ARC Review: Bloom by A.P. Kensey

Title: Bloom
Author: A.P. Kensey
Series: Bloom Trilogy
Publisher: Silver Cadence Press
Date of Publication: Nov. 29, 2012
Source: received a copy from author for honest review of it.
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Goodreads Blurb:THE POWER TO CREATE…THE POWER TO DESTROY.

Both are at your fingertips.

Chosen individuals have been gifted with extraordinary abilities in order to restore balance to the world—a balance that suffers amidst endless chaos.
HAVEN KINCAID is almost eighteen. After moving away from her friends before the start of her senior year, she struggles to fit in at her new school. When the boy of her dreams shows interest, she finally has a chance to be normal—but Haven is more different than she realizes. After a tragic loss and a deep betrayal, she is kidnapped by a sinister group that will do anything to extract a deadly ability she can barely control—even if they kill her in the process.

COLTON ROSS is fresh out of high school. Driven by a desire to escape his abusive father and haunted by the memory of an absent mother, he moves to New York City to start over. When a favor for his friend backfires and he ends up in jail, Colton is bailed out by a mysterious businessman who offers him the chance to strengthen his new-found power and discover the truth about his past—a truth that will set him on a quest for insatiable vengeance.

BLOOM is an action-packed fantasy adventure that tells the story of two young adults surviving in a dangerous world. As their journeys unfold and collide, they must risk their lives to defeat an evil that threatens to destroy everything they hold dear.

My Thoughts:
Well if you are like me then you are obsessed with covers.  Yes, I know that is judging a book by its cover and that is wrong, wrong, wrong and WRONG!!!  But.....I can't help it.
First, the cover for Bloom is pretty gorgeous!  I like how it seems kinda like a graphic novel where the two people (our main characters) are drawn instead of live action.   Check out those beautiful graceful wings behind the female at the top of the book.  I am a huge fan of wings of any kind anyways, but these are just so beautifully illustrated!  Hats off to the illustrator for that one of a kind cover!

The characters are pretty complex individuals and I loved their personalities on their own.  I would have liked for Haven and Colton to realize their need for each other earlier but at least there is not "insta-love" here at all.  In fact, Haven's only thoughts are for her little brother, Noah, trying to find and save him.

There is a huge event that takes place very close to the beginning for Haven that will seal your soul to her plight right away; at least for me it did.  She was forced to grow up very soon and for the most part conveys the adult nature she needs to have in order to survive.
In fact, I believe she handled her best friend's betrayal a lot better than I would have.  Me?  I probably would have had to sock her a good one just to feel a little better.  I know, I know...immature.  But hey!  She had it coming.  But what Haven did was more out of her control than anything else.

Colton is a little older than Haven and is a generous soul.  He also got inside of me with his sincere love for those at the homeless shelter.  His best friend, Reece? Ugh,..he needed a good socking too.
Wow I have a lot of violence inside of me!! Sorry guys..

I felt like they were both a little too trusting but it did help move things along for the most part.
The supporting characters, like Marius and Corva, were spectacular!  I loved Marius so much!  Especially how he talks in third person.  I do believe he is the comic relief, even though he does bring more than humor to the table.  He is one kick ass hero too!

The plot was pretty good.  It has this mixture of YA, Science Fiction, fantasy, and of course your basic good vs. evil conundrum.  There were parts that I felt like saying, "Oh that was convenient" when things tended to fall into place a little too well, but other than that, the story line was well thought out and executed.

The explanations for the abilities of these special individuals was a little confusing.  There was a time I felt like  I was being overloaded with all of it but I felt like the two different explanations we got: one from the good guy and one from the bad guy was in essence a good way to put it out there.  Through these two different perspectives, we get to see how the good powers look at finding their other half, as opposed to how the bad  guys look at it.

Overall, I enjoyed Bloom very much!  It is packed with action- the car chases, the powerful humans fighting one another is pretty amazing too.   It has some technicalities in it that can appeal to our scientific side but also the right mixture of compassion to satisfy our emotional side.
I would highly recommend this book for those who enjoy action, sci-fi, and people comparable to X-Men or other comic book heroes.

I gave it four hearts!

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