[I received a digital edition for free in exchange for an honest review]

 „After Impact” is Nicole Stark’s debut novel and I must admit she did a very nice job! This novel approaches a theme that I enjoy very much: what would happen to humanity if a catastrophe were to occur on Earth? Would we be able to stand together and survive? Would we be able to rebuild our planet?

In this case, an asteroid hits Earth so a few people are accepted to enter HOPE habitat. HOPE is an acronym for Humanity’s One Plan for Escape and is basically a shelter with state of the art technology constructed to survive the impact and the post-asteroid Earth. 5000 people were put to sleep in cryochambers and should wake up in batches and get accommodated to the shelter’s rules as well as get prepared for the new Earth. One of them is Avalon, whose father discovered the asteroid and was as well a key person in building HOPE. Unable to join his daughter, he leaves her an encoded message alerting her that there is danger on board and she must trust no one. Avalon thus starts to investigate the mysterious disappearances and deaths, while trying to fit in the new habitat.

The book is divided in twenty-six chapters, all containing a thrilling action and a regular dose of mystery. There is not so much romance going on, as Avalon’s main focus is to find out what’s going on in the shelter. I do admit the writing is a little reckless at times. There are characters not ell defined and an abundance of directions in which the action could shift. Even if it left me the impression of a chaotic mix of possibilities, I loved the unpredictable turns the plot had at every page. So in the end something nice came out of it.

Regarding the characters, I will stick to Avalon only, as the others were not so good shaped. I didn’t like her very much in the beginning, but I slowly came to understand her, as she proves to be brave when the situation requested. She is also in need of affection, that’s why she gets attached to one of her friends – Ilium. She follows her father’s advice and eeps an open eye to everything around her. Though, I believe some of the hard work was actually done by Ilium.

I was writing a few lines up about the unpredictable action. Well I can assure you that the ending will blow your mind. I’d say this is where the real action starts. Too bad (actually …good) there’s a next book for which we’ll have to wait.

So coming back to my initial questions: would humanity be able to unite in order to survive a catastrophe? Check Nicole Stark’s book and draw your own conclusions. Would humanity be able to rebuilt earth? For that we will have to wait book #2! Congratulations to our author for a great debut novel and thank you very much for trusting me with a copy of it!