To read an interview with Christine, please see the February 2017 issue of Uncaged Book Reviews.
Terra Nova is a Top Read for February. The 2nd novel in this series was reviewed in an earlier issue, but is revisited here.
In Irina’s Cards
Christine Hart
SciFi/Paranormal
Irina Proffer leaves mundane small-town life behind when she experiences visions inspired by a strange deck of tarot cards. To get answers, she travels from her northern British Columbia home to the province’s coastal capital. She quickly discovers a world of fringe genetic science and supernatural mystery.
Working for Innoviro Industries, Irina is drawn in by a powerful first love and compelling, yet dangerous questions about the nature of the company’s business. Meeting other ‘variants’ brings Irina closer and closer to the dark truth about her origins. She finds herself at the heart of two overlapping love triangles as she scrambles to escape her employer’s grip. Before she leaves the city, Irina realizes she has merely scratched the surface of a frightening conspiracy on a global scale.
Uncaged Review:
In Irina’s Cards by Christine Hart is the first book in the Variant Conspiracy Series. I read the series out of order, but I am glad to say that getting to read book one has answered a few questions I had from the previous review I had done. Christine’s world is a little more full now with the first book’s information. I’m still not 100% clued in on everything that the previous had left me wondering, but that is the point of a good series. This series is by far one of my favorite Paranormal Sci-fi Mystery series. Once again, she hasn’t let me down.
Book one tells how Irina came across the group she gets involved with. This group of ‘talented’ people are what I would consider super-human or mutants. There are several people that Irina comes across that have unique abilities, some friend or foe, and she is left to figure out where they line up in her new world. She goes to Victoria from her home town of Prince George looking for ‘work’, but in reality she has gotten her ‘powers’ which has led her to Victoria seeking answers. This leads to her meeting other unique people, landing a job with them, and forming a interesting love triangle.
Christine does a wonderful job, yet again, describing the places that she is writing about for the setting. It’s almost like I can see it perfectly in my mind, or smell the scents she describes. It has a little bit of romance tied into the book, but overall I still consider it an Adult Sci-fi Mystery. I loved this book, as well as the series so far, and look forward to reading more of the Variant Conspiracy. My real only complaint is there were a few small places where it seems something got overlooked. A key to key card for example, or some wording felt wrong. Other than that, Christine delivered a wonderful book once more. Reviewed by Michael
4 Stars
The Compendium
Christine Hart
SciFi/Suspense
Irina and her renegade variant friends are scrambling to pick up the trail of their former employer, Ivan, and his globally catastrophic scheme. After strategically sharing their story with the media, the group heads south from Vancouver to Seattle hoping to recruit more experienced—and lethal—variants to their cause.
Their attention develops a laser focus on an engineered disaster mere days ahead of them. Ivan is using what staff and resources remain of Innoviro Industries to set off a violent earthquake in San Francisco. While they fight to stop the earthquake, Irina pushes the love of her life Jonah as far away as she can, trying to keep his unstable genetic degradation in check.
Irina’s friends think they’ve seen the worst that Innoviro could bring forth by the time they reach a secret facility in the Mojave Desert. As they near the property, the group uncovers a horror none of them had ever imagined.
Uncaged Review: The Compendium by Christine Hart is listed as a sci-fi, romance and suspense novel. I do agree with this to an extent, mostly because some of the things in the book seemed paranormal. I really enjoyed the book, though I didn’t read the first one in the series. It took me some time to get the same connection I probably would have from reading the books in order. So, I highly recommend picking up the first book and starting this series properly because even though I didn’t do it that way, I loved this book for what it was.
This book reminds me of some of the cartoons and comics I read as a kid. I loved that this group of ‘variants’ as they are called were going about recruiting and getting more people to help with their cause. The primary four in this book were a bit interesting with their relationships which took me some time to get used to. It was a well-written book with a nicely detailed world. The intimate scenes in the book were well-written and very enjoyable to read.
Overall, I loved this book and it makes me want to get the first one and the remaining books in the series when I can. If you enjoy series like X-Men and things like that as comics, give this author’s Variant series a shot. Reviewed by Michael
4 Stars
Terra Nova
Christine Hart
Post-Apocalyptic/Paranormal
The end of humanity and an unrecognizable future Earth are now days away. After their first glimpse of the Terra Nova virus, Irina and her variant friends know their former employer’s plans are almost at hand. Their failed attempt to publicize Ivan and Innoviro Industries’ horrific activities has left them utterly reliant on their own wits and weapons.
After surviving a catastrophic earthquake in San Francisco and destroying a secret viral testing facility, Irina’s crew has traveled by a variant portal to London. On the other side of the world, they begin tracking when and where Terra Nova will be unleashed on the world. They know stopping Terra Nova is only the beginning of unraveling Ivan’s plans to reinvent the planet, but if they
can’t stop this virus, there will be no one left to save.
Excerpt
Faith returned with four glowing green drinks in a cup holder tray. Clear plastic cups, lids, and straws let the liquid inside glow through. It smacked of something that would spawn ninja turtles. “These are the Incinerator’s own toxic spills. They’re just vodka and sprite with a capful of that crap they put in glow sticks. Did you know you can drink that shit?”
Jonah reluctantly took a plastic cup. “Are you sure we should drink it?”
“It’s not going to kill us. No more so than the alcohol.” Ilya picked up a cup and took a long generous pull on his straw.
I took an experimental sip. It tasted like vodka and sprite. There was a mildly synthetic aftertaste, but nothing toxic. I took another, much larger sip. Aha – the warmth I’d been craving since my shower. I might stand a chance of sleeping tonight after all.
Jonah followed my lead and took a slurp on his straw, pausing to let the liquid do its work. He leered at me with a devilish grin and grabbed my hand, pulling me off to the dance floor. His touch radiated energy into me, right through my skin waking up every cell in my body.
He leaned down and kissed me, running his hands through my hair. His powerful grip felt restrained, as though his mind fought to control his body. The intensity surpassed our first night together. After we had spent so long mocked by his unstable mutation, first hurting me and then nearly killing him, we were both finally stronger than ever.
“I can’t help myself. I need to touch you. I don’t ever want to let you go. We’re going to make up for some lost time tonight.” His lips brushed my ear as he spoke. His fingers traced the line of my neck and it sent shivers down my spine. So much for sleep!
Uncaged Review: Terra Nova by Christine Hart is book three in the Variant Conspiracy series and is my favorite thus far. This review will be hard for me to write as I do not want to give away spoilers of its amazing finale. I honestly hope she continues the series as a whole as I believe with that ending it could have another, but I feel like if she doesn’t it was a satisfying end to a great story. I began this series in the middle and was able to get the first and third book after reviewing the second. I regret nothing. Christine Hart does an amazing job with her series on keeping me clinging to the words for more. Each book was a pleasure to read and each one was better than the one before it.
This book continues following Irina and her group of Variants through their journey against Ivan and Innoviro Industries. Having met all of them through this company when they all worked for Ivan at one point, the group is now determined to right the wrongs of the evil man’s plans. After failing to do so in the second book, this book leads you on the final leg of their battle to save humanity as we know it.
I love books like this where the hero is an unlikely person and through the course of the series they develop into a person. From book to book Irina and her group grow as individuals and as a group. You see how they handle things, how they develop feelings and bonds to one another, then finally how they handle the final leg of their journey against Ivan. In the end I was very pleased with how Christine Hart wrote the characters, this world, and how she ended it. I would recommend this entire series to any reader who enjoys suspenseful sci-fi. Reviewed by Michael
5 Stars
