Reviews

Hive Mind by Heidi Catherine, Tamar Sloan

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yogicath's review

5.0

This is book two of The Sovereign Code and the main characters are River and Echo, one Green Born brought up in the luxury of the Green Zone where food is plentiful, and the other being Dead Born brought up in a life where every day is a fight for survival in the Dead Zone, where nothing can grow. They have discovered some of the secrets that the Green Zone and in particular, that River’s father Oren, has been hiding. Echo was the very first Dead Born to have immunity from bee stings in nearly two decades, whilst River’s own twin sister Flora, was found to be Vulnerable and forced to leave the Green Zone through the black door, to a world she has never known in the Dead Zone. She would be a target for those that live there, who have a hatred for those in the Green Zone and their lives of plenty, whilst their own families die of starvation and have nothing. Oren has placed Echo in the LaB and desperately wants a sample of her blood, but won’t say why. River has been placed back in Eden, where Clover works, and has also been told to mentor Echo and show her around, but to really keep an eye on her and check out her loyalties to the Green Zone! He misses his twin sister Flora and can’t believe how cold his father is about her absence. All he seems to care about is life going on as normal.

In reality, Oren has been testing people to find out who might be the Sovereign, the one who is immune to the sting of a queen bee and would be the answer to immunity for all, from the deadly super bees. It would be the answer to saving humanity once and for all, so long as the same mistakes aren’t made, but Oren has no desire to give immunity to any of the Dead Zone, only limiting it to those he trusts in his small elite group. Echo and River may have started out kind of hating each other, but there is an attraction between them, as well as a sense of trust. They are shocked at the secrets they find and what his father has been doing in secret all these years. Lies will be told to them, some to hurt them, some to protect them. Nothing they do is going to be safe, as they break down the wall of secrets in the search for the Sovereign and the possibility it could be Echo herself who could save them all. The only problem is that there is only one way to test if someone is the Sovereign and that is to have them stung by a queen bee, something that is deadly whether you are Immune or Vulnerable! They also find out personally, exactly how Adrenacure is made and where its main ingredient comes from, which is a scary time! Chase is back and with a bit part to play in this one, as does Flora to some extent. Young Makk is an interesting character and I hope to see more of him in the following stories. Clover is an annoying and deluded character, who believes herself in love with River and that grates as she clearly can’t think for herself or even see what is in front of her! Loads of danger and excitement in this one, as the action ramps up even more. I can’t wait to see what on Earth is going to happen next, as it left us on a bit of a cliff hanger! I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.