REBEL HEART
CHRISTINE YOUNG
ISBN# 978-1-587496-12-7
June 2007
Awe-Struck E-Books
http://www.awe-struck.net
E-Book
$4.99
336 pages
Futuristic Romance
Rating: 2 cups

Dr. Cameron Savage notices rebellious, willful Tori DeMontville the first time he sees her. It is the summer of 2585, and Tori is a fourteen-year-old girl who has disobeyed her father's orders to stay within the safe confines of the City, which results in her banishment.

Years later, the two are both skilled medical researchers, but neither can see beyond their preconceived notions of the other. Tori is hard at work developing a vaccine for the Signe virus that will help the city dwellers leave their shelter, a luxury they have not experienced since the Signe epidemic began years ago.

Then Cameron receives shocking news: Tori's father has bequeathed his medical lab to her, but only if she marries Cameron. When enemies, including Tori's archenemy Quentin Moray, raid Tori's lab, a mysterious man called The Phantom comes to her aid. They both try to resist one another, but their mutual attraction cannot be overcome. But who is The Phantom, and how is he related to Cameron? How will her father's promise affect Tori's ability to continue her research?

Aside from occasional references to vehicles such as "land gliders" and the Signe virus, the future in this story sounds an awful lot like right now. The devastating effects of Signe have changed society, but these changes are not well explained, leaving the reader in the dark for much of the book. The character development also had some weak spots. There were some interesting side characters, particularly Tori's computer-whiz sister Nessa, but they seemed to weave in and out of the story with little development. Readers who prefer a little more world-building and speculation in their futuristic romance may want to sit this one out. The moral of the story—that sometimes, nature holds the key to mysteries that technology cannot solve—is solid, but the execution has some major faults.

Maya
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books