Thanks to Amy Saunders for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rosamund Brandt has had a semi normal life for sixteen years. Well, semi normal for a family descended from aliens. Sure, she could create portals and her family had a secret basement. But she went to school, had a best friend, and got her driving permit like every other teen.

However, her definition of “normal” unravels when a killer with multiple powers and an agenda steps into town. When Rosamund herself becomes a target, she has a choice between playing the killer’s game and saving a few, or getting to the core of the murders and stopping them for good.

Rosamund’s choice will save everyone she cares about–or unleash a new era for herself and her family, shattering whatever hope for going back to normal she had.

A Good YA sci-fi and I enjoyed reading it.

An interesting read if not high priority on the list

It wasn't easy to pin down what was wrong with Inborn by Amy Saunders. The premise promises a solid amount of conflict and tension, but weak writing makes the plot too porous to really enjoy.

This paragraph near the beginning is a good example of such writing:

"I peeked back at Joss and she mouthed, 'Tell me everything.' I nodded in the affirmative and Joss gripped her pencil. After all that, I wouldn't need to worry about it because things took a turn for the weird after lunch. In the middle of English lit, a school faculty member interrupted the class."

Aside from the somewhat mechanical feeling of these words (i.e., "I did this and then I did that") and the cliche situation they represent, there is also an incongruency of tenses that puts the reader off in subtle ways. Most of that quote, and the narrative throughout the book, is in past tense, as in "I peeked" and "Joss gripped." "Wouldn't" is a future statement embedded in a past tense narrative; it sends the reader into the future for a heartbeat, then back into the past. The paragraph, and the flow of the plot overall, would have been better with something like: "I didn't need to worry about it after all because things took a turn for the weird after lunch," or by taking the sentence out altogether, enabling the reader to follow Rosamund through events as they unfold.

Subtle tense dissonances are scattered throughout, and are occasionally compounded by mismatched tenses and pronouns. Take, for example, this sentence:

"But the sight of it did make me bolder, so I got to my feet. Besides, it was easier to defend yourself standing up."

The author again changes tense mid-phrase, going from past (with "make," "got," and "was") to present tense with "defend," and changes point of view, going from first-person ("me," "I," and "my") to second- (with "yourself"). This threw me off. It would have been stronger with something like: "...so I got to my feet. I wanted to defend myself standing up."

Various other instances of passive voice, redundancy, telling instead of showing, and unusual character reactions make what could have been a really fun, exciting read one that is decidedly less so. I would give this book a solid four out of ten stars.

I was given the opportunity to read an electronic copy of Inborn via NetGalley. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Rosamund Brandt and her family are anything but normal. Midnight drills are common because of their dirty secret: they are the descendants of aliens. The hidden basement houses the non-human side of their lives, complete with a secret tunnel. One night of family safety drills yields a terrifying surprise. When it is discovered that a group of people with a unique set of abilities are being targeted, can Roz's parents and the Earth Patrol help to uncover the perpetrator before it is too late? Will Rosamund's meddling end up doing more harm than good?

Involving herself in matters that she just does not understand, Roz Brandt thinks that she is the only person who can help. The big problem with this aspect of the story is that Roz's parents have been drilling Roz and her brother about safety since they were small. I find it hard to believe that Roz would rely on the help of strangers instead of asking her own parents. Roz allowed so many events to unfold because of her stubbornness and her lack of good judgement. She did seem more like a typical teenager during those scenes, but it just did not seem likely to happen. In a genre filled with many books of this nature, Inborn does not stand out.