Review: The Rules (Project Paper Doll #1) by Stacey Kade

Title: The Rules

Series: Project Paper Doll #1

Author: Stacey Kade

Genre: YA, sci-fi, paranormal romance

Publication date: April 2013

Published by: Disney Hyperion

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis:

1. Never trust anyone.
2. Remember they are always searching.
3. Don't get involved.
4. Keep your head down.
5. Don't fall in love.

Five simple rules. Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane's survival-and that of her adoptive father-depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans, to hide in plain sight from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) "project."

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts Ariane in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief's son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening-and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules.

My rating: ★★★★★

The trouble with rules, though, is that you’ll always be tempted to break one—for the right reasons, due to unavoidable circumstances, because it feels as if there’s no other choice. And once you break one, the rest seem like so much broken glass. The damage is already done.

I had this book on my tbr for 11 years! ELEVEN! That is insane, especially considering how much I enjoyed it! Before starting this book I had read a bunch of, you know, good books, but nothing amazing. And then this one came along and I fell in love with it!

I kept thinking to myself how I needed to get back to reading Stacey Kade’s books because it had been a while since I read anything by her, and then not too long before picking up this book I read Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (pen name of Stacey Kade) and that just reminded me how much I did enjoy her books! Granted, that book has a completely different vibe from her Stacey Kade books, but the writing was great nonetheless! Anyway, I’m so glad to finally be reading more Stacey Kade/S.A. Barnes books because I really enjoy her writing!

Enough rambling, I love this book! The premise was intriguing from the start! Ariane is an alien hybrid just trying to live a normal life and hiding from the lab that created her. And as you can guess from the title, she lives by a certain set of rules so she’s never discovered. But then one thing leads to another and she starts spending a lot of time with one of her classmates, Zane, and she gets a taste of what life would be like if she wasn’t an alien hybrid in hiding. And she likes it. The more time she spends with Zane, the more rules she breaks, and the higher the chance of the lab finding her. I loved Ari, so this life she was living made me so sad. Every moment of every day she had to be SO careful to keep her identity and her powers in check.

“You’re not normal, not one of them. You can’t forget that.”
Fury swelled in me. Like I could forget. Like I wanted to. To be clear, I don’t wish to be more human. After all the thoughts I’ve heard rattling around in your skulls? No thanks. But to have a taste of the ease with which most of you coast through life? Never having to worry about anything other than being yourself? Must be nice.

This made me so sad! Ari is just a teenager who wants to go to parties and kiss cute boys, but she can’t let her guard down for one second or she risks her entire life and that of her dad’s. He saved her from the lab when she was little and has been hiding her from the scientists for all these years. Growing up in the lab... it was horrible! It was intriguing, but so incredibly sad. She didn’t deserve any of that.

I was actually so happy for her when she broke a couple of rules to hang out with Zane because she deserved a little fun and happiness. I was a little iffy about Zane at first because of the people he hung out with, but I ended up loving him! He was SO sweet and caring and I just thought they were so cute together!

But there was so much more to him than being charming and cute. His home life was rough, and it hurt my heart to see how much he had suffered as well. And this is actually a dual POV book so we get to be inside his head and see things from his POV which I appreciated. I just loved Zane I loved seeing how much he genuinely cared about Ari.

And Ari I loved too, of course. She was so sassy and took shit from no one—she was great! And she was very caring as well, defending her one and only friend from a prank. Plus, it was really cool to see her abilities in action. I’m a sucker for cool abilities. Lol.

And speaking of action, this book had a lot of good action (another thing I’m a sucker for 😆)! But I just loved everything about this book! The story was intriguing and heartbreaking, the characters were great, the romance was super cute, and the plot twists were insane! ELEVEN years it took me to get to this book and I’m so mad at myself for not reading it sooner!

Sammy, I knowww 😭

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