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Location: United States

Member Since: Sep. 30, 2012

Leigh Salvador

Smashwords book reviews by Leigh Salvador

The Athena Effect on Oct. 21, 2012

It is such a unique and interesting story! Although our heroine and hero have the same name, it’s not confusing at all. The story starts off with our protagonist Cali or Cal (short for Caledonia) living her life hidden and isolated from the modern world with her parents. She’s been taught to do certain things like hunting wild animals for food and dangerous things that children don’t normally do. There is a reason why she’s been kept far away from society by her loving parents and discovering why she’s been kept is what the story’s all about. Cali is not any ordinary teenage girl. She’s tough, she can hunt, and the coolest thing of all, she can manipulate and change people’s emotions by seeing auras on top of their heads. She loves to read and is contended with her life until a tragedy happened. I find it ironic how she’s so intelligent but innocent at the same time. That’s what fascinates our guy here Cal (short for Calvin). He’s the bad ass who doesn’t really take school seriously, rides a motorcycle, and girls fall head over heels for him. He is a senior and he’s used to girls following him, but not Cali. He finds her unique and funny and that’s why he fell in love with her – for real. He treats her different than all the other girls and Cali’s the reason why Cal’s life changed for the better. These two definitely sounds like a mismatched outfit to me. They’re completely the opposite of each other, but Derrolyn did a fantastic job of making Cal and Cal click! The whole idea of The Athena Effect is great although I have encountered some of the ideas before, like having an evil mad scientist as the antagonist. I do find the aura thing cool and original though. I think the characters fits well in the story, but I find the story’s pace really slow. It’s only 221 pages but I felt like I was reading more than that. I found some typos as well but they’re just minor ones. If you want to try something new, funny, and adventurous, then I would recommend The Athena Effect.