Chapter by Chapter

A while back I saw The Rules by author Stacy Kade on a list of to-be-released 2013 novels and after reading the premise I was really interested in reading. I mean come on! Who isn’t interested by rule #5? No falling in love? Whaaat? You’re basically telling me about a rule that was created to be broken by the main character. Now that I’ve finally gotten the chance to read The Rules I will tell you one thing: The Rules are broken and the novel is pretty awesome.The Rules follows the life of main character Ariane Tucker. Living under the identity of a dead girl, Ariane is an escaped genetic experiment created by combining human and alien DNA. Throughout her life Ariane’s “Father” has pressed the importance of following the Rules and not being caught by GTX—the lab that created her. It’s not until Ariane’s only friend, Jenna, is humiliated by the resident mean girl, Rachel Jacobs, that everything she ever worked to keep a secret is threatened. Suddenly Ariane and Jenna are targeted for bullying and pranks that push Ariane to her limits. She’s fed up with Rachel Jacobs and wants to bring her down even if it means breaking a few Rules.Enter Zane Bradshaw, attractive, mysterious and fed-up with his “friends”. When Rachel decides that Ariane must be punished for standing up to her Zane decides that it’s time to teach Rachel that she cannot step on everybody that comes in her way. Together Zane and Ariane plan to double-cross Rachel by following through with Rachel’s prank. Zane and Ariane pretend to be a couple. They both treat their fake relationship like a game, after all that’s all it is right? But soon emotions begin to play a key role in their relationship and both Zane and Ariane notice that it isn’t a game anymore. They really are falling for each other, something that Ariane can’t allow.But being together has its price. Ariane is learning the truth about every relationship she has ever had outside of the lab. Zane is coming to terms with the fact that he might never be good enough for anybody. GTX seems to be growing stronger and more keyed in on Ariane’s location. Do they know more than Ariane believes? Will GTX steal her away? Will her worst nightmare become a reality? I’ll be honest that when it came to The Rules I expected it to be a total action novel, I thought that there would be aliens and government agents coming left and right… and my prediction skills were very off. Instead, The Rules is a novel that still does have government agents (sorta) and aliens (sorta) but focuses more on a half-alien girl trying to survive high school without being sent back to the lab where she was created. It may not be the action novel I was hoping for but still it was a really original read. The novel does focus mostly on the forbidden romance between Zane and Ariane (but who didn’t see it coming?) and I did worry that Zane being with Ariane would result in his ultimate demise.There is a lot of teen drama in the novel because of the novel’s main antagonist Rachel Jacobs, granddaughter of Dr. Jacobs a.k.a. the scientist in charge of Ariane when she was in the lab. Rachel Jacobs pulls a bunch of stunts throughout the novel that are insane and terrible going from defacing somebody’s locker to making them look like a dog. However my hate for her definitely had me cheering on the Zane/Ariane duo to give the girl what she had coming for her. By the end of the novel, I have to say that I think Rachel will be thinking twice about anything. You heard me anything.The Rules switches between the POVs of main characters Zane and Ariane. I personally really enjoyed that because I got to see the two sides to the story, I got to see what Rachel’s friends endure and saw the personal issues behind Zane’s character. Then I also got to see Ariane’s life which, as being an escaped experiment, is mostly her trying to obey the Rules and fight the emotions in her chest, while also telling the reader about some of her experiences inside of GTX. It was nice to see the way the two characters think of each other, always thinking so fondly about each other and eventually coming to terms with the fact that they are both interested in each other that way.After that ending I’m pretty sure that the Project Paper Doll series will have another installment that I am eagerly anticipating. Until then, I’ll just have to imagine what happens next to Zane and Ariane. I’d recommend this novel to readers that are fans of sci-fi and want to see some high school drama added into the mix, readers that are fans of novels like Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around and readers that are looking for a forbidden romance meets sci-fi novel.