I should have known from the first few pages that the writing style was not for me. Nor the story-line itself. It dragged and it honestly made no sense at one point, No more YA for awhile for me.

Firstly Id like to thank @netgalley and @xpressotours for sending me a copy of this to read and review.
Secondly, this book was AMAZING!! It was unlike anything I have ever read before. The concept of red, blue, and yellow serums altering the brain to make super soldiers and soldiers that were genetically bred for their system. The serums being made from different color crystals that they mined to make the serums and use as their money system. I loved the supporting characters more than I did the main character Kai but I liked her too. The growth and development of two of the genetically bred soldiers, Charlie and Tessa, was beautifully done. The romance between them was so cute too and one of the best romances Ive read. The government conspiracies and the bombshell of how the origin of their world was done in a such a remarkable way. This is a series I will definitely be continuing.

Disclaimer: I was provided with an ARC by Netgalley for an Honest Review

The Sin Soldiers is a very possible future we might see as humans which adds to the chills you receive while reading the story. Personally, I was a bit disturbed by the inhuman and animal-like treatment is described for the characters in the book. They are very decent but to read them over and over again objectively as their identity was not easy to accept.

However, there have been instances, Tracy Auerbach, outdid my imagination. A sci-fi usually worries about sharing information or too much information but the first book in the Fragments series just gives away the right amount and some enough to shock you at the right time. I will not dive into details since I don't wish to spoil it for anyone.

Tracy Auerbach has turned a Dysoptian sci-fi in something more impactful instead of a genre which recently seems like a bit overdone. While I enjoyed reading it, the story's pacing seemed a little slow at the start which it eventually picked up towards the end. The characters need a bit more backing which we might get in the next part of the series, but the world-building is intense enough to keep me going.

I would recommend The Sin Soldiers for people who love Sci-fi and would like to explore a new outlook.

Wow! This book had me hooked from the very beginning. I loved the world the author created and the idea of the crystals associated with the 7 deadly sins. Kai was pretty likable, she cared for her brother but also formed attachments with her roommates and would do anything for them. I especially loved the bond between Kai and Finn and the idea that people can undergo a lot of bad things, but remain themselves. The pacing on this was great, we rotated points of view which kept things interesting and events happened at a quick pace, but not too fast as to leave you confused.
The whole idea for this was intriguing and fresh and the ending leaves so many questions and has me wanting more. I definitely recommend this book, even if you don't like sci-fi.

The Sin Soldiers embarks on a interesting storyline that kept me engaged in the beginning, but unfortunately started to disinterest me as the story went on around the 50% mark. I would've liked to see more characterisation. Thank you for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

You can't just start a book acting like it's already the second book of a series. We were thrown into this complicated world that is apparently wanting to create the next captain America. Not sure about that seeing as I quit at 23%. But that's what I saw in a review from someone else.
I hate that this is the second book in a row that I have an arc of that I've DNF but I have so much to read and if im continuously confused im not going on

Theme: A new world Sci-Fi surrounding the forced addiction of soldiers to the deadly sins- mainly glutton, sloth and wrath.
Nature of Review: NetGalley provided me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Release Date: The Sin Soldiers was released on July 23/2019 and is available for purchase on kindle, as well as in paperback on Amazon and B&N.
Warnings: I found the harshest themes in this story were violence, forced institutionalization and mainly the harsh reality of death, addiction and captivity.

Kai is a thief living on the streets of a post-Earth planet, having to steal in order for her and her orphan brother, Dex, to survive. Their latest robbery of stealing from Club Seven- where the monstrous, genetically enhanced soldiers go to make money for their handlers- should’ve went off without a hitch. But even a human can’t resist the urge of hunger, and Kai gets herself trapped by a Seven Solider and forcefully enlisted into the army herself.

Not giving up hope for her escape, Kai tries to resist the urges that the army chemically force on her, giving her injections of the serums to break her and remake her exactly as they see fit. But as she goes on living with her fellow soldiers, she realizes that escape might not be so possible after all, and that no soldier ever gets their happy ending.

Dex hasn’t given up on his sister though, and he’s working his connections on the outside to find Kai and bring her home safely, even though Kai begins to form real relationships with the soldiers she found so horrifying and refuses to leave them to suffer alone.
A story of monstrous greed and deadly addiction, The Sin Soldiers enters a future world descended from our own, where human’s lack of compassion and hunger for power thrives and threatens to destroy yet another generation.

I haven’t read science fiction novel in ages, so when I saw the promise The Sin Soldiers offered, I was quick to request it, and even happier to have been approved for an ARC!

