False Hearts by Laura Lam
Oct. 5th, 2016 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
One twin is imprisoned for a terrible crime. The other will do anything to set her free.
One night Tila stumbles home, terrified and covered in blood.
She’s arrested for murder, the first by a civilian in decades. The San Francisco police suspect involvement with Verve, a powerful drug, and offer her twin sister Taema a chilling deal. Taema must assume Tila’s identity and gather information – then if she brings down the drug syndicate, the police may let her sister live. But Taema’s investigation raises ghosts from the twins’ past.
The sisters were raised by a cult, which banned modern medicine. But as conjoined twins, they needed surgery to divide their shared heart – and escaped. Taema now finds Tila discovered links between the cult and the city’s underground. Once unable to keep secrets, the sisters will discover the true cost of lies.
Taema and Tila were conjoined twins who grew up in Mana’s Hearth, a cult that rejects any technology or medicine developed after 1969. Their shared heart failed when they were 16 and although they escaped Mana’s Hearth, the only way to save their lives was to separate them. Tila now works as a hostess at the TransAm Pyramid while Taema was an engineer for Sudice (the biggest company in Pacifica) but is about to take a new job in China.
When Tila is arrested for murdering one of her clients, Taema can’t believe it. The San Francisco police think the murder’s connected with the Ratel (a criminal gang) who are selling Verve (a highly addictive illegal drug that allows people to access their darkest desires) and want to take it mainstream. The police want Taema to assume Tila’s identity and gather information to bring the gang down. Partnered with Nazarin (an officer currently undercover with the Ratel), Taema accepts the deal but the more she delves into her sister’s life, the more secrets she uncovers and the closer she comes to re-examining both her own past and her relationship with her twin …
Laura Lam’s standalone science fiction thriller is an imaginative slick affair and the central relationship between Tila and Taema is deftly drawn such as to justify the book’s breakout success. The focus of the story is the relationship between Tila and Taema and how it’s evolved following their separation such that Tila is now able to have secrets. I really enjoyed Taema’s reaction to the the slow unveiling of those secrets – especially her hurt but also the way it makes her question her faith in her sister. Both women are well drawn with Tila’s sections being used to recount their history with Mana’s Hearth (which I found compelling and believable). The science fiction elements are great – I loved the world building with its technology including implanted chips, accelerated learning, medical and energy advances and so forth – it all felt believable rather than alienating and the scenes set in the twisted Verve dreams are disturbing and evocative. There are some clichés – notably a romance that I didn’t think added much and some of the twists are telegraphed in advance (mainly because the plot points in only one direction) but there’s more than enough here to entertain and Lam well deserves this to become her breakout book.
The Verdict:
Laura Lam’s standalone science fiction thriller is an imaginative slick affair and the central relationship between Tila and Taema is deftly drawn such as to justify the book’s breakout success. The focus of the story is the relationship between Tila and Taema and how it’s evolved following their separation such that Tila is now able to have secrets. I really enjoyed Taema’s reaction to the the slow unveiling of those secrets – especially her hurt but also the way it makes her question her faith in her sister. Both women are well drawn with Tila’s sections being used to recount their history with Mana’s Hearth (which I found compelling and believable). The science fiction elements are great – I loved the world building with its technology including implanted chips, accelerated learning, medical and energy advances and so forth – it all felt believable rather than alienating and the scenes set in the twisted Verve dreams are disturbing and evocative. There are some clichés – notably a romance that I didn’t think added much and some of the twists are telegraphed in advance (mainly because the plot points in only one direction) but there’s more than enough here to entertain and Lam well deserves this to become her breakout book.
FALSE HEARTS was released in the United Kingdom on 16th June 2016. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
One night Tila stumbles home, terrified and covered in blood.
She’s arrested for murder, the first by a civilian in decades. The San Francisco police suspect involvement with Verve, a powerful drug, and offer her twin sister Taema a chilling deal. Taema must assume Tila’s identity and gather information – then if she brings down the drug syndicate, the police may let her sister live. But Taema’s investigation raises ghosts from the twins’ past.
The sisters were raised by a cult, which banned modern medicine. But as conjoined twins, they needed surgery to divide their shared heart – and escaped. Taema now finds Tila discovered links between the cult and the city’s underground. Once unable to keep secrets, the sisters will discover the true cost of lies.
Taema and Tila were conjoined twins who grew up in Mana’s Hearth, a cult that rejects any technology or medicine developed after 1969. Their shared heart failed when they were 16 and although they escaped Mana’s Hearth, the only way to save their lives was to separate them. Tila now works as a hostess at the TransAm Pyramid while Taema was an engineer for Sudice (the biggest company in Pacifica) but is about to take a new job in China.
When Tila is arrested for murdering one of her clients, Taema can’t believe it. The San Francisco police think the murder’s connected with the Ratel (a criminal gang) who are selling Verve (a highly addictive illegal drug that allows people to access their darkest desires) and want to take it mainstream. The police want Taema to assume Tila’s identity and gather information to bring the gang down. Partnered with Nazarin (an officer currently undercover with the Ratel), Taema accepts the deal but the more she delves into her sister’s life, the more secrets she uncovers and the closer she comes to re-examining both her own past and her relationship with her twin …
Laura Lam’s standalone science fiction thriller is an imaginative slick affair and the central relationship between Tila and Taema is deftly drawn such as to justify the book’s breakout success. The focus of the story is the relationship between Tila and Taema and how it’s evolved following their separation such that Tila is now able to have secrets. I really enjoyed Taema’s reaction to the the slow unveiling of those secrets – especially her hurt but also the way it makes her question her faith in her sister. Both women are well drawn with Tila’s sections being used to recount their history with Mana’s Hearth (which I found compelling and believable). The science fiction elements are great – I loved the world building with its technology including implanted chips, accelerated learning, medical and energy advances and so forth – it all felt believable rather than alienating and the scenes set in the twisted Verve dreams are disturbing and evocative. There are some clichés – notably a romance that I didn’t think added much and some of the twists are telegraphed in advance (mainly because the plot points in only one direction) but there’s more than enough here to entertain and Lam well deserves this to become her breakout book.
The Verdict:
Laura Lam’s standalone science fiction thriller is an imaginative slick affair and the central relationship between Tila and Taema is deftly drawn such as to justify the book’s breakout success. The focus of the story is the relationship between Tila and Taema and how it’s evolved following their separation such that Tila is now able to have secrets. I really enjoyed Taema’s reaction to the the slow unveiling of those secrets – especially her hurt but also the way it makes her question her faith in her sister. Both women are well drawn with Tila’s sections being used to recount their history with Mana’s Hearth (which I found compelling and believable). The science fiction elements are great – I loved the world building with its technology including implanted chips, accelerated learning, medical and energy advances and so forth – it all felt believable rather than alienating and the scenes set in the twisted Verve dreams are disturbing and evocative. There are some clichés – notably a romance that I didn’t think added much and some of the twists are telegraphed in advance (mainly because the plot points in only one direction) but there’s more than enough here to entertain and Lam well deserves this to become her breakout book.
FALSE HEARTS was released in the United Kingdom on 16th June 2016. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
