This book was alright. I read it back in 2019. It wasn't anything to go crazy for. It was very much Hunger Game vibes in my opinion but not as good sadly.

At the time I requested this book the synopsis interested me. Now, not so much....I think I may have just grown as a reader or my tastes are changing. Thank you for the early access though!

A friend had told me to read this one and sadly it just wasn't for me. I wasn't at all interested in what was happening and realized it was time to call it. My friend did love it and I may go back to it some day but until that day it is time to let it go.

This was an interesting read. It's told in alternative perspectives, and I liked both narrators. Miguel and Sofi (NAME TWINS) were generally good story tellers, but I preferred Sofi to Miguel.

Something that I liked most was the development of the Delonese and their relationship with Earth. It was an interesting dynamic of one where a planet (somewhat) peacefully while advancing Earth technologically and environmentally (wrt climate change and global warming -- it's an ice planet).

A main focus of the book is the sibling relationship between Sofi and Shilo. I absolutely loved it, and as someone with 4 siblings, it reminded me a lot of my own. It was great to see that this was at the forefront of Sofi's mind and her main motivation -- not a love interest. This made the book refreshing and even more relatable.

Miguel is bilingual and I love the way it's portrayed through his perspective. It gives you a look into what it's like to think in two languages. I don't have much personal experience with it (I am somewhat conversational in Spanish), but I felt that I could understand someone who does. It isn't something that is often seen in novels in general, and I think the way Weber did it was very well done.

Let's just say the ending was out of left field! I can't wait for the second book!!!

This was so confusing and I cannot believe I spent all that time being frustrated and didn't finish it. The way things were just sort of dropped and picked up for something else was frustrating and I was confused for a good portion of it.

To be honest, I have liked The Storm Siren Trilogy better, as I find the world/environment being much better build, with a believable backstory. The alien/Earth world here is imaginative , but it lacks the internal logic, the "why" behind. But I will read the second installment in this duology ("Reclaiming Shilo Snow") in hopes for deeper explanations.

Also, this series is too similar to The Hunger Games series for my liking - in using the games where the young players compete. The Hunger Games series is simply better in this department, far better built.

Luckily we have the aliens here, too, which is an interesting angle, as is the young people exploitation/trafficking undertone (this subject is very, very important to bring on the table). I like that Ms Weber's works support the talk about these dark and serious issues!

Another important topic the authoress sheds the light into is the confidence of young girls and the rejection issues (both from parental side and the boy/male side). Yes, there is no need to sleep around to get back at anyone.

As for the romance department - Miguel is hot, yes. But in my opinion the romance sizzles a bit too much for this to be Christian fiction. Nothing really happens, but I think a bit less in sizzle and bit more in deeper talks actually makes the more.

But all in all, interesting try into the unknown waters! We need voices like Mary Weber's in the Christian YA, seriously.

I unfortunately was not able to read and review this book before the digital ecopy expired. The synopsis sounds great though, so I will be buying a copy of my own to read soon!

This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, there were some things I disliked, and overall, I just didn't feel strongly enough about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

I was so interested in this concept, but sadly the execution wasn't quite there. It felt like the author was trying too many things at once, and it wasn't cohesive.

I have mixed feelings about this book. At one end, it certainly has the potential with its concept, political and social themes, and cast of characters. On the other end, it tried to be so many things that it ultimately failed to deliver a single coherent story.

I've gotta be honest, the main reason I read this duology (aside from the endorsement from Nadine Brandes) was of the GORGEOUS cover: just look at it! (also omg having finished the duology aaaa the sigNIFICANCE)

This book was like a cross between Warcross by Marie Lu and The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (and anything that emulates the magic of the Lunar Chronicles is a win in my book!) Since this is the first book in a duology, a lot of it felt like backstory and set up, yet it still did not feel like there was enough background and the beginning was confusing at parts.

