Review of Settling by Shelley Workinger

At the beginning of the summer, Clio Kaid was one of a hundred teens brought to a secret Army installation. But it was no ordinary camp and they weren't ordinary kids...

Picking up where "Solid" left off, Clio and the others have stayed on campus to get answers about the C9x experiment and its effect on them. But someone doesn't want them there and will do anything to drive them away - even kill.

Super-abilities continue to evolve, more secrets come out, and friendships will be tested as the teens continue SETTLING

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I reviewed the first book, Solid, a few months ago and I quite enjoyed it, so when Shelley asked me if I would like to review Settling I happily accepted. I was quite curious to know what had happened to all my characters after what had happened in Solid, find out more about their strange abilities and find out if new characters would be introduced. Plus, I wanted to see if the plot would be stronger, as I found the ending of Solid a little bit too cheesy for my tastes!

The plot in Settling is a little different for Solid, focusing on the group 'Settling' in and becoming used to their powers. Calliope, our main character, has almost found her feet in the strange little world the kids and the Government have built for themselves when she discovers a new killer – and some new powers too. The pacing felt much slower to me, and it took me a couple of weeks to finish the book (compared to around a book a day). I think this was due to boredom, almost. It takes a while for the first murder to occur, and whilst we're waiting for that, the characters are just getting on with their day to day life, which, as great as it was to see them again,seemed to get almost a bit similar after a while.

A particular highlight for me was the introduction to two new characters to the main group, Rae and Xavier. I felt that I could have got to know Xavier better, but I liked Rae a lot, she fitted in with the group really quickly and always seemed like a little ray of sunshine to me. I think she may have been a better choice of main character than Calliope, who, after about the half way point, started to get on my nerves for various reasons. I understood that she was acting like a total b**ch, she didn't need to tell me about it all the time! Unfortunately, Calliope's better half Jack wanders behind the scenes for the majority of the book, popping up every so often so we don't forget about him! But how could I forget about Jack? He's like the male version of Bliss, really sweet and considerate.

Although it took me a while to finish this, I enjoyed this sequel much more than Solid, and I felt that the ending was a little bit stronger too. There was much better character development and I felt that I could remember the characters easier than I did in Solid, because their personalities were much stronger. I loved the sudden twist in the tale.

 5/5