Roses & Thorns

Roses & Thorns

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Eruption: Yellowblown™, Book One by J. Hughey



Blurb:

I’m in the middle of the perfect college semester, hundreds of miles from Mom, with an awesome roomie and my freshman crush finally becoming a sophomore reality—Hotness! I’m figuring out calculus, I’ve got both hands on the handlebars and the wind of freedom in my hair. What on earth could slow my roll?

How about if the Yellowstone volcano erupts for the first time in six-hundred-thirty-thousand (630,000) years, spewing a continuous load of ash (crap) all over North America? Think that’ll put a kink in my bicycle chain?

Make that kinks, plural, because here’s a scientific fact I’ll bet you didn’t know. Nothing ruins the perfect semester like a super caldera. Now that I’ve made you smarter today, maybe you can tell me how to keep my life cruising in the right direction—no to Mom, yes to roomie, double yes to Hotness!—during a global disaster?

My lame name is Violet and, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m not hanging from the side of a cinder cone on the last page of this trauma, but there’s definitely more to come. Unless, of course, humans become extinct and then there’s not. Duh.

Eruption is book one in the Yellowblown™ Series.

Review by Rochelle Weber:


I loved Eruption. I've probably mentioned that twice a week I do volunteer work at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (which I frequently refer to as "the VA" even though it's a Navy and Veteran's  hospital combined). I was so into Violet, Hotness, and the eruption that I came around the corner to the Quarterdeck (the entrance aboard ship or in a Navy facility) where there’s a large-screen TV that’s always set to CNN and saw a map of the US and was shocked when everything was green. I thought, Where’s the red bloom over Yellowstone? The brown smudge spreading across the US? Oh! That’s in the book! It’s FICTION! Thank goodness!


I don’t know if I could survive a disaster of global proportions. Violet gamely learns to load and fire a shotgun, and then goes squirrel hunting. She joins the assembly line on a farm where her grandmother and neighbors corral and kill a dozen chickens and then helps to pluck them while her grandpa and the neighbor’s son drain and gut them so she and her grandma will be able to take them home and can them in a broth made from the offal. I admire Violet’s courage and strong stomach. She adjusts to life mostly without power, helps dig out a pool to divert a stream and learns to live without running water—most of this with the help of Hotness, who is stranded with her family. She even manages to live with her Mom’s “supportocation.” That’s a combination of support and suffocation—a fine line every mother walks and frequently crosses. I love the word!


The eruption of the Yellowstone caldera truly is overdue according to geologists. I’ve seen programs discussing it on PBS, National Geographic, Discovery, etc. It’s one of those Extinction Level Events in my file of, “If it ever happens I’d like my whole family to be together—both daughters, sons-in-law, and all of my grandkids/great-grandkid.” I suppose my sons-in-law’s families would feel the same way.

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. I appreciate that Eruption is the first book in a series, but it was sort of a cliff-hanger, and that’s one of my pet peeves. I really can’t wait for the next book in the “Yellowblown™ Series.” Darn it! Meanwhile, I suspect it’ll be awhile before I can look at a map of the US and not stare at Yellowstone.

Length:  204 Pages
Digital Price:  $0.99

Thanks for visiting. Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle

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