Born in a turbulent age of violent political upheaval and societal collapse, and thrown to the streets of Zenith as a prostitute at a tender age, Blue yearns for a better life and learns to survive by following a simple piece of hard-learned advice: don’t trust anyone.
Heartbroken and embittered, Blue is convinced that love and friendship are unattainable, until a chance meeting with a charming but reckless gang initiate and a passionate affair with an enigmatic Mechi cause him to question everything.
But nothing lasts forever and a cruel twist of fate leads to the loss of love and the birth of an empire in this story of heartache, danger, and hope.
**Trigger Warnings: Dub-con/Non-con, rape, drug use, prostitution, abuse, graphic violence, explicit sexual content**
Reviewer: NeRdyWYRM
Retro-Bio
So, La Vie is, obviously, Blue's story. If you've read the preceding four books, then you were probably intrigued by his character. His life was not easy and human nature dictates that we want all the down and dirty deets.
That said, I did not read the first four books. I usually do that in preparation for writing a review on a book that falls in the middle of a series, but not this time. I did try to get into the series as a whole, and I generally love sci-fi or dystopian themes, but I just couldn't sink into these.
It took me a long time to get into La Vie as well. I can't really put my finger on why that is. Wrong headspace? Maybe. Is it a little slow? No, not at all really. Was it uninteresting? No. Poorly written? No. Poorly edited? No. So truly, I don't know why I struggled, but struggle I did. Does that mean you will? I don't know, but it's worth finding out.
The plot was kind of a retroactive biography of Blue's life. It started before he met the protagonists of the previous books, continued on through the most salient points of his life, and continued beyond that into his future with his ultimate love interest and containing a very effective sci-fi twist. Well, it was more like a sci-fi follow-through, but I don't want to spoil, even by hinting at it. I was glad for Blue at the end. Very, very glad.
In my opinion, this book can be read as a standalone and maybe should be read first. If you're a chronology stickler, you'll just avoid this advice I'm sure *wink* and that's okay, but for me, it actually made me a little curious about the other characters and the preceding books ... but only a little.
I was happy about that though because I don't take failure well, and the fact that book one was kind of a dead end, backburner question mark (for me), rubbed me the wrong way because all signs point to 'yes' that I should and maybe would enjoy the whole series if I hadn't been so ... precipitous in skipping to this one. Gah. I'm rambling.
Long story short, this book was pretty dark. Triggers abound. It can be read as a standalone although that might not be the most advisable route. If you have a hard time getting into book one, that may be an answer for you. Like I said, this one made me think about backtracking. I may or may not follow through on it. Blue was an interesting character and his life journey was, ultimately, pretty damned phenomenal.
The world was pretty well fleshed out given the fact that it actually consists of multiple 'worlds' with differing species and frankly, the human aspect was pretty fucked up. It kind of made me anti-my-own-species, if you know what I mean. I believed in the relationships, even when they weren't the healthiest, and the characters were all very detailed and emotionally evocative.
I'm not doing cartwheels, but I think it's a 'me' thing. For whatever reason I just had a hard time with this title. That's no reflection on the author or the quality of the book, not one bit. The quantifiable aspects of this book were very good indeed, it just didn't fly my ship.
More reviews by NeRdyWYRM can be found on Goodreads here.
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ARC copy provided in exchange of an honest review.
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