To start off, I’ll say I was not disappointed with the story as a whole. I was glad the worldbuilding was there since the beginning, and our characters were thrown onto this post-Earth new-world planet that had been corrupted long before they were born. They had to learn to survive this world, this greed, this downfall of the human race. And the story started off right with a bang because there was no going back to explain things- we were already there, waiting and watching along with Kai to find out what happened next.

I also was intrigued by the unique idea of the Seven Soldiers, who are forcefully manipulated and injected with compounds that make them possess qualities such as wrath, glutton and sloth, depending on their purpose in the army. It was so refreshing to read a story that was focused on something other than the destruction of human kind or earth, and to have a story that takes place after the damage is done and these kids have to suffer the consequences.

I find I am having a harder time with certain Young Adult novels these days, and find they are just lacking something that could push them from “good” to “amazing!”. For this story, I feel the plot and worldbuilding had the potential to be something intense and wild and an absolute thriller. While it had it’s moments, where I really felt the terror and disgust the characters felt, other times it just felt so tame compared to the premise. Like if this was real life, it wouldn’t be so easy or so kind to them. But I’m finding this lacking in a lot of YA, ones that don’t particularly push the boundaries to New Adult, so I think my taste is just changing.

Aside from the originality of this story, I enjoyed the different POVs of the characters and how each character was filled with a unique history, a special set of traits, and facing their own tortures in the army. You rooted for every character, even the not so nice ones, and saw dark sides to every hero that made them seem realistic and well-rounded. I loved how no character was perfect, even the genetically enhanced Soldiers. I loved how the relationships slowly developed, even when some of them were started on lies and deception. I loved how heartbreaking and yet so hopeful the stories of each character was. There were no happy endings, but it was set up for a definite sequel.

I do have to point out a quick note about the ending- mainly how I felt it ended at a weird place. There was a fairly good climax, and then the story just continued on for a while after that and ended at a slightly boring point. I felt either it should have ended sooner or continued slightly longer to make the perfect cliffhanger. I’m sure everyone knows a book like this, and it might be personal preference because I love dramatics, but I felt the ending could have left us with a larger bang.

Overall, The Sin Soldiers was a decently interesting and utterly unique Sci-Fi thriller, with slow-burn romance and heartbreaking hardships to make it a well-rounded story. I’d recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys new-world sci-fi and wants a little extra realism. The Sin Soldiers isn’t a story I’m about to forget any time soon, for all the best reasons.

I was invested from the summary and the storyline not disappoint, it was a great read and I loved all the characters in the book.

4.5 Stars

I chose to read this book because I find that sometimes sci-fi can get rather repetitive and this seemed very different than the usual. I thought it would be a fun read and I was wrong: it was brilliant and completely engrossing.

I try to pay attention to if books include marginalised groups and this had a Black woman as the main character with a gay brother. So the book had lots of diversity without seeming forced (and by forced I mean using stereotypes not when there is more diversity than people tend to expect) and the premise was so interesting.

The book has so many themes such as consent, autonomy, war, war profiteering, and many more. Like Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," "The Sin Soldiers" looks at the effects of when logic is completely distinct from any emotion in such a way as to show the dangers but also to feel sorry for people who are like this. There is also definitely a critique of toxic masculinity and toxic behaviours and I really enjoyed that Kai's love interest didn't necessarily change for her, nor did she rehabilitate him-- but did address his own problematic behaviours and took responsibility for them. Too often in books bad behaviour is written off as attractive and is not totally addressed. "The Sin Soldiers" definitely did not follow that mold.

Kai is a really fun main character and I really appreciate that her relationships with the other primary characters (her brother Dex and the 3 soldiers she ends up living with) are each unique. Sometimes I feel like when one character gets introduced to a group their relationship is shown as the same with each individual and Tracy Auerbach did a fantastic job creating unique relationships.

I read a lot of books and not many of them do I read the last page and feel jolted back to reality. This was one of those books. I was so into it and then when it ended I was momentarily dazed before looking up when the sequel comes out (which tragically I was unable to find).

I totally recommend this!

This is a pretty decent book. It’s slow after the scene where the protagonist gets captured but it sets up the questions surrounding free will and what it’s really worth we’ll.

Received an Advanced Reader's Copy from publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Sin Soldiers is a really really difficult book to read. And, I think that's a really good thing. The Sin Soldiers is a dystopian novel that is frankly scary simply because it's quite plausible. The story kicks off from 0% and revolves around four characters, Kai, Finn, Charlie and Tessa. These teenagers are imprisoned and under the mercy of their handlers and the injections that they are subjected to. 

