Escaping is hard. Surviving is harder.
Aster has lived a life of servitude for ten years, but now she is determined to be free. Countless Reapers stand between her and the gate to New Bethel, and more await just past the walls. She’s spent her life being invisible, but in a world full of assassins, becoming close to any of them only makes you a target for the rest. Every step she takes puts her in more danger, closer to Reapers with unknown intentions. Unexpected friendships develop, but can she really trust any Reaper when they’ve all been trained to deceive? Aster and Chase know what awaits them outside the city, but can they get past it?
In Aster’s journey for freedom, she learns there are some things in life you can’t ever truly escape from, and that some steps can’t ever be taken back.
Elude is the fantasy sequel to Reave written by C. Miller. We start off where we left off in the first book and embark on a journey. Though Aster is finally free from the House in New Bethel, she isn’t free by any means.
Like in Reave, Miller sets the reader up with the hard questions. As a reader, I found myself confused with much of Aster’s actions until she decided to delve the information to a new character and love interest, Jastin. Her actions, though may seem petty in some way, show exactly what she intends to be. She wants to make it hard for her father and everyone else. She wants to be seen as strong, not the weakling they preceive her to be. Her frustration makes sense and the actions she took aren’t much different than what I would in her place.
The new characters are dynamic and show a parallel to Aster’s own life. There’s also more about the Reaper lifestyle that her father developed as well as information about Aster’s mother. The new characters: Anders, an ex-lover and friend to Aster’s deceased mother, and Jastin, the partner and best friend of Ahren.
Anders is an awesome older man who treats Aster the way a father should treat his daughter. He is the one we get more information about her mother from. Jastin is the type of character you either hate or love. I love love/hate dynamics and his relationship with Aster does begin that way. Obviously, he’s a new favorite of mine.
But, none of that matters, because in the world Miller created, trust is just a word. Aster and the readers are forced to decide who to trust and for how much. You find yourself disliking the very people you trusted in the first book. In the end, though I loved certain characters, I was forced to be like Aster: deciding not to trust anyone just yet.
There are a bunch of theories I have in my head, my favorite is that mother dearest is actually alive. After all, with a world that forces you to not even trust the people you trust, anything is possible. For now though, I am forced to wait for the next installment.
Casia's Corner 