Boston's Quest by Shanae Branham

Series: Holoquest #2

Publication: July 1st 2015 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Source: Received this for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Shanae!

Goodreads Summary: The external drive containing the information for building a hologram machine is stolen and sold on the black market. Now someone has connected a new hologram machine to the Internet, forcing people to fight for their lives in an online fantasy game. Trapped inside this deadly scenario, seventeen-year-old Boston Manning learns that her weakness for tolerating abuse is stopping her from unlocking her elven powers. Can she overcome her character flaw or will she die trying?

In book 2 of the Holoquest Fantasy Series, Boston and Jason return with another action-packed, romantic adventure. Boston’s Quest will electrify your imagination as you experience elves, dwarfs, trolls, priests, vampires, and demons as you’ve never experienced them before.
Goodreads Page

My Thoughts:

I loved this book even more than the first one (I have a review of the first one up on my Goodreads too if you want to check it out!) which is something very unusual for me in sequels. I'm not sure what exactly it was about this book, but it engrossed me even more than the first one. And that's really saying something since I was so engrossed in the first book that I read it in one day! Even though the main conflicts of the book take place about halfway in, I was still completely invested in read I loved this book even more than the first one (I have a review of the first one here!) which is something very unusual for me in sequels. I'm not sure what exactly it was about this book, but it engrossed me even more than the first one. And that's really saying something since I was so engrossed in the first book that I read it in one day! Even though the main conflicts of the book take place about halfway in, I was still completely invested in reading about Jason's and Boston's post-Comfort Killer lives. After such traumatic events, it was interesting to see how they moved on with their lives and to catch up with them. I loved that even the minor characters are picked back up and that nobody is forgotten as can sometimes be the case in action-packed books. I'm glad that Isaac wasn't just dumped off to the side after his disappearance and that we get a glimpse of the infamous evil man that we came to hate in the first book. One of the things I was hoping for after reading the first was to dive more into Isaac's disturbing thoughts and motivations and also to see more of Boston. Although we don't necessarily get to see deeper into Isaac's mind, we definitely get to see more of how much exactly he's come unhinged. And, obviously, since this book is called Boston's Quest, we get plenty more of Boston in this sequel. And, of course, I still love Jason. I also particularly loved the pacing of this book. It kept me engrossed and it was difficult to put the book down when I needed to do schoolwork, etc. My mind would still be on the book as I went through my day, trying to piece together what was happening. Even though the book is told in three different point of views, I think it was executed perfectly and I loved getting to see things through the characters' eyes. I also really liked the new character of Oscar introduced in this book. He's such a quirky character that has so much more to him than you would anticipate. I'm interested to see what he will do in the coming book. Lastly, the action/plot! Wow! I LOVED the idea and the execution of our characters being taken into a video game. It's so interesting! The video game premise and elements were explained well enough and I perfectly understood everything that was going on. I loved the fantasy elements to the game and the extra fun that fantasy brings that allows characters to have powers. I can't wait to read the next book and see what the motivation is behind all of it! When I came to the end of it, I was so invested that it was disheartening to realize that this was only the beginning! Likes: Jason. Boston. Awesome balance between the alternating point of views. The video game is such an awesome idea! Difficult to put down! Dislikes: It isn't explained how Boston and her fellow captives are put into the video game. Obviously if you've read the previous book and know how it ends, you'd be able to work out for yourself how it's possible and the ending character reveal gives you another clue, but I think it might be something that would bother an ordinary reader. Overall: Recommend? YES!