True Calling (True Calling #1) by Siobhan Davis → Start Date: January 21st 2015

[(Liene)]

Tayla and I will be reading this starting January 21st. Would anyone else like to join us? :)

[Tayla]

woo

[(Liene)]

I started reading this a couple of days ago. I'm at 42% and it's good so far, though some things are bothering me. But I'll have to add some spoilers a bit later when I have the time :)

[Tayla]

Okay! Sorry I am behind on buddy reads

[(Liene)]

Ok, so I finished part 1.

I didn't have much to comment all throughout the story so far, and I haven't read any of part 2, but I was shocked to see what we will be reading. I'm intrigued and sad at the same time. But you'll see when you get there :D

So some thoughts on the whole of part 1

General (view spoiler)[
While the main protagonist, Ari, is strong and likable, I'm not really able to connect to her. I am one of the women who never wanted a career. Ever since I was a toddler I would play with baby dolls only and when someone would ask me what I want to be when I grow up, I would always answer that I want to be a stay at home mom. So the whole military career and thinking that kids are a burden and ruin the first years of marriage, I don't agree with that. I love kids and know many couples who have had kids within a year of marriage, at the age of 19 and 20, and consider it a blessing and are extremely happy.

I agree that it's not right to force marriage and kids on everyone and especially at the age of 17. In the past people were raised to be ready to have kids then, but not in modern society. Even so, forcing it isn't right at any age. I understand the anger at being forced into it, but I just don't feel a connection to the characters in that sense myself.

There are some story lines that I feel are just added in so people would give higher ratings to the book, thinking that everyone will agree and be happy, that are completely unnecessary. For instance, I simply don't see how the homosexuality thing adds to the story.
(hide spoiler)]

Cal (view spoiler)[ well, I didn't doubt him at first. But ever since Ari got that message from her dad, but now I am feeling quite certain that he is faking. Or, he isn't faking, but he was at first. He had some mission and now he actually fell in love with her and when the whole cover is blown, she will be angry and he will try to prove that it only started that way and so on.
(hide spoiler)]

Zane (view spoiler)[ I'm not buying the whole brother thing. If he was her brother, why would he have a picture of only him and her and no one else? He would, likely, have a picture of the whole family and also of other siblings. Why would he be so keen on helping her specifically and not the rest of his family? I'm sticking with him being her boyfriend. Or, at least, someone who was a best friend and possible boyfriend in the future, since she was only like 14 or maybe just turned 15 when they left earth. (hide spoiler)]

Ari's Dad (view spoiler)[ Somehow I don't believe that he is dead. He is probably a part of the resistance, he probably does remember things from earth and he must have gone on a mission to earth, a secret one, without the people in charge knowing. So that's why there was no trace of the (hovercraft? spaceship?) they were flying. People had to believe that they are dead so they can do some big thing in secret. At least, that's my guess. (hide spoiler)]

That box message thing (view spoiler)[ Why was it beeping? Did that soldier put it there only recently or did he activate it when he knew Ari was in the area? How did others not find it if it was in plain sight? There were soldiers going through there that they saw and who knows how often they go when Ari isn't there. So either her dad is hiding somewhere and left it or that soldier put it there. Weird. (hide spoiler)]

Cal and Ari's suspicions (view spoiler)[ I'm guessing that the whole reason they're watching her so closely is because of her dad being a part of the resistance, I'm just sure he is. And, since Cal is probably on their side (or at least was on their side), they figure he'll get Ari to tell him info and he'll pass it on to them. But then he fell in love for real with Ari and so they separated them, and he had to convince them he isn't or something so they let him be added again, to get more info. Maybe they're watching her closer than she thinks and they know she has the info in her. The whole fertility treatment with her knocked out soon after she injected the information in herself is suspicious. (hide spoiler)]

[(Liene)]

This isn't a spoiler, since it's on the back. But I'm still trying to figure out if they've made the moon into a planet that they all live on? Or did they build something planet sized as close to the earth as the moon? It's not explained and I'm curious. Especially because of (view spoiler)[Ari's dad's mission to take photos of planets. Either he's going really far or this is an alternate world. :D (hide spoiler)]

[(Liene)]

Part 2

(view spoiler)[ Right, so I didn't feel much for any of the people in this part. I'm guessing that maybe Zane will end up with Isla and that Cal really will turn out to love Ari. Ari won't want to be with Zane.
I doubt it'll be one of those things where all the memories come rushing back and she goes back with Zane. We as the readers wouldn't have seen their relationship and would have no connection to it. maybe the memories will come back, but she will already be with Cal.
Or, it's going to be a real love triangle in the second book.

