ARC Review: "The Lives We Lost" by Megan Crewe

Release Date: February 12, 2013
Publisher: Disney
Pages: 288

From Goodreads: "First, the virus took Kaelyn’s friends. Then, her family. Now it’s taken away her home.

But she can't look back—the life she once had is gone forever.

A deadly virus has destroyed Kaelyn’s small island community and spread beyond the quarantine. No one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine in her father's abandoned lab, she knows there must be someone, somewhere, who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, they encounter a world beyond recognition. It’s not only the “friendly flu” that’s a killer—there are people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vaccine. How much will Kaelyn risk for an unproven cure, when the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?

Megan Crewe's second volume in the Fallen World trilogy is an action-packed journey that explores the resilience of friendship, the ache of lost love, and Kaelyn’s enduring hope in the face of the sacrifices she must make to stay alive."

Admittedly I can't help but feel that this book suffers from that not unlike Kristen Simmons "Breaking Point" does- second book syndrome. While while I read it it felt as if a lot was happening, after I finished it and sat back and considered it I realized that not all that much did- essentially the characters traveled from their home in the Maritimes to Toronto with very little difficulties, all things considering. I can't help but wonder how Megan is going to fully wrap up this series in one more book, this series being a trilogy- it feels to me that we could have at least another handful of books until we finally saw the end of the virus.

Furthermore, while I was a large fan of the characters, Kaelyn, Drew, Tessa and Gav, in "The Way We Fall", in this book I felt that all but Kaelyn didn't make all that large of an impact upon me. Drew and Tessa played very little roles in this book, while Gav bordered on being a possessive boyfriend, at times. However, I was quite impressed with Kaelyn- she continuously grows as a character and never loses sight of the end goal- finding a cure and making it widely distributed. I also did like the character addition of Tobias, however, I am uncertain about how I feel about Leo being fully ingrained into this story line. It's obvious that Megan is hinting at a story line between Kaelyn and Leo and I can't help but feel that it is far too forced- in my opinion the best romances are those that sneak up at you and are understated.

That being said, I really liked that this book wasn't told in the same format that it was in the previous- that instead of being written as a journal/ diary it was written as an ordinary narrative. I thought that this was much less flat and one-dimensional than the previous, and therefore even more of a "pageturner".

All in all, despite my complaints I did enjoy this book and I will be continuing on with this series- I think that fans of the first will be more than happy with this installment (perhaps even liking it more than the first!) and curse the year or so that they will have to wait for the third, and final book, in the series.

Rating: 3/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.