Series: Aurora Cycle #1
Release Date: May 7th 2019
Publisher: Rock the Boat
Pages: 478
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: I bought a copy of this in my local Waterstones
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Synopsis

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They’re not the heroes we deserve. They’re just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

Review

Aurora Rising was one of my most anticipated releases of 2019. I adored the Illuminae Files and I was hoping this would be just as fun and exciting. If it’s even possible Aurora Rising was even more incredible than I had hoped and it was an immediate five star read.

The story follows Squad 312, a group of Legionnaires who are flung together as the academy dregs no one else wants on their team. When squad leader Tyler discovers the girl he rescued from space stowed away on his ship it sparks a series of events that they might not live to see the end of.

Aurora Rising is just the most fun and fast paced story. As can be expected with this space epic it sets a pretty relentless pace and I was constantly trying to squeeze chapters in because I was dying to know what would happen next. There’s a really brilliant cast of characters and I grew really attached to all of them. The book is full of sarky, sassy moments and plenty of banter between these wonderful characters.

The plot is really intriguing and I really enjoyed the twists and turns of the story – some of the surprises were a bit obvious and I saw them coming – but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. There were some emotional moments too and the story certainly ended on an enticing cliffhanger – I’m dying to find out what’s in store next for the squad.

There is a bit more romance in the story than I was expecting and a case of insta-love that I’m not so keen on but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment too much. Overall I thought this was a really fantastic read and if you enjoy fast paced action stories or you’ve read work by these authors before, I’m sure you’ll love this one.