Blog Tour & Giveaway: A Soldier and A Liar by Caitlin Lochner

A Soldier and a Liar
Caitlin Lochner
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: February 19th 2019
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult

In a world on the brink of war, four superpowered teens must learn to work together for peace in Caitlin Lochner’s action-packed debut novel, A Soldier and A Liar.

Lai Cathwell is good at keeping secrets. As a Nyte, a supernaturally gifted teenager who is feared and shunned by the ungifted, this skill is essential to survival. Orchestrating her own imprisonment to escape military duty has only honed her ability to deceive others. But when rebels start attacking the city, Lai is dragged back into the fight with a new team of Nytes.

Thrown together with Jay, a self-conscious perfectionist consumed by the desire to be accepted; Al, a short-tempered fighter lying for the sake of revenge; and Erik, an amnesiac hell-bent on finding his memories and his place in the world, Lai realizes she’s facing an entirely different kind of challenge–one that might just be impossible. But if this team can’t learn to work together, the entire sector will be plunged into war.

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My Review:

4 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Dystopian, Mystery, Supernatural, Suspense, Teen--

Lia has spent the last two years locked away in prison, but what nobody knows is that she sneaks out at night to help the underground group of Nyte's who long for peace and acceptance in a world that calls them "demons". When the General she use to fight for asks her to come back to the war effort and stop the rebel Nytes, she agrees, mainly as a way to gather more information for her group. Jay just wants to make himself useful and follow orders, to maybe one day be looked on as a fellow soldier instead of a monster, but what he never expected was to be caught in the middle of a real war he never even knew was coming.

Let's start out with mentioning that I have a total case of cover love going on with this book. It is so pretty and basically perfect for the story- and I can easily picture Lai here. This is a Swoon Reads publishing book which means that readers get a say in what is published and they get to vote on the cover and they did a great job with their selection. High five guys! If you want to learn more about the Swoon Reads website and process go here.

I found A Soldier and A Liar to be an interesting mix of supernatural and dystopian, with lots of action and secrets to keep the reader turning the pages for more.

I found it interesting that one of the main characters, Lai, was seen as "crazy". This is the first time that I have been inside the head of a character that everyone sees as mentally unstable and it was such an interesting ride! I love how her attention flickered randomly, with so many triggers to cause her to lose focus, yet she was crazy smart like a fox. She could see and pick up things that nobody else noticed (like that one person was really a girl and nobody else caught on). At times I doubted what she was doing but then she surprised me as well as her team. I liked that she could keep me guessing.

The other main character was Jay, aka Kitahara was the complete opposite of Lai. He was the definition of focus and drive, never letting his goals strays from the purpose that he was assigned. He was such a kind character, which feels odd to say when he is a battle trained soldier in the middle of a gory war, but it was the truth.

The one aspect of the book that made me struggle a little was that the reader is just blindly thrown into the middle of the book, with Lai locked up in prison for an unknown action, in a unknown world that has people (kids only it seems) with powers potentially due to an illness (a la The Darkest Minds series), and no real idea of how anything came to be. And I feel like the world started to come together as I read the book, but honestly it still felt like I was missing some pieces to make the world and the book complete. I was still able to enjoy the story but I would have liked a little bit more of the filler.

This is Caitlin's first book (and very much a series with an ending that hints ar more to come!) and I am really impressed with her storytelling abilities and creativity. I can't wait to see what else she wants to create next.

I reviewed a complementary copy of this title.

Author Bio:

(Um, so, wow bios are hard.) I studied creative writing at the University of South Florida and used my BA in words to become an English teaching assistant in Tokyo. I’m in love with storytelling of any kind, but especially in the form of books, manga, and video games. If you ever want to talk nerdy, I am VERY down.

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