Influence

Influence Series, Book 1

By: David R. Bernstein

Narrated by: Heather Masters

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

If you could manipulate the reality of others, would you?

Seventeen-year-old Kaylin has been on the run for nearly half of her young life, hiding her untapped abilities from the relentless forces that hunt her. When rescuing a mysterious stranger risks exposing the depths of Kaylin's power, she quickly learns that this harsh, new world will no longer allow her to remain hidden.

Surviving has never been easy, but resisting will be even harder.

In a future where greed and corruption have torn society apart, ruthless sector groups manipulate and oppress the masses by abusing gifted youths, known as Influencers. With the ability to shift the mindset of others and bend the populace to the will of their masters, these teens are high-value targets to be acquired and controlled at any cost. Now, war is being waged by the sector groups to expand their reach and consolidate power. Though only wanting to create a new life for herself, Kaylin may be the only one who can stop them from enslaving the rest of humanity.

But will fighting back cost Kaylin everything?

Influence is the first novel in the Influence series, a sci-fi, dystopian epic brimming with fast-paced action, suspenseful intrigue and a touch of romance, all propelled by an inventive and unique story concept. If you are a Maze Runner or Divergent fan, then an exciting new journey awaits you!

©2016 David R. Bernstein (P)2017 David R. Bernstein

So EXCITED this is available on audible!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would absolutely recommend this to my friends. This is an excellent YA book, and will intrigue any reader.

What other book might you compare Influence to and why?

Hunger games, due to the change of Earth and abilities needed to stay alive.

What about Heather Masters’s performance did you like?

I loved how she brought the characters to life, just as the author did while writing them. It was really refreshing to hear a narrator bring so much passion and life to a book. Highly Impressed with her skills.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was blown away with Kaylin's ability to "Push" and ***May be a spoiler*** when she did used her ability with animals, it was super cool and I could envision it all as if it were really happening.

Any additional comments?

This is an audiobook that I highly recommend. The books itself is intriguing and written very well by the author. The pacing is faced, and you will be sucked in instantly. The narrator brings it all to life and makes for an even more exciting adventure while listening to the book. Well done, both to the author and narrator!
-USA Today Best Selling Author, S.L. Morgan :-)

Enjoyable entertainment.

Would you be willing to try another book from David R. Bernstein? Why or why not?

Yes, I would like to see what happens next . I assume there is a series.

What three words best describe Heather Masters’s performance?

Good job, understandable.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes. I think it would be an awesome movie.

Any additional comments?

3 and a half stars. 🌟

What If You Could Influence Another's Mind?

Influence is a fun new twist on post-apocalyptic ya fiction. Filled with people who can influence the minds of other people by using their "push" ability corporations have taken over countries and now the world is in a shambles. 17 year old Kaylin has been able to hide from the all might corporations ever since finding out she is an influencer.... until she and her friend Amanda help a dying boy at the side of the road.

If you love books where teenagers have strange powers and are trying to save the world than give Influence a try. I am looking forward to more books in this series.

Influence

I was given an Audible copy of this book by the narrator/author/publisher & chose to review it.

First of all, the narration was great! It was easy to listen to the book & keep track of the characters because of the different inflections that the narrator used. Without the talent of the narrator, this would have been a much less enjoyable book.

Maybe I am becoming a little jaded because of all of the dystopian YA books that I have read, but this book didn't really have anything new to offer. A bunch of kids with superhuman ability decides to take down the evil government. Throw in some unknown relatives & violence & you have just another dystopian tale. Even the name of the group is unoriginal: The Resistance.

We are never told what led to the different factions, how they came to power, or anything else about the cause of the evil. Not a bad book, but nothing really exciting.

Character Driven

Influence by David R. Bernstein is the first book in his YA dystopian series of the same name. I have wanted to read this book for a long time. It’s one of those that is constantly recommended to me so I went in with high expectations. However they were not met. This is more of a reflection of me as the reader than the book. I’ve read too many dystopians, and unfortunately they are all starting to run together.

Influence follows Kaylin, a young teen nomad who stays away from big factions/colonies in an effort to hide her Influencer ability. Not much is revealed about these abilities. Why do some have them and others don’t? What happened to the country that we know live isolated and in factions? What is the threat and why do the characters live in fear and revolt? I’m hoping these answers are revealed as the series progresses. As it is right now, we have a bunch of teens with supernatural abilities, ranging from influencing a person’s actions to telepathy, leading a revolution against the largest faction.

I like Kaylin. She’s a typical teen, despite her influencer ability. This ability makes her a target for all the factions. She is hunted, and as a result never stays in one place to long. When her and her best friend encounter a bounty hunter of sorts on the road, her friend is trapped in the faction walls and the hunter helps Kaylin escape. He knows that this is the girl they’ve all been looking for and exactly what their rebellion needs. Farren is one of those characters that I wanted to like. He’s there for us to (he’s the love interest!), but he fell flat for me. As a result, the relationship the author portrays between Farren and Kaylin feels forced and unnatural.