I'm also not very happy about how the author almost makes it seem like people should be sleeping together at the age of 14.. The way the topic was handled made it seem like it's something that is completely ok. Well, everyone has their own opinions, but I definitely don't think people should be doing such things at 14 and 15. Enjoy life, be friends. The best relationships are ones that are build on a foundation of being best friends and having been through a lot as friends. This has proven to be true so many times in real life.
And Zane, who started liking Ari at 15 or 16, had already had some intimate partners before then? I'm really not liking the idea this can give people of what a relationship is. I wish some real foundations were laid instead of just telling about it.
I mean, I'm not perfect, of course. But I just don't like how this topic was handled, at all. (hide spoiler)]

[(Liene)]

I'm now having a bit of a tough time getting through it. The first 50% went by fast enough, but I keep picking it up, reading just 1 or 2% and I find myself doing something else. It's not boring, just, slowed down. :D

[Tayla]

So sorry I have one book ahead of this one and I can only do one at a time

[Tayla]

Starting this tomorrow erm... It's 3am so today?

[(Liene)]

Great :)
I'll post my thoughts on the end in a spoiler some time later, I've been very busy the last few days. Haven't had the will to type a bunch. :D

I do hope you like this book! It's not a bad story, but for me, personally, a lot of things were wrong with it.

[Tayla]

Okay done with part 1!

Guess: (view spoiler)[ they totally made her pregnant and they are gonna say they were intimate and then punish them (hide spoiler)]

Replies to yours:

Cal: (view spoiler)[ yeah I agree with you. I think he really loves her but I just find it hard to believe he's a faker. Idk. I'm so gullible and I never see things coming. If he was faking the whole time I'll flip. But your scenario sounds like what most books do so it makes sense (hide spoiler)]

Zane: (view spoiler)[ yeah when they said brother I was confused. I was honestly ready for a love triangle. (hide spoiler)]

Aris dad (view spoiler)[ yup I thought the same thing. There's no way he's dead. Yeah and that box thing was the first thing I thought of. Especially since it's a loud siren. Maybe the resistance is in that secret underground thing? And he's been working in there? (hide spoiler)]

Suspicions (view spoiler)[ again I think they somehow made her pregnant. I mean she's bigger, bloated and throwing up? (hide spoiler)]

[Tayla]

I can't believe you gave it one star. I'm only halfway and I can't imagine giving it less than 3

[(Liene)]

I won't reply to your comments, since I'd risk spoiling something. :D So don't read what's under the spoiler til later when you've finished the whole thing! After the spoiler is spoiler free.

(view spoiler)[When I first read the bloating thing I thought it was because she injected herself and somehow that gave a reaction. I didn't think she would be pregnant, though it would be logical. Since why would some injection make her fat? maybe the fertility treatments do it? Weird, how now that I think about it, the gaining weight thing wasn't really explained. :D

One thing that really bugged me was how the author tried to deal with too many issues, so everyone would find something they can relate to. sometimes she would mention something that is an issue in our society, and I would think, ok, so there's gonna be another issue the book focuses on. But no, it's just mentioned for a paragraph or page and moves on.

