The Summer the World Ended by Matthew S. Cox
Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: June 29th 2015
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult
Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: June 29th 2015
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult
Synopsis:
As far as Riley McCullough is concerned,
her best friend getting ‘dragged’ off to Puerto Vallarta for the first two
weeks of summer vacation was the end of the world―at least until the bombs
fell.
Life in suburban New Jersey with her mother
has been comfortable, not to mention boring, to an introverted fourteen year
old. As if her friend’s surprise trip wasn’t bad enough, her expectations for
the ‘best summer ever’ disintegrate when she gets sent across the country to
stay with a father she hasn’t seen in six years. Adjusting to a tiny, desert
town where everyone stares at them like they don’t belong proves difficult, and
leaves her feeling more isolated than ever. To make matters worse, her
secretive father won’t tell the truth about why he left―or what he’s hiding.
Her luck takes an unexpected turn for the
better when she meets a boy who shares her interest in video games and contempt
for small town boredom. In him, she finds a kindred spirit who might just make
the middle of nowhere tolerable.
Happiness is short lived; fleeing nuclear
Armageddon, she takes shelter with her dad in an underground bunker he’d spent
years preparing. After fourteen days without sun, Riley must overcome the
sorrow of losing everything to save the one person she cares about most.
My Review
I received a free copy of the book from the
author for my honest opinion.
Riley a fourteen year old girl has had a tough time growing
up. She never had any friends but one and that was her bff Amber. Her Dad left
her and her Mom like six years ago. For the last six years it has been just
Riley and her Mom. Riley’s Mom was just like most other mom’s always nagging at
her about one thing or another. Riley and Amber had their summer all planned
out before school was even out. This was going to be the best summer ever as
they were going to High School next year. They were so happy and couldn’t wait
until school was out.
But they were very disappointed when Amber’s parents took
her to Mexico on vacation. They were going to be gone for like two weeks. Riley
and Amber loved playing games and chatting on Xbox. The night before Amber and
her family were to leave the girls decided that they were going to stay up all
night playing games and talking to each other to make up for the time they were
going to lose while Amber was on vacation.
After they had been playing and talking for a while Riley
became worried about her mom. She never once came into her room to bug her
which was very unusual for her. Riley worrying about her mom goes to check on
her and when her mom doesn’t respond she calls 911. They take her to the
hospital but they are too late and can’t help her. After losing her mom her dad
shows up whom she hasn’t seen in six years and takes Riley home with him to New
Mexico. Riley finds her dad to be a very secretive man who is always working at
home but he never tells her anything about what he does. Riley keeps asking him
questions over and over but he never wants to answer any of them.
The people in the small town where they live thinks her dad
is a very strange man and doesn’t want anything to do with him. When Riley first
moves in they think she is the same way but she meets this one guy Kieran who
will not leave her alone. He keeps chasing after her. He wouldn’t have to chase
after Riley if she was a different person. If she wasn’t so hard on herself and
didn’t think that a guy could ever like her then Kieran wouldn’t have such a
hard time getting her to be friends with him. But in the end she can’t help
herself and can’t hide how she feels about him even from herself.
Riley is starting to think that living in New Mexico with
her dad might not be so bad after all. She is starting to make friends, more
friends than she had in New Jersey and she just may have herself a boyfriend.
Everything is starting to look better until the bombs start to fall over their
town. Her dad has been telling her a little bit along that something was going
to happen but she didn’t exactly believe him until they were being blown up.
The Summer The World Ended is one the most amazing books I
have read in a long time. Well come to think of it I don’t think I have ever
read anything like it before. It has so many twist and turns that you don’t
know where you are going to end up at next. Oh and the ending is one that I
never in a million years would have guessed. I can’t ever say enough how
amazing it was. I love endings like this one and wish I could read a whole lot more
of them.
If you love a good dystopian book with a little heartache
and love thrown in then you will totally love The Summer The World Ended. The
author takes you on the ride of your life one that you would never see coming
but one that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page. And
when you do read that last page you are going to be like no way man that just
didn’t happen.
AUTHOR BIO:
Born in a little town known as
South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and
fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between
fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division
Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has
several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science
fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.
Hobbies and Interests:
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Hobbies and Interests:
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Author links:
Giveaway:
Tour-wide giveaway (INTL)
- $40 Amazon Gift Card
- Signed copy of The Summer the World Ended
Blog Tour Organzied By Xpresso Book Tours:
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