Review; Arrival (Hybrids) by Chris O'Guinn

The night that Joaquin witnesses the fire in the sky was the last night of anything normal for him. His world of high school and football is completely upended as he comes face to face with an extraterrestrial being.

Thrace, as the alien calls himself, seems friendly enough. However, he has abilities that are far beyond human. And he comes with word that others of his race are already on Earth.

Joaquin's friendship with Thrace takes him into danger and chaos as he learns the terrible truth of why the aliens have come to Earth. He and his friends must find some way to help Thrace stop his people, or the human race will suffer the consequences.

The only thing that Joaquin now knows for certain is that our world will never be the same.

Okay so when the author of Hybrids: Arrival contacted BMBR he said;

It is not a romance. I want to put that out there up front because that may mean it's not the right fit for your site. There is a gay romantic subplot between the leads, but it is primarily an adventure story.

If it doesn't fit with your site, then that is perfectly fine. And if not, and you still want a free copy, I'll happily send you one.

So of course (being the greedy little reader I am) I said YES PLEASE with the vague notion at the back of my head that I probably wouldn't review it here - but you know what, I loved this book so much there is no way I'm not reviewing it. So what if it's YA (we're not exclusively adult) and so what if it's more sci fi than romance (the romance is still there), if I read a book I love I want the world to know about it. So here it is, my review.

Chris O'Guinn has an effortless writing style that makes reading so easy. From page 1 I fell in love with the characters and I cared so much about them I couldn't put the book down. Joaquin is a teenager in pain and in self-destruct mode. His dad, his hero, had died prior to the start of our story and he was doing everything to obliterate the pain of that. He wasn't a selfish kid though he was just hurting, when he witnessed the space craft crashing, he be-friended not only Thrace (the alien) but Arturo the UFO geek, and so along with the adventure started the healing process.

I loved the dynamics of the friendships in this book. Joaquin, Thrace, Arturo, along with Joaquin's best friend Sylvia,  tried to save the human race. The book is very action based but also very emotion based - a lot of Joaquin's and Thrace's decisions are based on their emotions, particularly the grief of loss. This is so human and it made the writing feel so natural and it made me so attached to the characters.

Now  sci-fi is not my favourite genre, that did NOT put me off this one bit. In fact to me love and betrayal are the key components in this story. In a world infiltrated by aliens these very human feelings led this story. Decisions were made based on gut instinct of right and wrong, of the need to protect and save friends. It really was just a lovely story.

Annnnd the romantic sub-plot - I LOVED how this flavoured the story and the choices the characters made. It was subtly hidden all the way through, just there, bubbling beneath the surface. I think sometimes love doesn't need to be blatant and love that forms from friendship is always the best. It was that perfect secondary story-line, the simmering love that's never quite mentioned and I WILL be reading the next book in the series to see how Thrace and Joaquin's relationship develops.

Chris O'Guinn is definitely going on my list of auto-buy authors from now on and I would recommend this book to everyone, especially lovers of YA.

A copy of this book was given to us by the author in exchange for an honest review.