Green Rising by Lauren James

Gabrielle is a climate-change activist who shoots to fame when she becomes the first teenager to display a supernatural ability to grow plants from her skin. Hester is the millionaire daughter of an oil tycoon and the face of the family business. Theo comes from a long line of fishermen, but his parents are struggling to make ends meet.

On the face of it, the three have very little in common. Yet when Hester and Theo join Gabrielle and legions of other teenagers around the world in developing the strange new “Greenfingers” power, it becomes clear that to use their ability for good, they’ll need to learn to work together. But in a time of widespread corruption and greed, there are plenty of profit-hungry organizations who want to use the Greenfingers for their own ends. And not everyone would like to see the Earth saved…

As they navigate first love and family expectations, can the three teenagers pull off the ultimate heist and bring about a green rising?

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Here's the thing about Lauren James (forgive the rambling):

I love her books. Some more than others, but I haven't read any that I didn't love. All the ones I've read have a connecting thread in a (fictional but how I wish it wasn't!) TV series called Loch and Ness. It's a bigger feature in some than in others, but it's always there, tying everything together into a shared universe.

But if they're all in a shared universe, then some things that happen in my second favourite of her books kind of render this one a little bit pointless. (Notice I'm not saying which one, because spoilers.) If all her books are in the same universe, then that book is after this one, and everything that happened in this one ended up not really mattering very much in the end. (Also, possibly explaining the major background plot point in that one...hmmm.) Maybe they're just all close enough on the multiverse tree that they have the same TV show.

None of this means I didn't enjoy this! I really did. Lauren comes up with such clever plots, things that seem - not confusing, that's not what I mean, but it seems there's no connection between things - at first, until you find the clue that makes everything fall into place. Hester is absolutely my favourite character in this; the growth she goes through, her strength and determination are amazing. Gabrielle was a little full on for me, but I admired her passion, and I thought her ultimate solution was amazing, really clever.

I am a little curious about when this is set - unless I missed it, there's no date given, and it reads like present day except all of a sudden there's tourist trips to Mars! And self driving cars! (I want both of those, by the way.) Whenever it is, social media works much the same way as it does now, as evidenced by the inserts with quizzes, messages and forum posts, a touch I really enjoyed. Of course, we know Lauren enjoys using social media in her writing...now I'm waiting for the novel that ties everything together into one fantastic new read!

I really enjoyed this. I love the cover, it'll look so good next to her other ones. I can't wait to read everything else she ever publishes, set in this universe or not!

Green Rising publishes on the 2nd September, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.