https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249223833-girl-with-the-gifts
Book Blurb:
Transformation has a cost, and the price is everything she loves.
Aviana “Avi”, a perfume chemist, is about to earn the promotion she’s dreamed of. But when Pacific Perfume’s prized lavender oil is sabotaged, Avi becomes the convenient scapegoat.
Determined to clear her name, Avi plunges into a hidden world, forging unlikely alliances and drawing the attention of an enemy whose reach is ruthless and resolve relentless.
When her plan goes horribly wrong, she’s forced to partner with the last man she wants in her her ex-fiancé, Fritz.
Fritz can no longer keep his secret locked he isn’t human. She isn’t human.
They’re Grounders. And with each passing day, Avi’s dormant power, Slyfen, tests the limits of her control.
Fritz vies to stand by her side, but Avi must rise alone to become who she was never meant to be, for some truths burn hotter than fire.
*High Gravity Audio books ALC *Romantic Fantasy *Slow Burn *Elemental Abilities
*found family *Family drama *love triangle (kind of) *mystery *just kisses *action
*Ending *secrets revealed
Thoughts:
I think to start with I was kind of thrown off by this book because the blurb had me thinking this was going to be a story about Aviana a perfume chemist finding out that someone is sabotaging her at work with maybe some romance on the side... I think I'll start by saying this was just a very small portion of this story like it's in the beginning of this book then sporadically thrown in throughout the rest of the book to maybe just remind us as the reader that this is still being thought of... the remainder of the story this plot line is on the back burner on another stove in another galaxy far far away.
It took me a bit to get into this story but I kind of had to throw out this blurb entirely and just go with the flow for this one. So I'll talk about what this book really turned into being:
Aviana has thrown herself into work as a perfume chemist to keep her mind off of her broken relationship with her ex Fritz... she just doesn't understand what happened he proposed to her then very shortly after just decided things were off and left on a secret mission for work which he wouldn't talk about. While at work Avi discovers that there is something wrong with the ingredients in the perfume formulas it feels like sabotage and while she knows she didn't do anything to the perfume she is determined to find out who is responsible since this could have a negative effect on the company.
There is another plot line where a larger number of people with genetic "defects" are going missing (being abducted) and while coming out of work one evening someone attempts to take her but she is saved when a handsome stranger helps protect her against the attackers... he happens to be a private investigator.
I listened to this book and I felt the narrators did a good job but I'm not sure if this handsome strangers name is Raidan? (maybe... that's what I'm going to call him). Avi enlists Raidan to help with finding out who is sabotaging things at work. He agrees to help but basically tells her that she has to be ok with how he accesses the information. From this point on the story very rarely goes back to her work life... I'm not sure how much time has passed at any given time and the work mystery only comes back into play a few times.
Avi feels that something was off with the people who were trying to abduct her... she at first feels maybe she was just seeing things since she was scared... but it turns out that there are "Grounders" (essentially aliens from a different planet living on earth... their planet is low on resources and some now live on earth). Grounders have special elemental abilities that are very vast and kind of hard to keep track of... if you watch anime consider this like all the different abilities/quirks from My Hero Academia or Hunter x Hunter (etc...).
Avi shortly after learns that everything she thought she knew of her life is a lie, she was a foster child and doesn't remember her parents only that she was abandoned when she was younger. From there she finds that her ex Fritz is a grounder from this other planet and she is too. Avi is color blind and quick to develop stress rashes... but it turns out that Avi has special elemental abilities but when she was sent to earth someone on her home planet had a binder implanted so that if she tries to use her abilities she can't (or she gets the rash), most of the other people closest to her are Grounders and were sent to guard her while she's on earth... and all of them were also sworn to secrecy in that they were not allowed to tell her any of this and have taken the decision away from her to know her past and about their lives on this other world naturally she gets upset that her life has been decided for her (Naturally they have mind wiping capabilities... think men in black type stuff).
Avi starts to fight her growing feelings towards Raidan (?) and her old feelings of being near Fritz again as they both help her navigate her new normal of learning more about the culture of her home planet, her lineage, her family drama, and her abilities... if she is ever able to use them.
Avi also finds out more about why Fritz left and why his mom seems to harbor some harsh feelings towards her. She struggles throughout with wondering who she can actually trust since she has been lied to by everyone close to her for ages and the new guy in her life Raidan can she trust him? Time will tell.
She decides to learn how to defend herself (her friends help) which comes in handy as the Grounder Hunters are still after her and take her a few more times throughout the book where she needs to be resourceful sometimes she gets away and a few times she is captured.
A few times after this it will be randomly dropped that she went to work for a day or they found more information about the sabotager... but it felt kind of thrown in to keep that plot line going not that it really was fitting the story line at the time.
Avi learns that the binder that's implanted has an expiration date and it's coming to the end of it if it isn't removed by then there will be severe complications (death)... but they need a special doctor from their home planet to remove it... and the one that knows how to do it and is in the area is a mad man who likes to do unhinged experiments... oh no... she needs this guy though maybe they can come to an agreement?? If they can find him.
There is also another plot line where there is a missing tiara that binds with the wearer and releases some kind of evil entity but only Grounders with certain abilities can even attempt to wear it... naturally Avi is one of the ones with an ability that can bind with the tiara. There are several people after the missing Tiara and While Raidan has been tasked by his employer to find and return the tiara... Fritz has been tasked to find the tiara to destroy it by his employer...drama!!
Overall once I got into this story I enjoyed it wasn't what I was expecting and it ended without finishing out the full story but I would like to check out the next in the series to find out where it goes next.
The narrators did a good job with this story and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.
Thank you to the author and High Gravity Audio for this ALC copy!
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