Review: The Extinction Trials

The Extinction Trials
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

In Stormchaser and Lincoln's ruined world, the only way to survive is to risk everything. To face a contest more dangerous than anyone can imagine. And they will do ANYTHING to win. But in a land full of monsters - both human and reptilian - they can't afford to trust anyone. Perhaps not even each other...

I freaking love dinosaurs, Jurassic Park is one of my favourite films and I loved Primeval when it was airing, so I had to pick this up because you know...dinosaurs! The start was incredibly intriguing like...hello Plesiosaur! There's also intriguing tidbits of the world scattered throughout that makes you want to know more and our MC has a secret of her own that you're itching to find out! 

The Extinction Trials is basically a voluntary Hunger Games to see who's going to make the cut to get to go and rile up the dinosaurs by partaking in a spot of light egg-napping. Unfortunately everything they've been told doesn't add up and it turns out the dinosaurs are quite intelligent. This is certainly an original read! 

I loved our MC Storm, she's intelligent and determined and she's asking all the right questions. I was fully on her side and I was rooting for her throughout. Our other MC Lincoln, I was less sure of. He's certainly determined and I got where he was coming from and what his motivation was, but I still didn't entirely trust him in the beginning, then he kind of lulled me in to a false sense of security, before I ended up actually saying "Don't be messing with Storm bruh" because I knew he was ultimately going to do something shady. 

That being said, there's plenty of characters who are far shadier than Lincoln for less noble reasons. One of them got what was coming to him but he was really just there to be a complete a-hole and then get his just desserts. There was plenty of tension thanks to all the shady characters, and I was never entirely sure who to trust. 

I really enjoyed the growing bond between Storm, Leif and Lincoln, but like I said...I didn't trust Lincoln, and I had such a bad feeling about what he was going to do. There's plenty of twists and the betrayal at the end I kind of saw coming..but I didn't see how exactly it was going to play out. It was kind of sad to see the three people you where rooting for and who had bonded and worked so well together basically toss each other under the bus. To be fair, Storm did help out Leif and Leif returned the favour. I knew what Storm was going to do, but the conclusion certainly had me on the edge of my seat. 

I'm not entirely sure I ship Storm and Lincoln because while she opened up and trusted him and told him things, he still kept everything to himself and kept things close and didn't really return the favour, I think I need to see more of them to decide! I'm hoping we'll get more of Leif though! 

The Extinction Trials is fast paced and set in an interesting world that had me endlessly curious. It all seems a bit shady and I was fully in agreement with Storm about how off it all seemed, especially when it came to the people in charge and then on Pleiora it was all kind of confirmed and just had me like...okay...they're going to be endlessly idiotic and destroy things, you better sort them out Storm! There where so many surprises and I'm intrigued to see what's going to happen next, what'll happen to the dinosaurs? What' the deal with Reban? I think I know, there where a couple of mildly predictable things but then I wouldn't be surprised if they got twisted too! 

All in all the Extinction Trials is an original and exciting read, and it's certainly a wild ride. There's plenty of tension and it really has you on the edge of your seat...and kind of riding an adrenalin high too when the characters pull things off! The world was nicely described, and certain things where....grimly vivid too! I wasn't expecting quite so much to be packed in and covered in this book so I'm intrigued to see how things will continue and where the story will go from here!