Review of the Book The Contaminants - A New Dakota Series by Devin K. Smyth

I received this eBook for free in exchange for my honest review, which this is.

Contaminants is a dysotopian read based on the world going into chaos and war. This was caused primarily by a discovery of a new energy source, called Osmosynthesis, relieving the need of oil. A chain of events from this discovery led to a nuclear war and the need for the earth's environment and population to be 'reset.' The book begins in the present aboard a space ship 3 years after this reset. The ships supplies are being depleated and scientists are trying to figure out if their reset experiment on the earth was successful and if they could soon safely return to the earth. After seeing hope of human life still on earth they do return to asses the situation and teenager, Jessil and her siblings hoping to find their father who was left behind. We find out further that Jessil's friend, Saraj, has a father with alternate plans and we discover whether or not human life exists and if the planet really is habitable.

We go through the story with two teenage characters points of view, Jessil and Soraj. I liked the two different points of view and that each chapter began with telling you which point of view we were reading, the day (in reference to when the calamity started) and the time. This made it easier to stay on track with the characters and also to know when the story jumps back to the past or how much time has elapsed in their journey. 

It was a thought out futuristic plot and explained how the world got to that point. The earth as it was and how it is now was explained. The only detail I wish there was more of was what the characters looked like and their personalities. There was brief discussion about some of there characteristics in the beginning but not much more into it than that so I struggled a little with picturing then in the story and how they would react to situations. Also when we went in-between Jessil and Saraj it seems like how Saraj saw Jessil was very contrary to her actions when you read through her point of view. Perhaps just Saraj's lack of real observation? Or too much observation being the son of an uptight scientist? 

I was also a little confused about Jessil and Saraj's relationship. It seemed like a brother-sister type friendship where he just looks out for her but then Jessil's brother, Ben, makes a sarcastic comment about them just kissing and getting it over with but I don't ever recall any romantic thoughts or comments coming from either Jessil or Saraj. Did Been see something happening that they hadn't realized yet. It is called Contaminants - The New Dakota Series so perhaps we'll see relationship clarification further in the book series and hopefully there will be more books. I really enjoyed this book and read through it quickly wanting to know what was happening next.

You can also see my review here on amazon and a link to the book. Enjoy! Amazon 

Review of Oreida Easy Tater Tots

I got the opportunity to try @Oreida Easy Tater Tots courtesy of @Influenster and #Oreidapotatoes. The box was specially designed to crisp the tater tots in the microwave in only 3 1/2 mins. The microwave people!! No waiting for an oven to preheat or starving while waiting for baking and you still get the crispy crunchy outside. Super amazing what a microwave can do with a magic box to cook things in. These were really great for a quick lunch side when you're having the same old boring sandwich. Really impressive. The only thing I wish is that you got more than one use our of the box. I'm not sure how you could do that but they were a pretty good price for what you got to feed your kids as a snack or side. Thanks Oreida! They also have fries too!