I wasn't a huge fan of either of the main characters: they weren't relatable, and the male MC wasn't really great in the first place. (There were some things insinuated that a lot of people in the Christian fiction community wouldn't be great with).

There were a lot of heavy topics discussed that are not often discussed in books, including slavery, politics, and corporate monopolization. The other book of Mary's that I've read, To Best the Boys, similarly touched on important topics, and I really appreciate that about her books.

Overall, this wasn't the best book? I enjoyed a similar story to Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles, and most of the book was backstory/setting up the scene, but it was still an enjoyable read, even if it was a bit slow/heavy at times. The cliff-hanger at the ending was . . . WACK.

I was unable to finish this book. The formatting of the book was all over the place and it was very distracting to read as a whole. I tried looking past that, since it was an early ecopy, but the overall story of the book wasn’t for me. I got bored about 30% in. It makes me sad, because I usually really like futuristic types of stories.

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow has intriguing story that centers virtual reality. However, it is messy and I struggle to finish this one because am not that invested in the story nor the characters. And this is a book that needs re-reading to more appreciate it. Overall, it is an okay read for me.

This was a fun read and it kind of reminded me of Marie Lu's Warcross book. I enjoyed the characters, the love Sofi felt for her brother, the plot, and how fun this book was to read. It wasn't high fantasy, which I loved, and it was a fun read. I think the romance was a bit predictable and the characters fell into neat niches, but other than that, I will recommend this book to friends.

I had a hard time getting into this book, I have to admit. The premise absolutely fascinated me, but the main character was a little too...jaded...for my tastes. Life is hard, absolutely. But she seemed bitter, and it was hard to relate to her. Overall, the world is fascinating and the story plot was interesting. Just couldn't fall in love with the characters.

​I really enjoyed this book! I did have a few problems with it, which I will address in a second, but when we get to the core of it, I really did enjoy reading this book. For one, the premise intrigued me, though it didn't make a whole lot of sense. The idea that a whole new planet comes and kind of takes over the world and reforms our government is one that, surprisingly, the YA world hasn't seen yet, as far as I know.

I also love the characters! I thought every character had some kind of unique trademark and an interesting backstory. It gets me so pumped when the main character is this awesome chic who kicks butt, and Sofi definitely delivers. She's extremely smart and can hack her way into anything. But she has her flaws, too, of course, but I think that all the characters had that amazing redeeming moment at the end. And the sibling relationship! Yes, yes, yes!

Oh, I definitely have to mention the plot twists! I'm proud to say that I saw it coming the whole time. Just saying. Not because they weren't good, because they were really good, but I'm still proud of myself (haha).

Anyway, on to why the book is a four-star and not a five

There were so many times where I was so confused I read the same page over and over and over and eventually just had to skip it because I gave up. Especially in the beginning, I didn't understand the world and all the technology lingo enough to imagine what was happening in my head. Plus, it started off kind of like a rocket - the pacing wasn't too fast, necessarily, but she started off too strong when I still didn't understand the world enough. I just wish the technology was more understandable, especially in important scenes when they're knee-deep in it and I don't know what they're saying.

Honestly, that was the main thing, but it's kind of a big thing. Plus, this is one of those books where it didn't blow me away, but I genuinely enjoyed reading it and want to know what's going to happen next.

Thanks NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the ebook!

Au revoir, beautiful bookworms!



Oh, and if you enjoyed this review, be sure to follow my blog at https://tomyfellowbookworms.weebly.com and follow my bookstagram @ashton_reads ! Thanks for everything!

I hate giving a hard review, but I had a really hard time with this book. It was an ARC and that was awesome, however, the unfinished setup of the book with 3/4 of the page having this weird black blobby square and the header of the book under that. It was hard to know where the paragraph started. I was utterly confused. As far as the story goes it seemed like the author was trying too hard. It almost had a Hunger Games kind of feel to me, with a little bit of a Ready Player One vibe. It all was distracting and I could not get behind this. The description of the book sounded wonderful, but the story did not live up to that. I really wanted to like this.

