Once by Anna Carey

This is the second book of the Eve trilogy .At the beginning of the book we find Eve living in Califia, a women only community. She had to leave Caleb wounded to save herself. Arden , her former school mate, soon joins her but not for long,since they are both cheated into believing that Caleb is near and they fall into a trap. Arden in sent back to school and Eve is taken to the City of Sand where she learns that .....

 You will have to read the book to know what she learns but it is something she did not see coming at all. From that moment on, I think the book becomes a mixture of dystopia, soap opera and fairy tale.

They live in a dystopian world, the information given to the citizens is controlled and manipulated,they are afraid of the outside world and The city of Sand is an idyllic but fake place.

Some parts of the plot remind me of a soap opera: there is the married man cheating on his wife,secret children,unrequited love and rendezvous at midnight .

Then , the fairy tale part: the king (even self-proclaimed ones are still kings),  the princess and  the palace.

There is no fairy tale ending, though, the book ends with a cliffhanger .

The idea of people , even after the collapse of the world, accepting a monarchy in America seems a bit far-fetched  and  some of the decisions the main characters made were rather foolish . However I found the book entertaining , and  Eve grew on me gradually .I will probably read the third book.

An entertaining read for a hot summer day.