Seventeen-year-old Ryn Whittaker is a Citadel, a soldier with specially enhanced physical abilities, whose primary purpose is to guard the Rift, a portal where creatures from one of the numerous other Earths in the multiverse appear on a frequent basis. She hides her true identity from the few non-Citadel friends that she has and from her family, who think she attends school instead of protecting the planet from invaders. When Ezra, a young man from a different Earth, rifts through the glowing green portal, Ryn becomes attracted to him despite a condition called Blood Lust, which turns any romantic notion in a Citadel into a desire to kill. Ezra, an MIT student, begins to question the new world he has arrived in, and it prompts Ryn to wonder who in fact she is--and why she continues to follow orders obediently.
The Rift Uprising by Amy S. Foster is a fast-paced and intriguing first book in a trilogy that blends quantum physics and modern cultural references with teenage angst and romance. She encourages readers to consider the psychological, cultural and racial implications of a world that is inhabited by people who, for their own personal gain, are bent on manipulating children, forcing them to become something they are not. She also delves into the multiple layers of what it means to be an immigrant--from a different version of Earth--and an American, and how society and those in the higher echelons of power dictate conformity to the detriment of the innocent. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer