The Rules

The Rules by Stacey Kade

Age: Young Adult
Category: Science fiction; romance
Rating: 3 stars

Melissa Thinks: To start, I would like to point out that despite the fact that this is a sci-fi story, there won’t be much science fiction in it. I like to think of this as more of a character driven story rather than a plot driven one. That being said, the plot was still intriguing albeit cliché at times. So, let’s dig in shall we?

Ariane is not your typical teenager. She lives by a set of rules put in place by her adoptive father; never trust anyone, they are always searching, don’t get involved, keep your head down, don’t fall in love. These restrictive rules are there to keep her safe and for the last ten years of her life living on the Outside, Ariane has followed them closely. Now she finds herself in the middle of some typical high school drama surrounding one Rachel Jacobs and her stereotypical jock friend Zane Bradshaw. To get back at Rachel for her childish bully behavior, Zane and Ariane team up to give her a taste of her own medicine. What Ariane wasn’t expecting was for Zane to turn out to be an okay guy. In fact, he’s more than okay; better than she could’ve imaged. She’s breaking all her father’s rules for him, but when their “fake” relationship comes to an end, will they stay together? How long can Ariane pretend she’s a normal girl? How long until Zane finds out she’s half alien?


This book appealed more to my teenage girl side than it did to my literature loving adult side. I enjoy a good fluff book every once in a while and I think that’s what The Rules was for me. Don’t get me wrong, the sci-fi aspect to it, the entire “half alien half human raised in a lab” idea was interesting – something that I normally would find fascinating – but in this case I feel like that romance was really at the forefront of the book. Zane was a great main character. Half the book is in his point of view, which really lends to his character development and gives us an inside look at his struggles with his family.

A big turn off for me when reading is when the male character is arrogant, possessive, disrespectful of other characters, and just plain abusive; we don’t see that in The Rules. Zane is respectful of Ariane and her various needs. He listens to her when she speaks and is genuinely interested in her. He’s an all-around nice guy – I greatly appreciated his character. Ariane is also a character I can admire. She’s intelligent and quiet, but always has a lot to say. The way she goes from almost uncaring and apathetic to emotionally driven and kind makes this book worth reading.