Bad Bloods: November Rain

De: Shannon A. Thompson

Narrado por: Jonathan Johns

Seventeen-year-old Serena isn't human. She is a bad blood, and in the city of Vendona, bad bloods are executed. In the last moments before she faces imminent death, a prison guard aids her escape and sparks a revolt. Back on the streets determined to destroy her kind, Serena is spared by a fellow bad blood named Daniel. His past tragedies are as equally mysterious as her connection to them. Unbeknownst to the two, this connection is the key to winning the election for bad bloods' rights to be seen as human again. But Serena is the only one who can secure Vendona's vote. Now, Daniel must unite with her before all hope is lost and bad bloods are eradicated, even if it means exposing secrets worse than death itself. United or not, a city will fight, rain will fall, and all will be threatened by star-crossed love and political corruption.

©2016 Clean Teen Publishing (P)2017 Shannon A. Thompson

Awesome characters

November Rain is passed in 2089 in a world where some persons aren’t entirely human. They are called bad bloods and in the city of Vendona, they are executed. Our main character Serena is a bad blood who got caught and almost killed. She was helped by a prison guard to escape. Followed by Daniel – our other main character – who is also a bad blood, who helped to save her life on the streets of Vendona.

I really liked this world, it was extremely gripping, realistic and just fantastic. It’s really creative and full of interesting elements. We have persons with different abilities, we have the tense political aspects, a city full of danger and a lot of mysteries. With the additional romance, which I’m excited to see evolve!

The characters are really awesome. I loved to follow both of the main characters, to see the differences in their life, to see them trying to survive and their interactions throughout the novel. They were full of life and personality and I am completely addicted to them. But we also have a lot more characters than those two and they are as special as these ones! They are all very young, with different abilities, personalities and overall stories.

I love how they all merged together. All they have in common being bad bloods, but I felt that it was even more than that. It really felt like family, the way they treated each other, and some of the characters were just a joy to be introduced to.

I loved this story, the only problem I had was that the narrator was quite difficult to enter into - the actual voice. There’s a lot going on, and to understand all the characters and different plots, it’s not easy sometimes, in an audiobook. And this one was definitely not easy for me to grab at first. But after some time I kinda got the hang of it. The voice might not be the best for the story.

Good dystopian, with awesome characters that will enter your heart, and some fantastic elements!

Something was missing.

This was the kind of book that I could take it or leave it because I really felt like something was missing. It's very much a character driven story, which I like, but I also like a bit of world building too. I felt like this was missing a big bit of the world building. We know there is political turmoil going on but we don't know why. We know that there is only two "flocks" of bad bloods left but we don't know why. We also don't know why the two flocks are separate and why they don't really talk. There was too much missing for me to get fully invested in the story,

Character wise, while there are two main ones, Serena or Daniel, we also get to see some of the flocks they belong to. Each chapter of this is told from either Daniel or Serenas POV, which I liked. I also liked thee concept of the story, I just wish there was more depth to it!!

I don't know what else to say about this, because even though I liked it, I just have a lot of negative thoughts about it!! I'm on the fence with regards reading the next in the series because I'd need to make sure the world building is better and we get some answers first!!

The narrator was ok. I did find that he didn't differentiate the characters enough and it was only the fact that the chapters said who was talking that I could follow along. Other than that, he read it ok.

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

Great story

Very interesting. Love the characters, the storyline has an X-men feel to it but is still it’s own uniques story. I was intrigued from the beginning . There are so many characters each with their own unique gift. It does end on a cliff hanger so I can’t wait for the next book. Jonathon Jones did a great job with the narration

What a great book, hooked from the start.

Wow, this book started off crazy and good. Serena is one of two main characters. When we meet her she is about to die, because all bad bloods must die. In a city where humans and bad bloods divide them, humans seeing anyone different as not worthy.
But someone helps Serena escape this death sentence and Serena is not sure why? But after a moment of wondering she leaves.

That's when she is almost caught and runs into Daniel or rather he finds her.
He helps her in the alleyway. Daniel is another of the main characters. This book is told from two points of view. And I love that about this book.
From there things only get better and better.

When Daniel gets Serena to a safe zone he tells her it's okay no one will hurt her there. She doesn't believe him at first. Because why would any one want to help a bad blood out? Daniel explains he is a bad blood as well.
Although every bad blood has unique powers that they can use, Serena absorbs others powers.

Now with Serena back on her side with her make shift family all she can think about his Daniel and how kind he was to her. But the leader of her little family warns her to stay away from him.
Now a lot happens in this book that I don't want to give away spoilers.
But I do want to say this is such a great read for anyone who roots for the under dogs and likes a little bit of love in a book. I think it has a little bit of everything for everyone.

So what are you waiting for? Go pick up a copy of this book today.

Awesome set-up for next book

In Bad Bloods: November Rain, readers jump in with main character Serena at the end of a year she's spent in a Bad Bloods detention camp. Readers get the gist of the horrors there, and I get why we needed to move forward from there, but OH HEY, PREQUEL material right here. I really want to know more about that world. Really, I want to know more about all the world in this book as it was a little foggy around the edges for me. This may be more a result of my reading with my ears than the author's actual world-building and writing.

Speaking of reading with my ears -- the audio book narrator, Jonathan Johns, has a delightful voice and pacing. He handled well the wide range of ages (from light hearted children to gruffer old men) and did an excellent job voicing the emotions of the characters. My only issue was that the story is told from alternating points of view, and I had some trouble distinguishing between the two main characters. Fortunately, readers are told who's narrating at the start of each chapter, but if you are not a careful listener, you will be confused.

"Like a flame that already flickered away, put out by the streets and only smoke remained. Daniel was a ghost of a person. I simply hadn't seen it before."

Author Shannon Thompson has some great sentences in the story, and she makes use of figurative language without overdoing it, so I think there is a lot to enjoy if you read this book in print, too. In her writing, Thompson has some interesting parallels between fictitious Vendona and the real world we live in. Many of the leaders in Serena's world focus on what makes us different from each other instead of what we have in common. The upcoming elections literally mean life and death to some of the citizens, and because of what makes them different, they are targeted by the government.

The end of this story. . .ARRRGH. It leaves me with more questions than answers. Instead, what readers get is an abrupt, cliffhanger ending. It's actually a short listen at just five hours, so I would have greatly appreciated just one resolution in the mix. But, on a positive note, the ending leaves a whole lot of potential for the next installment in this duology, November Snow, to be incredibly good. The book is out now but I am going to hold off for the audio book (which I hope is in production now).

Thank you to Audiobookworm Productions and Clean Teen Publishing for providing me a free audio download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.