Review: Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal

Mothership (Ever-Expanding Universe #1)

by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal

Published: July 10, 2012

Publisher: Simon&Schuster Books for Young Readers

Hardcover, 320 Pages

Teen pregnancy is never easy—especially not when extraterrestrials are involved. The first in a new trilogy.

Elvie Nara was doing just fine in the year 2074. She had a great best friend, a dad she adored, and bright future working on the Ares Project on Mars. But then she had to get involved with sweet, gorgeous, dumb-as-a-brick Cole—and now she’s pregnant.

Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship—and one of them turns out to be Cole. She hasn’t seen him since she told him she’s pregnant, and now he’s bursting into her new home to tell her that her teachers are aliens and want to use her unborn baby to repopulate their species? Nice try, buddy. You could have just called.

So fine, finding a way off this ship is priority number one, but first Elvie has to figure out how Cole ended up as a commando, work together with her arch-nemesis, and figure out if she even wants to be a mother—assuming they get back to Earth in one piece. --Goodreads

4.5 Stars

Review

I would have never read this book if I hadn't won this in a giveaway because I honestly think that I would've never picked up this book for myself otherwise. When I read the Goodreads summary of Mothership, it sounded like The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a TV show about a pregnant teen and her life, a show I dislike so very much, in space, but I decided to give this book a chance anyway and boy am I glad that I did. 

In no way are Secret Life and Mothership similar. First, the protagonist saved people from evil alien invaders and in my book that makes said person a kick-butt protagonist. Elvie, the only thing I didn't like about her was her name, is hilarious. From the beginning of the book her sarcasm had me laughing. Also she is really smart, but what do you except from someone who fixed a toaster when she was six? One of my favorite scenes of Elvie is when she hijacks a vending machine into giving her ice-cream. 

Aside from the protagonist, I think my favorite character would have to be Ducky. He's Elvie's best friend who is always there for her no matter what. He's also a total nerd, but I found his nerdiness so endearing. 

As the Goodreads summary says, Cole is "dumb-as-a-brick." My first impression of him was that he's just your average, clueless jock. I never really cared for Cole as a character, but the more I read, the more he grew on me. Due to Cole's stupidity, he had some really funny lines. 

Ever thought that your teachers were aliens? Well at the Hanover School, they really are. But like all the alien books I've read so far, there are good aliens and there are bad aliens. The teachers are the bad aliens (of course) and Cole and Captain Bob, the people trying to save Elvie and the other girls, are the good aliens. As always the good and the bad fight, giving this book a lot more action and fighting than I had expected from this book. 

I liked this book much more than I thought I would :)

Purchase this book here: Amazon / Barnes&Noble / The Book Depository