Review: The Reader

Title: The Reader
Author: M.K. Harkins
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publication Date: August 25, 2016
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Hunted, shot, and without her memory, eighteen-year-old Ann Baker wakes in shallow water on a deserted Pacific Northwest island. She is soon approached by two young men claiming to be her friends. Something isn’t right, but when gunshots sound, Ann is left with little choice but to allow Devon and Archer to help her escape. Soon she finds herself in their North Bend mountain compound, where the higher evolved humans claim to be mind-readers. While Ann heals, she realizes they believe her to be one of the last and most powerful of all – The Lost One.

She’s welcomed by most with opened arms, but not everyone is happy about her arrival. A jealous adversary has plans for Ann, which spirals the entire Reader community into chaos.

As lies, murder, and betrayal threaten to rip apart the once harmonious mountain dwellers, Ann is thrust into making a decision that could save or devastate not only The Readers, but all of mankind. But there’s just one glitch: by doing so it may require her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Just in for a few pages, and I’ve already got hooked into the story. It started with how Ann woke up on the beach with no memories, and then suddenly two men (Devon and Archer) showed up to offer help. Along with this, it turns out that The Reader is about a community of people who are able to read minds. I really had this great feeling that The Reader will be a great book, and it definitely did not disappoint me.

I loved the world building because even though there were suddenly a lot of information, it did not feel overwhelming. In fact, with every information I received, I was left wanting for more. It was frustrating to see when they were not answering Ann’s questions, but thankfully it was dealt with properly when they finally decided to tell her answers.

When it comes to the characters, I absolutely fell in love with every single one of them, even including the secondary characters. I was truly fascinated with Ann, who had both strong and vulnerable sides, and I was really entertained with her thoughts. She is witty and engaging, which definitely made things more interesting and fun. I also love both Devon and Archer: they are both strong and protective. Each interacted with Ann in a different manner, but both were cute in their own way. I especially found Devon to be really amusing, especially when he would always intervene when Archer talks to Ann, but pretends to be not interested anyway.

All the character developments were entertaining, and it felt like I was actually in the book with them. Although, I was quite sad to find out that there were some characters who did not appear as much in the latter half anymore since they were also great characters. I would have wished to read more about them, especially Devon’s little sister, Lucy.

The fast-paced development and intense moments left me wanting for more, and I absolutely could not put this down. Although I was kind of surprised on the ending, I appreciated it, nonetheless. I just found it to be beautiful and captivating. The Reader is definitely a book that gave me a roller coaster ride of emotions, and I highly recommend it!

      

MK has always been a voracious reader. After hitting a dry spell of reading material, she decided to write the kind of book she'd like to read. This resulted in the creation of her debut novel, Intentional. (Award for Best Sweet Romance - eFestival of Words- August 2014)

Unintentional, her second book, is based on the life of one of the characters in Intentional. Unintentional was written as a stand-alone book.
Breaking Braydon and Taking Tiffany have both been released. Available on Amazon.

The Reader is MK's latest project, due out 2016.

When she's not writing novels, she likes to spend her free time traveling the world, splashing in mud puddles (She lives in Seattle, what can she say?), watching movies and reading (!)
MK also runs her own business in her current hometown of Mercer Island, Washington.