In any case, for all my issues on why it got 1 star, see my review. :D

I realized that this year out of the YA books I've read so far, only 1 of them got 4 stars. 2 of them were DNF, one got 3 stars, a couple got 2 stars.. this one is 1 star.. Either I have had bad luck or I'm starting to be really picky with YA books. I like books to have a really deep meaning and for it to move me or engage me in a way that I don't want to put it down. I'm not a big fan of romance books in general, unless they're historical and even then there has to be some bigger theme to the book than the romance. I don't mind romances in dystopian, sci fi or fantasy and such, but then it has to be a side thing for me to really like it and the main thing has to be something completely other than the romance.
To me, this book was basically a beauty pageant, bachelor crossover and everyone has the perfect sexy body and wears tight revealing sexy clothes all the time and everyone makes out with each other all the time and it just seemed kind of shallow to me. I want a book to have some real substance to it. In this book, it felt like the other issues, like how they are treating people on earth who weren't deemed perfect enough, were the side topics and it was all about this contest of being forced to fall in love and stuff. More about the people on earth and the rebellion could have bumped up my rating. But even with the stuff on earth a lot of it was about Zane and I forgot her name and their love issues.

Maybe someone else finds more substance to it for them in their life or simply wants to read something that is just for entertainment, I'm not judging, people have different tastes and different reasons for reading at different points in their lives and if people like it, good. But right now when I read it, it really, really bugged me. And the editing was terrible and I kept noticing all the mistakes, so that was distracting too.
(hide spoiler)]

Like I said, the story deserves 3 stars or so for the entertainment. I wouldn't give it 4 though. 3 would be the most for the story for me. But I had a ton of issues with the book that made me want to stop reading it every time I picked it up. It put me in such a reading slump! I would read 2 or 3 pages and find myself staring at the wall, because it intrigued me more than reading on and seeing all the issues I had with it mentioned. If you haven't read my review, I mention a lot of my issues there in great detail. But if you haven't, don't read it til you're done with the book. :D

Lol, sorry if I seem cynical or rude about the book with all my explanations on why I didn't like it, I don't mean to be. But I can't express how much it bugged me and I usually never give bad reviews unless it's just plain terrible to me. If I didn't like a book, I will give it a low rating, but won't go on a rant about it or even write a review. It's extremely rare for a book to make me want to rant about all that bugged me. Honestly, I feel quite bad for going on and on about it. Because the really would be ok without all the stuff I mention in spoilers.

[(Liene)]

Oh, my thoughts on the end. I haven't posted those yet.

(view spoiler)[ It's still hard to tell if Cal is ok. Maybe he really did just want to save Ari and stayed and let himself be captured to let her run. But he could have stayed behind on purpose too. But then why would he send his sister to earth.. Maybe she is sent as a spy. I don't even really like the sister, but how could I, we didn't get to know her at all except to know she's just as hot as all the other characters in this book and she gave Ari some information. There was really no answer about Cal except the psychic lady said he is ok. But if Cal is working with the government, he could have known that she reads minds when she touches you and just thought good things in that moment. She could only read thoughts you had at that specific time.

Honestly, I was sick of Ari and Cal making out all the time. Ok, make out, but the whole second half of the book was them craving each other and trying to decide if they'll sleep in the same bed that night or not and making out all the time. And when they couldn't make out, they were thinking about it. Really, I just prefer a relationship to actually have substance and not just 2 people who have no self control over their actions when it comes to the physical stuff.

I hope she falls in love with Zane and forgets Cal. Though I don't really like Zane either. :D If the next book is edited better and all the chaotic stuff is fixed and it deals with one or 2 issues in full, not jumping around with a bunch and the whole book isn't made up of 2 people craving each other and has more substance to it, I'll consider reading it. But really, it just wasn't for me. :D

Oh and, who knows, since the bloating and gaining weight thing wasn't explained, like so many other things, maybe you're right and she is pregnant and she'll find out on earth. :D

(hide spoiler)]

[Tayla]

Lieniitte wrote: "Part 2

Right, so I didn't feel much for any of the people in this part. I'm guessing that maybe Zane will end up with Isla and that Cal really will turn out to love Ari. Ari won't want to be wit..."

Yeah I agree with you!

[Tayla]

Lieniitte wrote: "I won't reply to your comments, since I'd risk spoiling something. :D So don't read what's under the spoiler til later when you've finished the whole thing! After the spoiler is spoiler free.