This book was not dark and gritty in the typical way that dystopian novels can be, but I was more freaked out reading this than I was reading The Hunger Games or Divergent series, and I personally think (as I stated early) it's because most dystopian books are partially removed from reality, but this book didn't feel that way. It's scary how well-explained the effects of these injections and the responses to these injections are. Quite frankly these are some things I've read about as a psychology student--except I read it happen to lab rats. The devastating effects of losing control to one's baser instincts are too...real. What makes it even further horrifying is the detachment with which these events (under influence) occur in book--just as they would if it were to happen in reality. TA has also nailed on the head the apathy with which the handlers control their soldiers--typical behaviour of those conforming to a role they perceive as cruel and controlling. If anyone has read about The Stanford Prison Experiment reading The Sin Soldiers had a similar disturbing effect. *shudders*

The perspectives alter between these four characters and while I haven't always preferred that in a book, I was able to appreciate seeing the thoughts of all the characters and it was particularly heart-breaking at times how much good and struggle was inside these four characters. The book does portray romance, but it felt like a very small part of the whole story. It appears in hints at the beginning and then suddenly towards the end (reason for which is explained), but there's hardly any time to focus on it. 

There's loss of control, abandonment, betrayal, loss...It can be a difficult read, so I suggest anyone who wishes to read it, be prepared for it. The Sin Soldiers is available now!

Four and a half stars! Tracy, I'm so utterly lost for words and shaken. 

Happy reading.

A bit difficult to get into but it gets better after the first 50 pages. I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy this one so it was a lovely surprise when I wound up reading it in one sitting because it was really good.

Sin Soldiers is set in a world where the government uses "Seven Soldiers", super-soldiers given crystals that enhance their aptitude, to keep order over its citizens. When the main character, Kai Lumen is abducted after a botched robbery, she's taken to become the very soldiers she despises.

I liked the cast of characters- Kai was brilliantly written and the secondary characters quickly grew on me (though I wish we got to see more of Tessa). This was a very character-driven plot, and although there's some action, the plot dragged on at parts, however, the witty dialogue helped keep the ball rolling. The world-building was a bit underwhelming- I feel as if it wasn't fully developed and makes the world seem to lack substance.

A great start for a sci-fi series. I'd be open to read the future sequels

*Thank you to NetGalley and The Parliament House publishers for providing a free ARC

Going into this book was a slow task for me. While the summary was rocky, it offered hints here and there of things I might love out of a story, but when I got into the thick of the story, those special things and here and there weren’t as present, memorable, or as important as they were made out to be. Perhaps that’s why I’m so disappointed with this book because it offered so much more than it gave. Kai, our main thief, and main protagonist, never gets much of a chance to show us who she is; instead, she sort of reacts to x or to y and seems to lose bits of her personality as the book continues on. I had begun to really love the relationship between Tessa and Charlie, and even Finn despite the lack of depth we were given between the three aside from mentions here and there, but when shit hits the fan, my love for Tessa and Charlie hit a wall. It was as if the book put them in too hard of a place and didn't know what to do about it, and I'm hoping to see that resolved in the upcoming book because if any of the characters deserve some sort of love, I'd give it to them.

It's a very interesting Science fiction world that Auerbach introduces the reader into.

A world where the general public are kept under control by the so-called Seven Soldiers. These "soldiers" are criminals and bad people that embodies the human sins. They are used both as a scare tactic, as well as an amusement for the citizens that can pay for it. But the twist is that the soldiers are drugged into this state by a chemical extracted from crystals and different colored crystals give the user different effects. I actually found this part of the story the most interesting and would love to maybe get a companion story focusing more on the science part of the crystals and how the chemical actually works (alternative the sequel will elaborate more on it).
Another thing is that the whole political aspect felt a bit unclear, and the soldiers themselves. Who initiated them? How long have they been around?
I would have love to get to know more about the world on the outside of the prison that Kai spends most of her time in. All we really get to know about are the clubs where most of the soldier-citizen mingles occurs.

The only character I really cared about was Charlie, but I think it's just a personal thing and not really anything to do with how the other characters where written. As such I had liked to see more point of view from him, get more of a feeling how it is to be in a long-term soldier's shoes. Nothing bad to Kai but she was so new to all of the soldier things that she couldn't give me the answers that I wanted. Personally I think it would have been great to have Kai, the newbie coming in all fresh, on one side telling that story and layering it with Charlies knowledge and changed world view from being an experienced soldier. To get both side of the coin. Also I would have skipped the whole plot with Dex trying to break out his sister until the end, he could still be there just more of a shadow character so that the big break out heist would give the reader more of a "Wow" experience when it happens. As it is now it's just, "Ah, now they're here. Great".

The book has a great strength in the story itself, I just wished it would have capitalized on more aspects of the Soldier life while skipping things, like Dex getting his break out plan, or at least change them so the pace didn't suffer as much. It does suffer a bit from Book One syndrome, where it feels more as a warm-up to the actual story. But this makes me hopeful that the second book will be better and actually really grip my interest while reading it. Because the subject is interesting and the world the story is set in is too, so I wanted to love it but sadly can't give it more than a three stars.

