The Athena Effect

by Derrolyn Anderson

[Kelsenator]

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The description above tells a lot about what happens in the beginning of the book, aside from the cute romance and the reason behind Cali’s special gift, so I won’t go into detail about it.

First let’s talk about the characters. Both have the nickname Cal, but as the story goes on they get differentiated to help not confuse us; Cali (Caledonia) and Calvin. Cali has lived a very sheltered life in the wood, with no hot water or electricity, but she was actually very happy growing up. As she comes into the big city, she has to learn so many things and adapt, but she manages to do it and still be fascinated. She has a special power, where she can sense emotions in people and animals in the form of colours. This power can also manipulate those emotions, to calm for instance. I really liked her strong character, she was smart and kind and fun to read about too.

Calvin is the tough guy with a motorcycle and player for all the girls. When he meets Cali, he starts to change. Nothing dramatic that’s unbelievable, but he starts to notice her, to try to get her to talk. He can’t stop thinking about her, even though she’s sometimes frustrating, and the fact that she’s different than other girls makes him fall hard. He’s actually a really nice and sweet guy, but over the years he’s hardened up because of what happened to his family and their loss.

The first half of the story focuses on Cali’s adaptation to her new life, Calvin chasing after her and their romance budding, which was super cute by the way! There are some implied sex scenes, but nothing that’s too graphic. (Totally random, but when they did have sex, my Kobo said it was at 69% done! It made my day.) After that, the rest of the plot comes up, which involves her powers and the history behind them. Of course there’s much more than you’d think, including a crazy old guy who has the mad-scientist thing going on.

The structure of the story goes through the different perspectives of the characters. It switches during the chapter, but once you get used to it it’s really not that confusing. I only wish that they started figuring some of the stuff about the Athena powers earlier on in the book so it could have had more time to sink in. There was also mention of another book out in 2013 continuing this series, so I’ll be waiting to see what happens next!