Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Published by HarperCollins on January 3, 2012
Pages: 374
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Romance
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

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In a world of danger
an unlikely alliance
breathtaking adventure
and unforgettable romance...
Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim. Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive. If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

Characters: Aria was a really good lead for this book, she started the book very naive and even kind of... Dumb in certain situations, but I really enjoyed reading her grow, she isn't the kind of character that commit the same mistake twice. On the other front we have Perry, he was definitely a different character, coming from a tribe with different costumes & values was interesting to see his way of thinking - also about the POV's I really enjoyed them, and the funny thing is that their voices aren't particularly different but their personalities are, kind of hard to explain but basically it was easy to differ their POV's. Others characters also deserve a say like Roar (which is my fave 'cause he makes me laugh <3) & Cinder (that I really want to read more about).

Romance: I was kind of "meh" with it, eventually on the book Aria & Perry enter a romantic relationship, but despite I having saw their development and it was nothing like instalove, it still was weird how easy they moved from their hate dynamic (or at least Aria did) to lovers, also there are a LOT of scenes of just the two of them thinking (& mopping) about each other - even before they got together - and just, normally I don't mind romance but this book had a lot of things to do so the romance seemed to have weight it down.

World building & pace: I think the strongest thing of this book is the world building, we have the virtual world kind of matrix-y that Aria lived all her life but also the "savage" world where Perry lives, that has its own magic thanks to the Aether. I really wish we would see more of Aria world because I love this idea of created worlds that you can go but I think this series will always focus more on the real world, but also this whole setting the world & characters made the beginning of this book really slow for me, more towards the middle/end it picked up  but still it isn't exactly a fast paced book.

Overall this book had a lot going for it but ended up being just a little more than an average read, I did enjoy it and want to follow with the series right away so that's good but it missed something.

Recommended to: readers looking for a new take on the whole dystopian world, readers that like matrix, readers who like to read books about people with power, readers looking for something fresh & unique inside the dystopian and sci-fi gender.