Book Review: The Other Side of Gravity-Shelly Crane

General
The Other Side of Gravity
Series: The Oxygen Series, Book 1
Pages: 262
Genre: Teen/sci-fi/dystopian
Rating: four and a half stars

Buy it here:Amazon

Synopsis

My name is Maxton and I’m a trader. 

I live on a soulless planet where gravity, oxygen, and everything else are sold to the highest bidder on the black market. People are sold on the black market, too. You have to work really hard not to become one of those people. Pay your taxes, keep your friends and family close, and more than anything else—don’t get caught by the Militia. But all the rules changed for me the day I found her. 

My name is Sophelia and I’m a stowaway. 

I’ve been a slave for almost as long as I can remember. Waiting for the one day, one second, for my proprietor to turn his head so I could run and never look back. Now I'm on the run. And on a planet where no one is on your side and people would turn you in for a good meal or a piece of a silver, being on the run on Landu is the last place you want to be. Until he found me. 

I won't survive without him. 

I can't breathe without her.

I've read everything by Shelly Crane. More than a few times. It's come to the point, where I don't even both reading the synopsis anymore. Why bother? I know I'm going to like it. I say this about every book of hers, and not once has it been a let down.

The Other Side of Gravity was so much more.

Sophelia has been through a lot for being young. The world they live in, isn't like ours. Sophelia used to live in the stacks as it's called. A place where the poor live. It's gritty and not a very pleasant place to live, but as a child, she did okay there. Until something happens that sets into events that change her life. Suddenly, the slums don't seem so bad. Where she goes is much worse.

Fast forward about ten years, and she's finally breaking free. She's on the run to-hopefully-a better place. But then she runs into Maxton.

The one thing I love about Shelly Crane, is that the male characters she writes about, are amazing! You can't help but swoon and drool every time one is introduced (unless they're the bad guys!) Maxton was no different. I loved him immediately-even if he does begin on the wrong side of things. Once he meets Sopehlia, he knows she's different. And the second it clicked for him that he wanted her, and would do anything to be with her, he wasn't going to stop until he trusted her and believed her worth. He just wants her to feel free and whole. Here is a scene between them, which stuck with me:

"I've got you, Soph," I assure her, "I promise."

And then my hands slid to the backs of her legs as I picked her up, feeling smug knowing that the gasp she let loose wasn't for show but all too real, and then pressed her to the wall with my hips as I held her there tightly against me. In her eyes, I could see she didn't care that Militia were on the way to us or that she could be about to float away into the atmosphere. No, there was only her and me, the wall against her back and the non-existent space between us."

Swoon.

The world is set up in such a way that fascinates me. I haven't read something like it before. A world where you have to pay for oxygen, fight to keep your home, and work harder than ever before to stay alive. It's interesting to read about a world like this, how it's so different from the Earth they learned about in their one day of school. 

It was nice that we got to meet Maxton's family. They're a good bunch, and I hope to see them again in the next book.

There isn't a lot of stable side characters in this one. It isn't until toward the end when we finally meet two guys who will hopefully stick around for a while. They're pretty amusing to read, as twins who speak at the same time and have a good sense of humor. Here is a part I couldn't stop laughing at (Sophelia's POV):

"Let me at her, Rod!" Fletch fought against his brothers arms around his shoulder. "I'll teach her to dis the Snoop."

"I can't even with you guys!" I yelled in a huff.

Maxton finally came to my rescue. "Come on, guys,  we've got to get serious.z'

"Snoop Dog is serious!" he yelled back. "He's a legend!"

"Elvis is a legend," Maxton argued back.

"Who?" both the twins said at the same time.

I smacked my hands over my face. "I give," I said through my fingers.

Maxton took a breath to calm himself from laughing and asked, "You two are freaking hopeless. How do you know who Snoop Dog is and not Elvis?"

Roddy once again answered, "Mom only allowed the classics in our home."

As you can see, the humor is great. It adds a lighter tone, especially when needed. 

The bad guys are bad, eliciting a shiver of fear and disgust whenever I hear him talk. I'm excited to see how everything will play out in book two!

This is told from both Maxton's and Sophelia's POV. It does end with a cliffhanger of sorts, and you'll be dying for the next one!