Review: Restoring Harmony

Title: Restoring Harmony
Author: Joelle Anthony
Published: 2010 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons a division of The Penguin Group
Obtained: Bought

The year is 2041, and sixteen-year-old Molly McClure has lived a relatively quiet life on an isolated farming island in Canada, but when her family fears the worst may have happened to her grandparents in the US, Molly must brave the dangerous, chaotic world left after global economic collapse—one of massive oil shortages, rampant crime, and abandoned cities.

 Molly is relieved to find her grandparents alive in their Portland suburb, but they're financially ruined and practically starving. What should've been a quick trip turns into a full-fledged rescue mission. And when Molly witnesses something the local crime bosses wishes she hadn't, Molly's only way home may be to beat them at their own game. Luckily, there's a handsome stranger who's willing to help.

Restoring Harmony is a riveting, fast-paced dystopian tale complete with adventure and romance that readers will devour.

First Sentence:”When the plane’s engine took on a whining roar, my grip tightened on my fiddle case.”

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I had come across this book on some blogger’s list of dystopian books, looked it up, and decided to read it someday. Then one day when I dropped by Books-a-Million to see what books were in their sale bins, I find it for $3! It was meant to be. :)

Anyways, I really loved this book. It was dystopian, and totally believable. The America of no gas, organized crime, lack of food, and empty cities is something very easy to see happening, especially the way she explains it (with rich people buying out oil or something equally plausible). Everything was so real.When Molly is scared in an environment, I was scared by it too.

The whole story is just cute though. Traveling that far for family, trying to get back in time for a wedding and a birth, taking care of the kids next door (who get a long so well with Grandma), repairing a relationship with Grandpa, and then forming an adorable romance with a cute guy. It’s just all so cute! I loved Spill (the “handsome stranger”). I loved his goal and his way of getting it (I don’t want to say too much). Although their relationship was a little strange because of the age gap, I doubt it mattered much to them and their society (only three or four years, but still, at that age, that’s pretty big).

Molly and her fiddle were an element of the story that I was surprised myself by liking. I’m not a big musical person, and so typically when a story has a lot of musical moments and instruments that are like best friends, I get annoyed, because it seems so melodramatic. But it worked in this story. Molly really leaned on the music that she’d been learning since she could walk, and her joy while playing music was contagious.

There wasn’t much I disliked about this book. I was expecting it to be a lot different, so many things surprised me. I suppose it was a bit cheesy, but I like cheesy.

Rating:
While I really loved it, there wasn’t anything super spectacular about it, it was just very enjoyable.

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Content Warnings: Kissing, possibly mild language.