False Flag

Ketty Smith is an instructor with the Recruit Training Service, turning sixteen-year-old conscripts into government fighters. She's determined to win the job of lead instructor at Camp Bishop, but the arrival of Bex and her friends brings challenges she's not ready to handle. Running from her own traumatic past, Ketty faces a choice: to make a stand, and expose a government conspiracy, or keep herself safe, and hope she's working for the winning side.

The Battle Ground series is set in a dystopian near-future UK, after Brexit and Scottish independence.

Purchase Link: https://tallerbooks.com/battleground/

My Review

What can I say about False Flag other than "Ugh?" That's a good thing, though.

False Flag is book two in the Battle Ground series, but this one is told from Ketty's POV. If you haven't read book one, you probably should so the events in this one make more sense.

While a lot of the story/events are the same, they are from a different perspective, which makes it a lot more interesting. Plus, you get more of Ketty's backstory and see what her life was like prior to ending up at Camp Bishop.

Even knowing her struggles, though, I still found her to be an obnoxious power-hungry witch who did awful things because it made her feel good about herself. She's basically a big bully, and even though she believes she's working for the good guys and keeps the recruits safe at times, she's still an awful person. 

I found False Flag to be a fascinating read. It was more thought-provoking, seeing how things played out from a different character's perspective. Ketty thinks doing everything the government says to do, including keeping secrets and going behind people's backs, is still the right thing. She believes Bex and her friends are honestly the bad guys (the "terrorists"), and she wants to take them down. Even after seeing what the government has done, her desire for power and a better life keeps her moving forward.

I'm super curious to see what will happen in the rest of the series, and I can't wait for the next book. 

4.5 stars from me!

Author Bio – Rachel Churcher was born between the last manned moon landing, and the first orbital Space Shuttle mission. She remembers watching the launch of STS-1, and falling in love with space flight, at the age of five. She fell in love with science fiction shortly after that, and in her teens she discovered dystopian fiction. In an effort to find out what she wanted to do with her life, she collected degrees and other qualifications in Geography, Science Fiction Studies, Architectural Technology, Childminding, and Writing for Radio.

She has worked as an editor on national and in-house magazines; as an IT trainer; and as a freelance writer and artist. She has renovated several properties, and has plenty of horror stories to tell about dangerous electrics and nightmare plumbers. She enjoys reading, travelling, stargazing, and eating good food with good friends – but nothing makes her as happy as writing fiction.

Her first published short story appeared in an anthology in 2014, and the Battle Ground series is her first long-form work. Rachel lives in East Anglia, in a house with a large library and a conservatory full of house plants. She would love to live on Mars, but only if she’s allowed to bring her books.

Social Media Links –

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Blog: https://blog.tallerbooks.com