The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain

Trapped in a bunker for sixteen years, told that the outside world doesn't exist any more, Ebba is shocked to be elevated to the position of the biggest landowner in the world. Now she must navigate her strange new world without forgetting her old one.


The idea of this really excited me. It's an interesting one. Sadly, I didn't enjoy the read very much. There's no real depth to anything, including the characters. This one is good, that one is bad, and there's not much subtlety. And, like another book I read recently, it doesn't end so much as stop dead, in an obvious effort to get people to read the next one. Honestly, I'd have been more inclined to keep reading if it had finished with Ebba determined to do her best the next time she faced the High Priest, rather than stopping dead in the middle of the confrontation.

It's not an awful read, it just could have been much better. I think that's what hurts the most about it.

Sixteen year old Ebba has never been outside the bunker deep inside Table Mountain where she and 2000 other young adults are working as slaves. 
In a sudden twist of fate she is elevated to join the elite living on the surface in a post apocalyptic world. She's inherited Greenhaven, the last arable farm in the world. Food is the most prized commodity, and she's now the wealthiest person alive. 
Was she elevated because of the mysterious birthmark on her hand or because of the amulet necklace she was wearing as a newborn when she was hidden in the bunker?
The High Priest and his good looking son Hal are especially keen to keep her close to them, but can she trust them? And how can she rescue her three closest friends from the bunker and bring them to the safety of Greenhaven?
When Ebba learns she is the last remaining descendant of Theia, the Earth Goddess she discovers she has a sacred task - to find three lost amulets so the Earth Goddess can return and save the world from a second and final calamity.