Overall, Influence was an okay read for me. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I was somewhere in the middle which made writing this review hard! I plan to read more of the series. I love dystopians, and I’m hopeful that the world-building will be present in the books to come as this one focused more on the character development of Kaylin. While not what I expected, this YA dystopian still held enough interest for me to keep reading.

Now I listened to the audiobook version of this story. The narrator is fantastic. Her infections and tone kept my attention making Influence a quick listen. In fact, I’ll be looking for more audios narrated by her.

Typical Teen Scifi

This book reminds me a lot of The Darkest Minds. While I say that, it does have it's own twist and flair. Influencers are no longer the people on the internet who make you want to buy things; in this time period, they are those with a special ability referred to as Push. Certain teens have the ability to influence the emotions and thoughts of those around them. Need to sow seeds of discord? Use an influencer. Make a crowd feel content so they don't riot? Once again, an Influencer.
As you might imagine, corporations want to use these teens to their full extent. Kaylin has been on the run for 6 years trying to keep her ability secret. But when her friend is captured all bets are off.
Influencer has a good premise but blends into the so many books that are ready printed. It seems that every dystopian novel needs a female lead with a special power and then their faith is test by both a boy and a friend. Influencer has a lot of potential to be better and I look forward to see how it truly differentiates itself in further novels. I already read the prequel; I know the material can stand on it's own.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes the more science fiction side of dystopian worlds but for those who aren't big on the genre wouldn't care too much for it.
I was provided an audio copy of this book my the author; all opinions are my own.

Must read!

Absolutely loved the book! I've read it previously and enjoyed the audiobook as well! The story is engaging and will have you hooked.

Great dystopian read

Would you consider the audio edition of Influence to be better than the print version?

I loved both. It's great to have the characters in your head come to life in the audio.

What other book might you compare Influence to and why?

Influence is similar to many other dystopian novels like Hunger Games, Divergent and Legend.

Which scene was your favorite?

Not sure if I had a favorite scene but I loved the interactions between Amanda and Kaylin.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

If you could manipulate the reality of others, would you?

Any additional comments?

Loved Influence and I highly recommend both the audio and print versions.

More dystopian than sci-fi but interesting all the same

This narrator has a very calming, soft voice. Great performance.

The story started out a bit confusing for me. At the very start there is talk about a power that I couldn’t quite fill in as to what and how. The story begins when Kaylin (this book is told from her perspective) tells about not being able ‘to sense his awareness’ like she normally can with everyone when she sees a boy or a man hanging from a signpost. I couldn’t quite “jump in” with that, couldn’t fathom how to fill in that power she has.
It gave for a rocky start that lead me to restart this book after I got a bit more information about said power.
I do believe it was my inactive brain at the time that made it a bit confusing at first because after that rocky start (which actually didn’t last long at all) I never saw (or heard) a problem anywhere.

It’s quite a powerful story. It’s so easy to abuse the power to be able to Influence someone’s awareness, their view on reality, including themselves. Those abilities are really dangerous, in the wrong hands even lethal.
So it’s completely understandable that Kaylin and her best friend Amanda are on the run from the corporations that have taken over the world since the fall of the normal world, the normal government and society, all because of such Influencers.
Influencers like Kaylin.


After Kaylin’s first “push” (as the acts of using that power is called) at age 11 when they both were living in the sort of orphanage corporation, Amanda knew they had to run. 5 years older than Kaylin, Amanda had already seen the horrors the corporations could do with the use of such Influencers. Influencers like Kaylin. Amanda knows the orphanages are built to detect these highly valuable Influencers and Kaylin’s push would not go by undetected. So they ran. And kept on running.

Six years later they’re still on the run when they spot this strange boy, seemingly dead by dehydration in the heat but even dead people have this faint sort of “echo” that Kaylin’s mind normally can pick up but this boy is giving her nothing. So she investigates and saves him from actually dying by dragging him into the shade and giving him water. De sci-fi comes into view for the first time when he comes to and is able to grab his pack and takes out these advanced hydration bars. Nifty things, those hydration bars! They’re way better than what our energy bars give us in forms of energy lol. But anyway, moving on.

What follows is a story filled with always being alert, danger, captures and rescues, some awesome powers (well, as long as the good guys are using them, the bad ones impressive but no fun of course) and plans to evade and take down the biggest and most gruesome corporation that has taken his place in the world by misusing those early drafted, manipulated and forced Influencers, all in a fast paced read with a little bit of nifty things but otherwise not much science fiction. Maybe that will change in the continuation of this series but I like it like this so no change is necessary. But with that final plottwist I sure am curious to the next part!

good story

found it unique. kept me involved in the story and wanted to see what would happen next.