BOOK REVIEW: Damaged Goods

“Blanca has everything she ever wanted, a hot boyfriend named Seth and the loving support of her foster father, Cal. She’s finally escaped the abusive control of her birth father, Barbelo Nemo, and her tortured childhood at Tabula Rasa School. But the scars of Blanca’s Vestal upbringing run deep, especially when the FBI start asking questions. Blanca feels abandoned by Seth who is hunting for Lilith, Blanca’s only blood relative. The Defectos, a support group of Vestal-Rejects, offer Blanca comfort instead.

While the Vestal order crumbles, Chinese rivals called the Guardians rise to power and wrest control of important Tabula Rasa contacts. Now Blanca’s life is in peril once more, and this time, Blanca struggles to recognize friend from foe.”

Please note that I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I take back what I said in my review about Jennifer Bardsley’s Blank Slate book #1 Genesis Girl. The way I read the ending of the book was not quite as extreme as I’d first judged. How do I know this? Because I’ve just finished reading book #2, Damaged Goods, as part of the Month9Books blog hop. The main character, Blanca, has by no means done a 180-degree switch in her deep-set values (to quote my former self). Rather, she is in a state of unrest, picking and choosing between her learnt Vestal values and the persuasion of the tech-addicted world around her, trying to find a balance of her own. A balance that she can accept as being true to herself and not for either extreme.

I actually loved the struggle that Blanca faced in coming to terms with the truth about her parentage and facing the fact that she grew up in a cult that has essentially lied to her her whole life. It reminded me of the final book of the Hunger Games and dealing with PTSD – a topic that most stories tend to glaze over. And being a first-person book, I got to hear it all from her perspective: her every fear, doubt, and the inner battle in trying to figure out who she can trust. I don’t think this series would be nearly as good if it were in third-person, so thanks Jennifer Bardsley!

This book was a page-turner and a quick read, so I found it easy to forgive the spelling and grammatical errors. And it was also, again, a mostly clean book, well suited to a young teen audience.

In a sense, the story ended before it really started. It moved slowly, slowly, in a direction I wasn’t really sure of until all at once the pieces fell together and the story was over. I can see why, though: there’s another book in the works for the Blank Slate series. And I cannot wait to get my hands on it. Gah – give me more! And please would someone option this series for film! I’m not saying it’s a perfect book but there are a lot of things that Jennifer got right about it. The rest can be dealt with in script development.

Title: Damaged Goods (Blank Slate #2)
Author: Jennifer Bardsley
Type: Fiction
Category: Science Fiction
Publisher: Month9Books
Publication Date: January 17, 2017
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 300
ISBN:  978-1945107801
Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | TBD

About Jennifer:

Jennifer Bardsley writes the parenting column “I Brake for Moms” for the Sunday edition of The Everett Daily Herald. She also blogs at Teaching My Baby to Read with the mission of sparking a national debate on the important roll parents play in education. Jennifer is a graduate of Stanford University and a member of SCBWI. She lives with her husband and two children in Edmonds, WA.

GENESIS GIRL was released in 2016 and is about an 18 year-old girl whose lack of a virtual footprint makes her so valuable that she is auctioned off to the highest bidder, the sequel came out on January 17, 2017. Jennifer is represented by Liza Fleissig of the Liza Royce Literary AgencyLLC.

Follow Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

Give away:

On behalf of Jennifer Bardsley and Month9Books, Perfectly Posh are giving away a Posh To Meet You set valued at $20 for all US residents for the launch of Damaged Goods. Enter via the link below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To continue following the Month9Books Blog Hop, check out the tour schedule below:

1/23/2017- Two Chicks on Books– Interview
1/23/2017- Jenn Blogs Books– Review

1/24/2017- Read Coffee and Teen– Excerpt
1/24/2017- Michaela Daphne– Review

1/25/2017- So Few Books– Interview
1/25/2017- Book Review Becca– Review

1/26/2017- Quillable– Guest Post
1/26/2017- Rockin’ Book Reviews– Review

1/27/2017- LILbooKlovers– Interview
1/27/2017- The Starving Bookworm– Review