Title: StartersAuthor: Lissa PriceEdition: hardcoverSeries: Starters and Enders #1Released Date: March 13th, 2012 Publisher: DelacorteGoodreads / Amazon HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER
Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.
He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .
Callie's parents died in the Spore Wars, and since then she's been stealing water from nearby houses and scavenging the streets with her seven-year-old brother Tyler, and her best friend Michael.A new program, Prime Destinations, is offering teens big bucks to rent out their bodies to Enders - the old people that are usually over 100 years old. Things are getting tougher, and Tyler is getting sick, so Callie's only option is to rent out her body. Little does she know, the person she's renting her body out to has plans for murder.
By the summary, I figured that this was going to take a bit more to get into the action, as they had to explain the Spore Wars and what squatting was - that type of stuff! Actually, this jumped right into the action, which wasn't generally a bad thing, but it made her choices seem to have less significance until later in the novel.
When Callie becomes a renter, it all seems pretty good deal. Prime Destination seems like a decent company, and Callie gets to be beautiful for once. Once her third appointment takes place, and a woman named Helena rents her body, and things start to go downhill for Callie and Prime Destination. The signal between Helena and Callie is corrupt, and Callie is able to control her body and Helena is able to talk to her in her head. Pretty much, that's not supposed to happen. Callie keeps this a secret, and around others she pretends she's an Ender in a teen's body. With Helena in her head, and randomly coming back to into Callie's body, Callie has to figure out what Helena is trying to do, and who she is determined to kill.
Callie's character was strong - that's for sure. There were some things that popped up along the line that didn't seem very Callie-like. It made her seem like a less consistent character. I mean, I still liked her - but slowly for the reason that she was a quick-thinker and was a pretty darn good actress! She went with the flow whenever something bad happened, but in her mind she was determined to fix it. Helena's character pissed me off in the beginning. She was trying to ruin Callie's life, and she knew it. Helena still managed to grow as a character though, even if she was just a voice in the novel and we never got to see her true actions. Towards the end, I started to like Helena and truly felt bad for how it turned out for her and what her mission was.
Surprisingly, there was some romance in this novel! To be honest, I didn't expect very much and I was glad that the romance didn't overpower everything that was going on. Before leaving for Prime Destinations, Callie and her best friend Michael kind of have a thing, but it never really goes anywhere. As a pretty girl, with Helena in her mind, Callie falls for Blake - the senator's grandson. Their romance is super cute, and I love how she's a bit reluctant to fall for him. Soon she submits to the pressure and lets herself be carefree around Blake. The ending with Blake is kind of sad, but then it picks back up again! Hopefully their relationship will be even better in the sequel! As you can tell, I think I like Blake over Michael. (Even if my boyfriend is named Michael! ;) haha!)
The ending was just WOW. It got extremely intense and there were some things that were super surprising! I think the reason I loved this novel as much as I did was because of the super unique plot, and then the way it ended. I wish I had a copy of Enders right next to me so I could pick it up and start reading it! I really need to know what happens next!
