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Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Blue Running by Lori Ann Stephens. Thanks so much to Sofia Saghir at Midas PR for the invite and my lovely paperback copy. Before I share my review here’s what the book is all about:

58950559“Blue Running is a gripping coming-of-age thriller set in post-secessionist Texas. Fourteen-year-old Bluebonnet Andrews is on the run across the Republic of Texas. An accident with a gun killed her best friend but everyone in the town of Blessing thinks it was murder. Even her father – the town’s drunken deputy – believes she did it. Now, she has no choice but to run.
In Texas, murder is punishable by death. There’s no one to help her. Her father is incapable and her mother left the state on the last flight to America before the secession. Blue doesn’t know where she is but she’s determined to track her down. First she has to get across the lawless Republic and over the wall that keeps everyone in. On the road she meets Jet, a pregnant young woman of Latin American heritage. Jet is secretive about her past but she’s just as determined as Blue to get out of Texas before she’s caught and arrested.
Together, the two form an unlikely kinship as they make their way past marauding motorcycle gangs, the ever watchful Texas Rangers, and armed strangers intent on abducting them – or worse. When Blue and Jet finally reach the wall, will they be able to cross the border, or will they be shot down in cold blood like the thousands who have gone before them? Some things are worth dying for.”

Available from: Waterstones – bookshop.org – Hive – amazon

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My Review

I really enjoyed this thriller set in the near future, it hooked me right from the first page and didn’t let go! 

I really liked Blue, and Jet who she met at the beginning of her escape from her hometown. They worked really well together and I loved how their friendship developed throughout the book. I felt sorry for both girls and really hoped they’d survive and get to America safely, despite everything looking bad for them.

There were some very tense moments involving dodgy characters and a very nasty biker group who kept turning up. I don’t normally like bikers in dystopian type novels, but this was a clever twist on that trope.

This was very much a ‘one more chapter’ book, particularly because the chapters were short and the pace was fast. I definitely recommend this to lovers of YA, thrillers and books set in the near future!