Blog Tour Stop & Giveaway: Review of arbitrate by Megan Thomason

Tour Schedule

Welcome to my tour stop on the arbitrate Blog Tour!  arbitrate is the next book in the daynight series by Megan Thomason and on today's stop I review it.  Keep reading on to find out some information about Arbitrate and then to see what I thought of Ms Thomason's newest release.  Not to mention an absolutely awesome giveaway! I hope you enjoy my stop today!

arbitrate:It's one year later. And everything has changed.
Remember The Second Chance Institute (SCI). Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. They’ve stepped up their game on Earth and on Thera—infiltrating political parties, preying on the downtrodden, and planning offensive maneuvers. The SCI’s abuse of their charter leads to Arbiter oversight and bitter consequences.
Remember Kira Donovan. Broken, burdened, and evading those who wish her harm, Kira enlists the Arbiters’ help when forced to return to the clutches of the SCI and her angry, estranged love.
Remember Blake Sundry. Exiled, determined, and packing an agenda, Blake seeks assistance on Earth and Thera to use his newfound knowledge to bring down the SCI.
Remember Ethan Darcton. Overworked, emotional, and holding a grudge, Ethan hunts down his stolen property, but finds himself in awkward territory, stuck between the Arbiters and the SCI.
Full of action, competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, arbitrate is Megan Thomason’s third installment in the award-winningdaynight series after daynight and clean slate complex (a daynight story).

Amazon

Praise for arbitrate:

"There are a lot of books I finish and feel happy, this one I finished and my head is swirling, in a totally awesome way! Not only does it have a great story with characters that you like (and some you just hate as they are the enemy) but the book also gets you thinking, thinking about the implication of effects of different actions and courses in life. This story has action, fighting, plots and plans, romance, love triangles, family, betrayal - has it all." --Emily Barton, Emmy Mom One Day at a Time blog, 5 stars

"You have hit this one out of the park." --ARC Reviewer

"For the record, I LOVED Kira's choice!! And the whole thing just blew me away! Very, very well done!! Now when can I get my hands on generate?! Can't wait " --ARC Reviewer

"Read my ARC of Arbitrate and consider my mind blown! I started it the minute it was sent and couldn't put it down." --ARC Reviewer

My Review:

Having read and enjoyed both of Ms thomason's earlier stories in this series: daynight and Clean Slate Complex, when I was asked to be in this blog tour I jumped at the chance to be involved as I couldn't wait to read arbitrate and find out what happened next to the characters from both of the above mentioned stories. And in fact, just knowing that arbitrate was going to bring together characters from both stories made me even more excited to read it.

I was not to be disappointed.  If anything I think arbitrate might be better than daynight.  There is so much going on in this story and Ms Thomason's expertly weaves all the different threads so that they entwine just where they need to in order to keep you in the story and moving forward to a conclusion which leaves you breathless and wanting more. 

I loved that we got to see the story from the perspective of the three main daynight characters Kira, Blake and Ethan.  This added more dimension to the story and gave us much more insight into these characters as a whole.  It was interesting that from the beginning of this story to the end, I found my opinion and perspective on all three characters ( as well as some other characters) changed immensely and this was a good thing.  These characters came across as a lot more human in this story as they fall victim to both circumstance as well as their own flaws and make their journey through the story.

As mentioned before, there was a lot going on in this story.  We jumped from past to present,  and one point of view to another as well as the sheer number of story lines that were running throughout this book.  There is so much information that we get given through out this novel that in any less capable hands, it would have been easy to get lost.  However Ms Thomason handles this comfortably, presenting the information we need when we need it so that instead of getting lost, we get immersed inside the world that Ms Thomason has built and caught in the current which speeds up and builds momentum all the way to the end.

While this is predominantly a sequel to daynight, I found having read Clean Slate Complex definitely helped as it rounded out the characters of Alexa and Joshua a lot more which affected the way I viewed certain events in the book.  

I am so glad I got to read this story as I think this series is quite different to a lot of other stories out there at the moment. I also took a couple of hours to think about the book before starting to write this review and I have found that even though this particular instalment is over, my brain is still their in the world eagerly wait ting to see what comes next for these characters, a sure sign that I loved this book and cannot wait to read Generate!

I give this 4 stars

Sapphired Dragon xx

daynight

Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth's benevolent non-profit by day, Thera's totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Life(TM). Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving--forced lifetime union between two people who have sex. Punishment for disobeying SCI edicts? Immediate Exile or death.

Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.

Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother's death, Blake's been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner--Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.

Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan's forced to do his SCI elite family's bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs.

Full of competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, daynight is an award-winning, bestselling novel and first in thedaynight series.



Praise for daynight:

2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist-Young Adult Fiction, ForeWord Reviews

"Sure to win over YA readers looking for a dangerous, dystopian adventure story" —Kirkus Reviews

"Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.”—BlueInk Review (starred review)

"Thomason's description of Thera's totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver... SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people... The author deftly appeals to both romance-loving teens as well as those intrigued by young adults fighting the establishment.”—ForeWord Clarion Review, 4 stars



Author Megan Thomason

Bestselling, award-winning author Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn't typing away on her laptop, she's reading books on her phone--over 600 in the last year--or attending to the needs of her family. Megan's fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac.

Website * Facebook * Goodreads * Twitter

Blog Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 11/24/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway