Idols by Margaret Stohl

Posted 18 September, 2014 by Heather in Blog, Book Review, Giveaways, Heather Book Review / 4 Comments

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Idols by Margaret StohlIdols by Margaret Stohl
Series: Icons #2
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on 2014-07-08
Genres: Action & Adventure, Aliens, Dystopian, General, Love & Romance, Science & Technology, Young Adult
Pages: 432
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
4 Stars

The Icons came from the sky. They belong to an inhuman enemy. They ended our civilization, and they can kill us.

Most of us.

Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas are the four Icon Children, the only humans immune to the Icon's power to stop a human heart. Now that Los Angeles has been saved, things are more complicated - and not just because Dol has to choose between Lucas and Ro, the two great loves of her life. As she flees to a resistance outpost hidden beneath a mountain, Dol makes contact with a fifth Icon Child, if only through her visions. When Dol and the others escape to Southeast Asia in search of this missing child, Dol's dreams, feelings and fears collide in an epic showdown that will change more than just four lives -- and stop one heart forever.

In this riveting sequel to Icons, filled with nonstop action and compelling romance, bestselling author Margaret Stohl explores what it means to be human and how our greatest weakness can be humanity's strongest chance at survival.

dystopianaudiobook

After the fast-paced, action packed first book Icons, where we first met Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas–the Icon children  who are seeming immune to the mysterious Icons that aliens placed on Earth that can stop a human’s heart, I expected more of the same from the second installment after the four teens had taken out the Los Angeles icon in a fiery explosion. But Idols is quite a different book, both in pacing and tone. It’s more of an adventure, road trip book, with less of a focus on character building than in the first installment.

Idols picks up right where Icons left off, with the Icon children escaping with the Merck Fortis, the Sympas hot on their heals to bring them back to be dealt with by the Lords. They’re headed for a remote outpost in the desert where a pocket of Resistance is known to stay, but Dol starts getting visions from a girl identifying herself as the fifth Icon child. Before they can make it to the cave holding their might be allies, the Sympas descend and take Fortis on board their ships while the four of them barely escape. And so begins their journey to find this fifth “sister” that is waiting for them, that takes them all the way to East Asia and into more danger than they thought possible.

Dol is able to find a measure of peace from her telepathic/sorrow abilities when they are away from people, but it’s much harder when they get to the crowded city and temples in Asia. She seems to be along for the ride a good portion of the book, and Fortis and other male figures in her life can easily manipulate her into doing what they want her to do. This timidness is certainly not there when it comes to her emotions, which she certainly isn’t shy about showing. She really just wants to know why she is what she is, why she was chosen, and how she can help.

Lucas, Ro, and Tima all had their parts to play, but they weren’t as big as they were in the first book. If anything, Ro is more present and even more gregarious here than in the first book, but he knows that Dol like Lucas. He knows how to use his anger to make his fiery ability targeted and deadly, and he isn’t afraid to use this to protect Dol and Tima. Lucas is here more for support for Dol. The world outside of the embassy isn’t something that he’s used to traveling in so he’s really just trying to protect her and get a few stolen moments alone with Dol. Tima has even less to do here, even though she has the ability to make people fear. She’s been pushed into the background and just teaches them a few facts and things.

The little interludes between chapters in Idols were from the scientific journals and communications between Fortis and another scientist, and also between the computer DOC and the invading spaceship that is coming to Earth. Fortis also interacts with the artificial intelligence on the spaceship, and learning how all of this unfurled from it being first a meteor then a full on alien invasion that required the help of some human traitors was quite interesting.

I give Idols a four out of five. This second installment isn’t as fast paced as the first book, but the group moves from area to area and fight to fight trying to stay one step ahead of the Sympas and Lords, and I did stay engaged and enjoyed listening to this book. There wasn’t that much character development and the love triangle aspect of Dol, Ro, and Lucas was definitely pushed to the forefront more. I loved learning how the whole invasion started, especially how Fortis tried to thwart it and reason with the artificial intelligence.

 

I listened to the audiobook provided by Hachette Audio

Get your own Audiobook at Audible: Idols.

I enjoyed Therese Plummer’s performance of the first installment in this series, Icons, so I definitely knew that I’d be listening to the followup, Icons. And she certainly doesn’t disappoint, delivering a vibrant and emotional reading of this book while maintaining and individually distinct voice for each of the characters. I highly recommend the audiobooks for the Icons series.

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Heather

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I'm a PhD chemist who loves sarcasm, music, and books-paranormal, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and romance. Most of my free time is spent at the martial arts studio these days--whether practicing Combat Hapkido or reading books while watching my son's Taekwondo classes, or even working up a sweat with Kickboxing for fun. Goodreads

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