Blog Tour: Shift by Raine Thomas

Author : Raine Thomas
Published: Iambe Books, August 2012
Find it! Amazon / BN / Goodreads
About Raine: Site / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Goodreads

Blurb :
As a shapeshifter, Sophia is familiar with change, but even she feels the friction building in her homeland. With the births of the newest Estilorians looming, a Mercesti and kragen now in their midst, another Mercesti hunting for the Elder Scroll, and a traumatized female too afraid to use her abilities to stop him, tensions run high.
Topping off Sophia’s stress is Quincy, the male she’s convinced can’t stand the sight of her. She rues the loss of their past friendship, but can’t figure out how to move past it. She’ll soon learn, however, that mending that rift could bear more significance than she ever imagined.
The hunt for the Elder Scroll takes on unexpected urgency, and Sophia finds herself in a race across the mainland. To try and stop Eirik and his followers, she and her family and friends must get past their differences and unite against him. If they don’t, Eirik will not only acquire immense power, he’ll kill two of the beings Sophia loves most.

This chapter of the Firstborn Trilogy is driven by Sophia.  She is different from the rest of her family.  She has the capability of shape-shifting, which she does not know how to deal with.  While she learns how to accept herself as a special being, she has to deal with her feelings towards Quincy.  From Defy, we know there is tension between them and possibly emotional attachment.  Now we  see how they have fallen in love but are clearly in denial.  Sophia flourishes in this second book.  As the story progresses she becomes the heroine of the story.

Tate appears too, but now accompanied by Zachariah. Tate needs to be rescued again.  The first book left the scrolls quest open and now Tate has been taken for her ability to see the truth and being of high importance to find them.  Something that took me for a surprise was that I thought Tate would be more relevant in this book.  She interacts with Sophia regularly but, Sophia is the MC and is who promotes the action.

I expect to see more of Sophia as the main in a next book.  She is the kind of character from which a new independent story line can be created.  She began with a world of uncertainties but ends this chapter showing her assertiveness and her willingness to love and be loved in return.

The Book:
The first thing I want to emphasizes about Shift is its cover.  It  is a simple yet beautiful image.  The contrast between blue and black works really well.  The second is the level of creativity this author shows.  The story is innovative, the characters are multidimensional and this world provides an infinite set of possibilities for this author to create from.

Rating:
4 of 5

Book trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6u2vwxPf5s&feature=youtu.be

Thanks to YABound for providing me this copy for review purposes on this blog tour.  This book was reviewed according to its merits.