DUALED: HUNGER GAMES FOR 2013?

So the other day while I was at New York Comic Con, I happened to wonder by the Random House booth and looked over the books that they were showing off. To my joy they were giving away advanced readers copies. This is the copy that the publisher puts out there I guess to test the waters. Well I got an advance readers copy of a new young adult novel slated to be released in February 2013 it's called DUALED by Elise Chapman  the first novel by the author.

Okay so here is my sweet intro..

Imagine a world ravaged by a vaccine everyone thought would help. The United States a long with many other countries are plugged into war. But there is a haven, a protectorate named Kersh. Kersh is free of war but keeps soldiers at its boarders at all time, but there is a dark side to living in Kersh. Everyone in Kersh is born with a double called an Alternate. For you to stay in Kersh you have to prove that you're worthy, and the way to prove you're worthy is by finding and killing your Alt before your twentieth birthday.

Safety and peace has it's price and this is what everyone who is of selection age must pay.

Dualed is the story of a young woman coming of age. Fifteen year old West Grayer has trained as a fighter like all the other children in Kersh. West awaits the day she gets her assignment and is able to finally be "complete". West is confident in herself, until a tragic mistake shakes her confidence and now she doesn't know if she is worthy. Shaken West takes off, but if she is to survive, she must stop running and face her Alt, but she must also face the love she is trying to leave behind.

So here are my thoughts on DUALED.

First of all I love the idea of it. Running around life knowing that out there in another sector there is someone who looks exactly like you, but for you to survive you have to kill the other. When I started reading the book the first couple pages grabbed me and I was like okay this seems really great, but then the story started to drag a little, but don't worry that doesn't last for long. 

The main character West Grayer is likable, because she is like every girl out there well besides the fact she can probably kill you. Confident about herself until, something happened to shake that confidence and now she's totally on the fence about herself and the decisions she make. She is the only surviving member of her family which makes you want to like the character more. That she is in this environment having to face this big situation, killing her Alt pushes the characters appearance of being tough but at the same time kind of soft.

We meet a lot of other characters through out the story and her love interest is what saves West's character from coming off like a totally annoyance.

(Question: If you've already read this book AND I've check Goodreads a lot have doesn't it kinda reminds you of Hunger Games except you're not killing others just basically yourself?)

Dualed is filled with action, suspense and even some romance. It might take a while getting there but I think it's worth the wait. So on the La Luna Reader scale I give DUALED 8.5 out of 10. Even though I found myself struggling to get to the end the last couple chapters made up for it.  For more information on DUALED check out Random House, Inc..

Happy Reading.