The Revolutionary
Liberate The Captives
Rogues, Book II, by Kristen Hogrefe

After being sentenced to a labor camp in Rogues Book I, The Revisionary, Portia Abernathy’s story continues three months later, in a coal mine. [You can read my review of The Revisionary here]

The Revolutionary—I was hooked by the opening paragraph. The rest of the paragraphs kept me turning pages far into the night. Like this one:

“Get your cart, idiot,” he says. “We need you to clear the coal from a new tunnel before we can move forward. It’s tight, but you’ll fit.”

These days, there’s not much I won’t fit through.

What happens afterward starts a romp that doesn’t quit, even as the book winds up (on a high note, leaving a smile on my face). I can’t wait to read the next one.

Hogrefe mixes suspense, espionage, angst, pain, and anxiety into the pages, along with a hint, and sometimes more than a hint of romance. Her characters are real and flawed. They fit smoothly into the story line; well balanced and fully told.

The protagonist, Portia Abernathy, may be small, but she’s tough, and keeps moving forward with a strong purpose throughout. Though fear and doubt threatens, she holds hope in her heart to see her loved ones again. She keeps secrets trapped in the steel vault of her mind and heart, while chasing after an elusive dream she stumbled upon in the words of an ancient Bible—a promise of freedom for the oppressed.

Rogues is a young adult (YA) dystopian series that presents a dark and dangerous world without God in it. The powers that be have managed to enslave most of the population and put them to work for the benefit of the ruling class. Hogrefe weaves in historical facts as the students in book one make discoveries about their once proud nation.

Book I, The Revisionary, has won several awards to date, including the Grace Award, and the Selah Award. Though I’m not a young adult, and usually don’t care for dystopian stories, The Revisionary intrigued me. It was so well written and kept me turning pages. Often, book two of a series can be a let-down, but The Revolutionary was anything but. I liked it even better than the first.

Why? Maybe because the first book was laying the groundwork. Even though there was constant danger, the reader is just getting to know Portia and her friends and the world Hogrefe created. And why her friend Luther calls her, “Cotton”.

In Book II, we “hit the ground running”, already familiar with the main character and her friends. As they enter unfamiliar and very dangerous territory, we hold on for an exciting ride. This is my new favorite. I loved it so much, I bought the print versions of both books to give to my favorite young adults—my lovely granddaughters. I know they’re going to love this series.

A little about the author / Kristen Hogrefe’s byline on her website is: Think Truthfully, Live Daringly. She goes on to say,

My fiction stories develop characters that young adults can relate to and that a person of any age can identify with in some way. The choices they make, the situations they face stretch them relationally, physically, and yes, spiritually.

The bottom line is not what happens to the characters, but what the characters do with what happens to them. That’s where the characters grow–and where we can grow right along with them.

This is an author you can feel good about. Maybe, like me, you’re hesitant to read a new genre. But I encourage you to take a chance on this one. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Click to Tweet: In The Revolutionary, Hogrefe mixes suspense, espionage, angst, pain, and anxiety into the pages, along with a hint of #romance. Her characters fit smoothly into the story line; well balanced and fully told. #dystopian

The Revolutionary—Liberate the Captives

Revolutions run on sacrifice … and blood. Three months a satellite prisoner, Portia wonders if the Brotherhood has left her to die—until she plunges into the domain of a smuggler contacted by her brother. But her rescue comes with a price tag, and now, she must forfeit her identity to act as a spy. She learns that her enemies want the Dome to approve mass satellite executions, though no one knows why. Worse, they’re using her friend Luther, now a Court Citizen intern, to sign the short-term orders. She wants to confide in Luther, but can she still trust him with the company he keeps? Plagued by shadows and guilt for leaving her protector Gath behind on the satellite, Portia must find a way, not only to rescue him and the other prisoners, but also to destroy the slave camps once and for all.

Next Week – Hello, Thursday Morning! continues…