Book Review: Settling by Shelley Workinger

Book: Goodreads Website
Author: Goodreads Twitter


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 her friends realize that they aren’t ready to go home; they’re determined to stay on campus and continue their journey of self- discovery. But someone doesn’t feel the same way and will do anything to drive them away – even kill.

Friendships will be tested, abilities will evolve, and more secrets will come out as the teens race to stop the killer before he sets his sights on one of them…

from goodreads


I was very excited to receive Settling from Shelley Workinger a week or so ago. If you haven't read Solid (the first novel in the trilog) you should. I'll link the review here. Anyways, I started reading the novel over last weekend, and this is the very first novel that I read on my new nook. I don't want this to be about ereading so here goes the review.

Shelley Workinger is one the authors that I love, and her debut series has satisfied me quite well. For her second novel, I was spoiled with spoilers before, and I was shocked at first. Then when I read the novel, the spoilers of what Clio does, does not surprise me, and I don't hate Shelley for writing the way Clio is. I wouldn't say that I'm thrilled by the prospect, but I'm not going around hating it. Shelley's writing is wonderful like last time, and I enjoyed the new characters she brought on and the mystery she still brings to a novel that is supposed to be about settling down in your new home.

I have no shame in saying that Clio is the character I love the most in the novel. I don't have any sympathy for some of the side characters. Maybe I'm just brutal and cold, which I doubt because I literally hurt for my favorite characters, but I had no sympathy for what happened to Jack. I think part of it was that you're reminded of what happened in the first novel, but then Jack doesn't do much in the second novel in my opinion. I'm a little sad at the note of how the novel ended, but things are hopefully be brighter, maybe not soon, but hopefully by the end of the last installment.

The main love interest, Jack and Clio are a pair that I never really got. They are the outsiders of all the kids, but some part of me is saying that their relationship never did or will survive. I can't see the connection, and I'm not sure if there's something behind it, or is it just a weird pairing.

The whole tone of the novel was a steady stream of events that you kind of see coming, but me personally, I don't wonder too much about stories when I'm in the middle of reading them, because they usually let me down. I found a same pattern as in Solid, and I knew the pattern of events before they happened. Especially the ending. I never liked or will like anti-climatic endings.

I still have a lot of hope for this series, and I will read the last novel when in comes out soon. I'm lost in how to end these reviews and there isn't much to say. For some reason, I wouldn't recommend this series to a friend because I know no one that'll like this kind of book, and the fact that it's part of me, and I don't want to share it. That's awfully selfish of me, but it's true. Anyways, I give Settling by Shelley Workinger a head nods, thumbs up. (4 out of 5)