Review: Bloodline (The Forgotten Origins trilogy)

My rating: ★★★☆☆

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Bloodline is the first book in The Forgotten Origins trilogy. It is a Sci-Fi thriller and it tells the story of a teenage girl. Alex is a sixteen year old living a normal life with her mother and her little brother, Jacob. Her life changes after a meteoric shower that causes a flu virus outbreak which infects most of the population. The outbreak leaves Alex and her brother unaffected but their mother is infected. What starts out like an usual flu with frequent symptoms ends up being a dangerous virus that could cause amazing damage to the population.

The virus causes changes in people during a few days. The people start acting odd, seemingly being wiped of any emotion. After her mother gets sick, Alex finds an old book of her late father which seems odd to her. This is how her journey begins. At about the same time, Alex finds out that most of the people she used to know are becoming sick, including her best friend. One of her school classmates, Chris, notices the odd behavior of the people as well and he and Alex start forming a friendship. 

While Alex tries to decipher the messages left behind by her father, she and Chris team up in an attempt to understand exactly what is going on with the rest of the people. The two of them, along with Alex's brother Jacob, start working to uncover the truth about the mysterious virus. What follows is a race against time to find a way to stop the virus before it's too late. Following the clues her father left behind, Alex struggles to solve things all while trying to keep her brother safe from the "Shiners" - the infected people who are targeting everyone who wasn't affected by the virus. 

What I really liked about this book is the fresh subject. I am a huge fan of Sci-Fi novels and most of the times, they can be similar. This book involved a whole new plot that kept me curious while reading. The involvement of Egypt culture and hieroglyphs also was a very interesting theme of the novel. 
I also really liked the fact that there wasn't an unnecessary romance in this book. While I do believe that Chris could potentially be a love interest for Alex, I think that the romance wasn't necessary in this book. However, I can see it happening in the second installment of the trilogy. I feel like this book was centered more on the action rather than character development and I liked that. Alex had one main goal and that wasn't to fall in love like so many other books of the genre. Her one and only goal was to keep her little brother safe, no matter what. I appreciated that a lot.

Bloodline was definitely an exciting read for me. I liked the plot and I liked the main character. I really liked the addition of Egyptian culture because I find it very intriguing and that made the novel a much more interesting read. My rating is 3.5 stars because I would like to see more character development and more intriguing action in the following books.