Sunday Street Team Review: The Island by S. Usher Evans

Madion War Series #1

Publisher: Sun's Golden Ray Publishing

Publication Date: April 26th, 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: ARC from the Author

Pages: 260

Add it on Goodreads!!

BUY IT HERE!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Prince Galian is third in line to the throne, but prefers his place as a resident at the Royal Kylaen Hospital. When his father urges him to join the military to help reclaim their colony, Galian is forced to put aside his oath to Do No Harm and fight a war he does not believe in.

Across the great Madion Sea, Captain Theo Kallistrate dreams of a day when she is no longer bound by conscription to fight for her country's independence. But when the Kylaens threaten, honor and duty call her to the front lines to fight off the oppressors.

When an air skirmish goes wrong, both Theo and Galian crash on a remote island hundreds of miles from either nation. Grievously injured, Theo must rely on Galian's medical expertise, and Galian must rely on Theo's survival skills, to live another day in a harsh and unforgiving terrain.

Can they put aside their differences long enough to survive? Or will the war that brought them to the island tear them apart?

The Island is the first in a new romance trilogy by S. Usher Evans, author of the Razia series and Empath.

Review:

Kylae and Rave have been at war for 50 years, ever since Rave declared their independence because they were pretty much sick of taking crap from Kylae. It sucks to be from either side what with one side sending their children to their untimely deaths in battle and the other living in fear beneath a horrible king. The only thing these two countries probably have in common is a deep seeded hate for the other.

So when Captian Theo Kallistrate takes her chance at fame and glory by trying to shoot the Prince out of the air and they both end up stuck on an island, things are going to get interesting. Theo is the one with all the survival knowledge and Galian is the one who was lucky enough to land in one piece. So as much as neither of them like it, they have to work together to survive.

Theo is incredibly tough, conscripted by the Raven government at the age of 12, she has survived seven years and many battles as a pilot. She has been promoted to Captain and tries her hardest not to know anyone in her squadron. Her life has been rough for all of her nineteen years. She hasn't had to rely on anyone or anything.

So it's a bit of a surprise to her when she wakes up on this island, totally alive and having to be dependent on this prince who doesn't know a thing about living outside his palace. As hard as it is for her, she has to learn to play nice and to trust and rely on this person that she had been so ready to kill not that long before. 

Galian Helmuth is the third (newly second) in line for the throne of Kylae. Since his middle brother died admirably in the never ending war, his father has forced him to join the military. He is taught to satisfactorily take off and land a plane and is thrown into an air raid with not much other training. He makes a bit of an oopsie and is found to be among the raid planes. He high tails it out of there, but not before being spotted by Theo and shot out of the air.

Galian is Theo's polar opposite. He is kind while she is kind of mean. He is a lot softer while she is rather hard. He's got a sense of humor while she has never found any reason to have one in her life. He's optimistic, he's caring, he's preeeetty swoony. His first actions on this island are to free Theo from the wreckage of her plane and tend to her nasty wounds. He's just generally a good guy, which Theo finds perplexing because she has never thought of any Kylaen as anything other than a mass murdering monster.

I really enjoyed reading this book! The beginning had action with the air raid and crash landings. The middle was a bit slow, you know, not much to do on an uninhabited island. They spend a lot of time getting to know each other and their new surroundings and adjust to this new life they're stuck in and learn to love it.

The romance in this book is one I was so rooting for! It's not a very long book, but it seems to take FOREVER before things start to heat up and throughout the whole book I was like, "KIIIIIIIIIIIIISS ALREADY!" Their relationship definitely takes some work, but it's soooo nice! And there's no obnoxious insta-love, no love triangle, nothing like that! Things work against them, but they do the best they can.

I really can't find anything to complain about in this book. The book is told in both Theo and Galian's points of view and I never found it hard to tell who's point of view I was reading from. On a couple of occasions, I found myself being confused on who was actually doing the speaking if there wasn't anything after the dialogue specifying who was talking, but nothing major. I can't complain.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book! I couldn't help but love Theo even if she was rough around the edges, Galian is so kind and willing to learn, you couldn't do anything but love him if you tried! Even with the understandably slow chunk of the book, there was always enough going on to keep my attention! If you like fantasy worlds and unlikely romances you should pick this one up on the 26th!

And LOOK! My name is in it (for donating to the author's Kickstarter)! :)

About the Author:

S. Usher Evans is an author, blogger, and witty banter aficionado. Born in Pensacola, Florida, she left the sleepy town behind for the fast-paced world of Washington, D.C.. There, she somehow landed jobs with BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Television before finally settling into a “real job” as an IT consultant. After a quarter life crisis at age 27, she decided consulting was for the birds and rekindled a childhood passion for writing novels. She sold everything she owned and moved back to Pensacola, where she currently resides with her two dogs, Zoe and Mr. Biscuit.

Evans is the author of the Razia series and Empath, both published by Sun’s Golden Ray Publishing

GIVEAWAY:

a Rafflecopter giveaway