This is my first Mary Weber book, and I must say that I’m feeling rather torn on where I stand in my review of The Evaporation of Sofi Snow. In a nutshell, this book is a dystopian story about a part virtual, part real fighting competition, in which the main character Sofi’s brother Shilo is believed to have died, but she fully believes he is alive elsewhere (on the ice planet), and she sets out to get her brother back, no matter the cost.

Here’s what I loved about the book. I’ve never read a book centered around gaming and virtual reality before, so that was completely fresh and intriguing to me. I loved the world building and all of the intricacies that Mary Weber crafted into the story. It was so well done and I was so drawn into it all! The same praise also goes to the character development, because while I couldn’t exactly find myself connecting with any of them, I still enjoyed reading the depth of their characters and was invested in them individually. One other thing that completely worked for me was the sibling relationship that was central to the story, and how realistic and believable that bond was. It was refreshing to not just have a romantic relationship take front and center stage in a YA read for once.

Now, for my struggles with this book. First of all, I honesty found the games to be, well, creepy. Fiction or not, I almost found myself offended by the barbaric-ness of what the 17 year-olds and under age group, just children after all, were involved in. It just didn’t work for me. Also, for a more nit-picky element that didn’t sit well with me, was some of the language and sexual elements that were presented. For a Christian publishing to allow this kind of material didn’t sit well with me and makes it appear that the bar and standard has been lowered, and not in a good way.

Overall, while I did find this book to be a mostly enjoyable read and one that I didn’t want to put down, with commendable writing, I also clearly have a lot of big squabbles with it, giving me a very neutral stance on the book all together. The ending did leave me with enough of a curiosity and interest in the second book to leave me wanting more, so I do believe I’ll go ahead and read that one and see if I can find more redeeming qualities in the series.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

the divide between it being a romance and it being a book about family was a little TOO divided. if that makes sense? basically, it felt a lot of the time that the author was trying to give equal weight to both but it didn't work very well so both felt kind of unimportant in a way? it was hard to care anyway about either the 1 dimensional sibling relationship and the fractious romance relationship. a lot of the other elements in the book - political, moral, ethics, science-fiction, slavery, etc. those all felt more gripping a lot of the time. I'll read the sequel because I already have it but if I didn't I would probably have skipped it.

Reading this novel felt a little like reading a mixture of „Warcross“, „Panem“ and Illuminae and it caught me by surprise!
Sofi and Shilo snow are participating in the friendly games between the 30 corps of the world after World War V (where an Alien Gang called Delonese „helped“ to build up the world piece again) and their little world is destroyed by a bomb attack where Sofis brother goes missing. With the help of her Hacker friends she tries to rescue her brother and reveal her past. Digging deeper and deeper Sofi evaporates into a world of lies, secrets and pain.
The world building was unexpected but extremely good and I loved the game and science fiction vibes a lot! The book triggers one of the biggest fears humankind has in an elaborate way. Aliens looking like us and controlling the peace contract with their advanced technology? Creepy!!
The main character Sofi was strong headed, intelligent and one of the best in her field, what I really appreciate in books. Female characters in the leading roles are something we need more of!
Additional to the clearly feminist vibes of the author I absolutely adored the diverse cast. Brown skin and power curls? Hispanic heritage with rainbow colored hair? I am in!!
Though my favorite character was Miguel, cause he was one of the biggest surprises for me in the book and I liked the authentic clash of language the author used when writing in his perspective!
All in all the book had a big cliff hanger and now I can’t even wait for the second book, cause the ending left me speechless and in disbelief.
If you are a sucker for gaming, hackers and aliens this is just the right science fiction book for you!

Though there are two things I disliked a bit. Sometimes the story for a bit flat and you could foresee what would happen next. Also some secrets where the characters made a big fuss about weren’t soooo shocking. But in general it was a great story with beautiful character development and an exciting story line!

(I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)