeness and the fact that Sam keeps thinking she's met him somewhere before...

This book has a bit of everything, romance, adventure, mystery, conspiracy. Sam is not a perfect character, she has flaws, but she is a sympathetic one and she is a heroine you can root for. And the flaws just make her seem more realistic rather than a perfect goody-two-shoes.

The romance between Lucien and Sam is compelling and romantic without being soppy or overly sweet.

I'm not a great fan of first-person narrative in novels, but that's just my preference, not a comment on the writing itself. Here it worked well, because the reader found out things at the same time as Sam did, so you feel you are on the journey with her, rather just reading about it.

There are lots of different threads and subplots, and the book is very fast-paced and the pages seem to turn themselves.

Well written intrigue, alien mystery and captivating characters, all in all an excellent tale well-told. An excellent start to a new series.

If you're a fan of The X-files or Roswell, then I think you would certainly enjoy this book. I know I did.