Icons by Margaret Stohl
Series: Icons #1
Published by Little Brown on May 7, 2013
Pages: 428
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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Your heart beats only with their permission.

Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.

Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.

She's different. She survived. Why?

When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.

Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.

Icons, Margaret Stohl’s first solo venture, let me down in a lot of ways.  I was expecting a fast-paced book full of pulse-pounding action and suspense and that is definitely not what I got.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it could have been great.

The biggest issue I had with Icons was the pacing.  It was so slow!  I think the story would have been good if I could just get into it.  There were times when I almost gave up because I just felt like I was trudging through mud.  I couldn’t seem to make any progress.  There was a lot of history about Ro, Dol, and what happened on The Day but it felt more like an info dump than anything.  While the history behind The Day and all that stuff was interesting, I felt like there was maybe too much of it.  It actually was quite confusing to me.  I wasn’t sure what the Icons were or what they did and I really didn’t understand why some people survived The Day and others didn’t.  I think I probably missed a lot of info because I was bored by it.

I didn’t feel any sort of connection with Ro, Dol, Lucas, or Tima.  I felt like Lucas was the privileged child that just did everything he could to test his limits.  Tima was the misunderstood girl with a bad past.  Ro was the typical best friend who has been in love with Dol since forever and she’s never noticed.  Then there was Dol herself.  She didn’t really seem like someone who could lead some sort of revolution.  She was a little too timid for that although she did seem to come into her own throughout the course of the book.  I just felt like all the characters were very undeveloped and lacking the strength to hold the book together.

The plot took forever to pick up.  I made it about 75% through the book before anything seemed to happen.  Then things actually got interesting.  It seems like at that point all the historical info has been told and there is finally room for a plot.  I do feel like the pivotal moment was a bit rushed and the whole ending seemed a little abrupt but it did redeem the book for me.  It’s got me interested to see how things are going to take off in the next book.

Overall, Icons wasn’t what I expected but it did get me excited to continue the series.  It holds a lot of potential, things just need a bit more development.

What others are saying about Icons:

Book Swoon’s review: “Although the ending came on a little abrupt, everything was wrapped up nicely and set the stage for further development of the storyline in the next book.”

Chapter by Chapter’s review: “I’d recommend Icons to readers that are looking for a dystopian novel with a twist, readers who are fans of alien invasions and readers who want a story about love and death.”

Realm of Fiction’s review: “Despite its flaws (and believe me, there are several), there is enough basic potential for the concepts here to excite and demand attention.”