Wh..."

looool. I find that insane. I literally couldnt put this book down. It makes me remember that not everyone is the same

[Tayla]

Lieniitte wrote: "Oh, my thoughts on the end. I haven't posted those yet.

It's still hard to tell if Cal is ok. Maybe he really did just want to save Ari and stayed and let himself be captured to let her run. But..."

(view spoiler)[1. I actually didn't think about that until you said that. Hmmm that is interesting. I don't think they know about the powers though? I didn't see any hint of them.

And now that I think about it, what about her therapist? Did she just stop seeing him?

2. I totally agree about the makeout stuff. Like here is the sign of the resistance and you think you have to have sex? Is she really that shallow? Or is it still the hormones?

3. Yeah idk. It seemed like the really important details were explained in a second but then the making out took up like a whole page.

4. Now I am thinking that they put something in her to tell when they had sex? but like idk when they finally did nothing happened. Idk so the next book will be her pregnant with carls baby while she is with zane lmao.

I am so pissed her mom and sister are left behind. I liked them a lot. (hide spoiler)]

Ill check your review now

[(Liene)]

That whole thing with me staring at the wall was because literally every time I picked it up, within the next page or 2 they (view spoiler)[ would be making out or figuring out of they should be in bed or needing a cold shower because they can't control themselves. Or thinking about shallow things and making a big deal out if them. If it had been a paperback, I probably would have pounded the book in frustration every time. But I read on my Kindle, so, couldn't let out my frustration.. I guess it built up. Lol :D
Maybe it really was the hormone injections that made them so crazy. I didn't even think about that. But then why inject them and give a rule of zero intimacy, like, aren't even allowed to hold hands or whatever the rules were?

And even if that is the reason, that makes it worse for me, since then the book is even more about it. Poor teenagers, being forced to do the thing they probably most want to do. Oh nooo..

Oh, and didn't you find it frustrating every time they went to their "secret" hideout? Every single time they went I wanted to slap them to make em realize that they're being watched... What did they think the government thought when they watched em go up to a wall and disappear behind it? Of course they'll let them go and not catch them and not let them know that they have cameras inside there as well, because they give information. After they saw the soldiers there they should have known that the government does go there and probably has cameras. And I think the government knew more than we think they knew, even about the psychic stuff. I mean, they did hear Ari tell Cal about Zane speaking to her. Since I'm sure they were watching them in the hideout. Plus, when they all met with Zane in the hideout, they were openly speaking about the psychic stuff and Cal was frustrated that they were speaking to each other in their heads. So I'm guessing they knew.

And I mentioned in my review, how near the end when their house was supposedly safe, the government feed was supposedly manipulated and they felt free to talk about whatever they wanted and do whatever, even if the government fell for it, when that officer came to the door, they would have noticed that something is wrong if they couldn't see him there. I assumed that the rebellion team made it safe for the duration of their visits to the house, but it would be stupid to make them see something else the entire time. It would be way too suspicious. (hide spoiler)]

[Tayla]

Lieniitte wrote: "That whole thing with me staring at the wall was because literally every time I picked it up, within the next page or 2 they would be making out or figuring out of they should be in bed or needing..."

(view spoiler)[yeah the hideout thing was dumb. Even when they didn't feel like they were being watched. They just went there for their own personal needs. Selfish. Everything her dad worked for was blown because they were dumb. If I was being recorded all the time would I go to a secret place? No. (hide spoiler)]

You are making me dislike the book even more now lol

[(Liene)]

Lol, Sorry! :D I guess that's how it works. When I'm doubtful about whether to read a book or not, I look at what the people who gave it 1 or 2 stars have to say about it. Oftentimes, the things that bothered them don't bother me too much, so I go ahead and buy the book. If they bother me too much, I know I've set myself up to not like it as much as I could and I don't buy it.

I really don't mean to be so negative about True Calling.. I should stop ranting about it. :D

[Tayla]

The author just offered me an arc of the sequel <3

[(Liene)]

That's awesome! I hope you like it. I'd love it if you could let me know if some of the problems are fixed in the sequel, like the many different issues instead of focusing on one or 2 things and the whole non stop making out thing. If it's better, I might give it a ago :)