The Sin Soldiers by Tracy Auerbach is a young adult dystopia novel. Earthlings have already destroyed Earth and have moved to the current plant. The book has an interesting concept: the seven deadly sins can be induced by crystals that are mined from the planet. There is also a genetic breeding program which creates super-humans with enhanced physical capabilities or enhanced intelligence.

When subjected to these crystals, the characters’ emotions and drive changed constantly, so there was no consistency in their motivation except for Aric who was bred to be emotionless. Kai, the protagonist, doesn’t go through much of an emotional arc (of course, the book takes place over a mere week) other than a bit of sexual awakening. Dex, her twin, claims to love her but is also involved in a weird sexual relationship with Aric. The emotions throughout seem to lack depth.

The concept of a YA novel dealing with addiction had potential, but again, the book’s time-frame is so brief that there wasn’t sufficient time to fully explore these ideas. I did think the scene where Kai, while going through a maze, chose to injure herself by crawling over broken glass so she could get the her addictive substance was excellent.

This book is one in a projected series. Perhaps the further books will fully juggle the various plot points (planet being destroyed, addiction problems, battle between Eastern and Western armies, the emotional depth) with and iron out the characters’ motivations. Additionally I prefer books in a series where the plot is fully worked out and the main problem solved, and then the character(s) move forward into a new story.

Red compound makes them angry. Yellow exhausts them. Blue drives them into a state of ravenous addiction. The thief Kai knows about the chemically controlled soldiers of the Eastern forces and their savage, deadly nature. When a robbery attempt at Club Seven goes wrong, Kai is captured by a handler and his bestial soldier-boy.

Read this book in one sitting as it was a non-stop pace. Good character dynamic and unexpected twists. Looking forward to the next installment.

The Sin Soldiers is a unique take on young adult science fiction. With the advent of genetically designed super-soldiers, fueled by different colored crystal compounds, Auerbach's novel questions the moral boundaries of scientific experimentation in the government.

Kai Lumin was an immediately intriguing protagonist-a thief, abducted and turned soldier. Surrounded by a colorful cast of characters, told amongst the chaos of military experiments and mysterious rebels, this novel really caught my attention. Rich, dark, and complex, this story was right up my alley.

I only wish that the relationships among the characters had been developed further, but given that this story took place over the course of a single week, I can appreciate the realistic amount of development that occurred. If anything, it was a breath of fresh air to have such realism amidst such an intense sci-fi backdrop.

I would definitely read this again, and I am crossing my fingers for a sequel!

This book was very underwhelming for me in a lot of aspects except one: the characters.
I requested this book mainly because of the synopsis. I liked the main characters and as I read on, the secondary ones never disappointed me either. Every interaction was able to put me through the wringer, some of the dialogues were amazing, the characters were diverse and filled with personality and I had to take a deep breath several times before continuing to read.
On the negative side though, the world-building is original and creates an interesting parallel with ours, the author created an extremely complex universe but was not able to ground it properly, so the big themes are there but it is sometimes very difficult to believe in the situations the characters face.
The characters youth is another of the biggest turn-offs for me as well: they are sixteen years old and are stuck in the middle of being amazing thiefs but their plans are absolutely ridiculous and they seem to know as little about the world in which they live as the reader, which defeats the earlier promise that they were street smart.
Although this was not my favorite book, I did like some aspects of it and would love to read more from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and Parliament House Press for this ARC.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC. This was a great introduction to a new YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi series! I thought for being the beginning of a new series it was easy to get through, characters were both likeable and not(when intended), and the writing was what I was expecting. I will read more from this author in the future!

Likes: This whole concept of different crystals doing different things to engineered soldiers is really cool. I hated Marco and Aric (in a good way!) and everything they were doing to poor Charlie, Tessa, and Kai. I even grew to love Finn after how much of a jerk he was in the beginning of the book(it turns out he’s just a sweetheart who had a lot of bad luck thrown at him because of the corrupted government.) I also liked the setting and the background of the planet which paints a fairly vivid picture. This book could get fairly intense at times too just with how they treated their soldiers for so many years.

Dislikes: Although the situation was dire for the soldiers, it didn’t feel as life threatening for Kai. She was only there a week which wasn’t even how long it would take for them to fully process her. She was put through a lot, but from the blurb, I had the idea she was going to be in there for at least a year, which would be enough time to get hooked on the blue compound and make the story more serious. The rescue came too quickly and too easily(they had almost virtually no struggle escaping once they were given the masterkey). I liked the book, but all the help made it feel cheesy.