Review: The Rules (Project Paper Doll Series #1) by Stacey Kade

Summary

1. Never trust anyone.

2. Remember they are always searching.

3. Don’t get involved.

4. Keep your head down.

5. Don’t fall in love.

Five simple rules. Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane’s survival—and that of her adoptive father—depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans in a small Wisconsin town, to hide in plain sight at her high school from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) “project.”

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts her in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief’s son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening—and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules…

Review

I do not even have words for this book. Now honestly, I saw this book, read the summary and put it back. But as I wandered around the store, it kind of grew on me and I found myself right back in front of its shelf. And that leads us to where I am now, addicted.

I read The Rules in one day. I could not put it down. I was drawn in by Kade's style of writing. It was fast pace and flowed seamlessly through the many facts and events that occurred.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, sometimes with tears in my eyes. I mean, you really know a book is great when you are laughing, crying and shocked all at the same time, The Rules delivers in this respect. The characters are a huge factor in this, Ariane is amazing and I guess Zane isn't so bad either. (Just kidding I love Zane.)

Anyway, without giving too much away, the plot is nothing like what you expect. There are so many random things that happen as well as completely unexpected facts and events that it is impossible to know what will happen next.

The mixture of the intense, paranoid, on edge feeling that the book delivers to the reader is why I enjoyed it so much. But my favorite part has to be Ariane's inner monologues. Seriously, Kade is a genious in terms of humor. Ariane says and thinks the funniest things, I found myself laughing while sunbathing on the cruise.

Is it wrong to say that this story was realistic? Because, I get it, it is not, but if things were to go down and alien cross species were produced, this is EXACTLY how I would expect it to happen. Everyone had real reactions including Ariane. I really appreciated the attention to detail that Kade added in order to increase the naive personality Ariane was supposed to have.

If you haven't guessed it yet, I loved this book. It is one of my favorite books read so far this year. It was just another case of don't judge a book by its cover on so many levels.

Reviewed by Rachel Keane

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication date: 4/8/2014
Series: Project Paper Doll Series , #1
Pages: 432