Collide (Taking Trilogy, #3)

by Melissa West

Ari Alexander is now back on Earth, and the world she left behind has been turned upside down. A new leader has risen to power, her friends have become her enemies, and Jackson is thought to be trapped on Loge with her archrival, Zeus. Now Ari must determine who is the true enemy before Zeus attacks and Earth is forced into a battle of the dominant species. Will Ari and Jackson's love give them the strength to survive the greatest war in human history?

• ISBN10: 1622663942
• ISBN13: 9781622663941
• Publish Date: 1 January 2015
• Publish Status: Cancelled
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
• Imprint: Entangled Teen
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[bookishzelda]

This is one of those bittersweet moments. I wanted desperately to read Collide, I wanted desperately to lock it away so I would never have to have Ari and Jackson’s story end. I remember when I first read Gravity and thought, holy cow why haven’t I read this sooner. This is one of my top Sci-Fi series and Jackson will forever be one of my top book boyfriends. I love Melissa’s writing and I am always excited to see what she is going to write next. Now on to my review.

Collide is fast paced from beginning to end. The plot never stops moving, never slows and the characters barely have a chance to breath. This is war that they are gearing up for and taking too long could be the end.

Swoon, swoon and more swooning. Everytime Jackson and Ari are together that’s what I felt like. I just wanted to put them in a protective bubble so nothing could happen to them. They are more of a partnership and that’s what I love about them. It’s not always one trying to protect the other (which obviously they would in a pinch) but they go into the unknown holding hands.

Zeus has always been a fascinating villain. He doesn’t really have physical strength. If you can get to him you could probably easily take him out. The problem is how mentally strong he is, how we can creep into peoples minds and mess with them. How do you fight that? How do you stop someone who almost functions like a ghost. I just kept thinking he must be an interesting character to write.

Ari is of course as always awesome. The thing that I love about her is that she didn’t go to sleep and wake up a superhero. She still has doubts she still hasn’t found her full strength and abilities don’t just come to her like magic. She just has more of real feel to me.

Marry me Jackson….

So this story is focused on war between the Ancients and the humans. Lead really by Zeus and of course there is skeevy Kelvin on the human. Don’t forget about Law as well. With war there is always going to be casualties. That’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to talk about it.

So did I love Collide? Yes I absolutely loved Collide. This final book only solidified this series in my forever Sci-Fi favorites list. I just want to read it all over again because it will never stop being awesome.

[Angie]

Collide is the action packed conclusion to this series! Ari is back on Earth, but she’s not safe from Zeus. Or safe at all really. She’s in an underground facility, where a portion of Earth’s inhabitants and some Logeans have been moved for protection from the imminent war. At least that’s what the new leader, Kelvin says, but we already know he can’t be trusted. But he feels the same way about Ari and demands to know everything she knows about Zeus, so they can fight him. Then she and Jackson are sent on tour in order to train more soldiers, but something really weird is going on at these bases.

I did quite enjoy Collide! There’s never a dull moment, but like the previous two books, something was missing for me that I can’t quite pinpoint. I was happy to get more romance! Ari and Jackson are finally reunited and there’s plenty of kissing (and more!). They certainly do not waste what precious time they have together, especially knowing that one or both of them could die very soon. I also loved seeing them work together! There’s none of this “stay behind and do nothing, because I’ll be distracted and die if you’re out there!” nonsense. Ari and Jackson are equals and fight side by side! Team work! In fact, togetherness has been a huge theme in this trilogy, which I liked.

Of course there’s some twists in Collide. Kelvin has some things up his sleeve, which I didn’t see coming, although it is obvious he’s up to something, just not what exactly. While Ari is devastated by things that happen, she knows this is not the time to grieve or for her to blame herself. She uses it as motivation to kick some alien butt! But she is struggling with what is real and what’s not, since she believes Zeus is messing with her head rather than her just having bad dreams. Zeus is such a messed up villain and I love it! He can terrorize everyone from afar, so they never know when the real attack is coming! Or even what kind of tactic he’ll use. They’re very surprised by what he winds up pulling out of the air…

In the end, I do think Collide was a solid conclusion. It’s really nonstop action, since there’s a war going on. Humans and Ancients alike need to band together and prepare to fight this threat. There’s no more us against them, since a good portion of humans now have xylem in their veins. I did really like that ending. It is a bit too neat and tidy, but it made me smile and that’s all that really matters.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.