Book Review: Three by Kristen Simmons

Ember Miller and Chase Jennings are ready to stop running. After weeks spent in hiding as two of the Bureau of Reformation’s most wanted criminals, they have finally arrived at the safe house, where they hope to live a safe and quiet existence.

And all that’s left is smoking ruins.

Devastated by the demolition of their last hope, Ember and Chase follow the only thing left to them—tracks leading away from the wreckage. The only sign that there may have been survivors.

With their high profile, they know they can’t stay out in the open for long. They take shelter in the wilderness and amidst the ruins of abandoned cities as they follow the tracks down the coast, eventually finding refugees from the destroyed safe house. Among them is someone from Chase’s past—someone he never thought he’d see again.

Banding together, they search for a place to hide, aiming for a settlement a few of them have heard about…a settlement that is rumored to house the nebulous organization known as Three. The very group that has provided Ember with a tiny ray of hope ever since she was first forced on the run.

Three is responsible for the huge network of underground safe houses and resistance groups across the country. And they may offer Ember her only chance at telling the world her story.

At fighting back.

Thank you very much Tor Teen for sending me a review copy for this book.

As you all know, I really enjoyed reading Article 5 and Breaking Point. It is a really good dystopian series, full of action and thrill.

I felt the same way about Three. It started off really well. I was quickly drawn back into the world. I was really intrigued finding out how their adventure would end.

Now, let's talk about each thing I liked:

1-Characters: Definitely the highlight of the whole book. The character development was really well-done. And I'm not speaking about the main characters only. The secondary characters beautifully evolved as well. As I kept moving forward with the story, each of them surprised me. I have to say, I very much enjoyed reading about Jesse and Tucker. They might all have made many mistakes (some of them were even unforgivable), but how their storylines unfold is splendid.

2-Writing style: Without any doubt, we revisit Ember's head to see the story from her eyes. She tells us the story and makes it move forward. The writing style works with the world and presents many emotions that Ember feels. Sad. Happy. Excited. Scared. Disgusted. It's all there.

3-Plot: The plot of the third book in the series, ironically titled Three, is smart and action-packed. I truly understood why this book is called Three, and that realization makes your head spin. It wraps up wonderfully and we get to see many different types of dangers throughout.

Next, let's speak about the few problems I had with this book:

I really appreciate Kristen Simmons's writing style because it blends with her story well, but in the middle of the book, towards the last 100 pages, the plot suddenly started to go nowhere and I wanted it to go to the point. It started to suddenly drag for no reason.

Also, there is another issue that I disliked, but I don't necessarily think that Simmons's is at fault there. Even though I liked how the story ended, it fell a little short for me. Many things that happened in this book had previously already happened in different dystopian books that I've read. There wasn't any new element. Simmons could have enhanced her creativity a little bit in that aspect. The reason I said that Simmons is not entirely at fault here is because publishers are selling many dystopians. It's starting to become about the quantity, not about the quality. Article 5 is a good dystopian series, but there are so many average dystopian books right now. I really hope that this aspect will improve in future dystopian books and even Simmons's books.