Countdown by Michelle Rowen Review

Countdown
By Michelle Rowen
Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia
 
3 Seconds left to live.
   Once the countdown starts, it cannot be stopped.

2 Pawns thrown into a brutal undergrounds reality game.
   Kira Jordan survived her family’s murder and months on plague-devastated city streets with hard-won savvy and a low-level Psi ability. She figures she can handle anything. Until she wakes up in a barren room, chained next to the notorious Rogan Ellis.

1 Reason Kira will never, ever trust Rogan. Even though both their lives depend on it.
   Their every move is controlled and televised for a vicious exclusive audience. And as Kira’s Psi skill unexpectedly grows and Rogan’s secrets prove ever more deadly, Kira’s only chance of survival is to risk trusting him as much as her instincts. Even is that means running head-on into the one trap she can’t escape.

Game Over

My review
Countdown centres on Kira Jordan who lost her who family in one violent night, when someone came into her house and murdered her whole family. Since that time she has been living on the street, that is until she wakes up tied up and sharing a cell with notorious killer, Rogan Ellis. And so begins the uneasy truce between the two to try and reach the end of this very dangerous game. But little does Kira know just how involved in the game Rogan is.

Countdown in very similar to the Hunger Games in that they both feature young people trying to win a game so that they aren’t killed. I think this is why I enjoyed the story so much and also that it was more into the future and kind of like what the future would hold. And of course it wouldn’t be a story worth talking about if there wasn’t sparks flying between the leading characters and a secret that would tear them apart. I won’t get too much into it but it was certainly entertaining to see how it played out in the end and I have to say it was better than I could have imagined. All though I must admit I think the ending left me wanting a bit more.

I really enjoyed the game that Kira and Rogan were playing and that even though there were other players we didn’t really hear much about them. I thought it was very inventive and found I liked it a bit more than the hunger games because there seemed to be trickier challenges that they had to overcome to be crowned victors. But I also loved how it didn’t end when someone was crowned the victor. There was more to come and I think I enjoyed the last 50 or so pages the most in the book.
Before this I didn’t mind Michelle Rowen’s writing (I have read her Wicked series) but after reading Countdown I certainly want to read more by here and I have a whole new set of eyes when it comes to them.
Countdown is certainly a must read for fans of the Hunger Games.

4/5

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