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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
Ugh! The feels! Seriously, why do authors always leave us wanting more? And, there is no information on book 2. WHY!?!
I loved every minute of this book. I have soooo many questions. I'm sure this author will give me satisfaction with book 2, but waiting will not be fun. Great read for dystopian fans!
I loved every minute of this book. I have soooo many questions. I'm sure this author will give me satisfaction with book 2, but waiting will not be fun. Great read for dystopian fans!
Omg. Easily the worst book I've read this year. Amateur writing, TERRIBLE flow of plot. I can't criticize the writing enough. The only thing keeping me reading was wanting to find out what the bigger picture is, which really, is terrible as well. I have no idea what this book set out to achieve. Don't even waste your time on this book.
My only thought throughout this entire book was "how do you act like someone that you've never met before"?
This book was terrible, and I'm surprised I even finished it. It was like a worse version of The Island movie with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansen. Never Let Me Go was a brilliant book a similar theme. This was just ugh.
Ven is the clone of Raven and magically needs to act like this girl and the only context she has is videos and articles that she watches on her iPad. Raven's dad is very suspicious, and Ven is supposed to help prevent an attack on Raven by being the target instead. Ven falls in love with her bodyguard whose name I honestly can't remember because all of these characters are forgettable. They later find out that the clones were created to replace real people as a political plot for the big evil corporation run by Raven's dad to take over the world.
The general idea was there, but this feels like a bad fanfiction that could have used a lot more fleshing out. Honestly, do not recommend unless you really don't have anything better to read.
This book was terrible, and I'm surprised I even finished it. It was like a worse version of The Island movie with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansen. Never Let Me Go was a brilliant book a similar theme. This was just ugh.
Ven is the clone of Raven and magically needs to act like this girl and the only context she has is videos and articles that she watches on her iPad. Raven's dad is very suspicious, and Ven is supposed to help prevent an attack on Raven by being the target instead. Ven falls in love with her bodyguard whose name I honestly can't remember because all of these characters are forgettable. They later find out that the clones were created to replace real people as a political plot for the big evil corporation run by Raven's dad to take over the world.
The general idea was there, but this feels like a bad fanfiction that could have used a lot more fleshing out. Honestly, do not recommend unless you really don't have anything better to read.
Love, love, love it! WOW what a great new trilogy series to read. Keeps you on the edge of your seat like Hunger Games and Divergence. Already started the second book.
I picked up this whole trilogy on Cyber Monday sale, and read through the first book in a day. It both impressed and annoyed me, and overall I enjoyed it and it looks to be going somewhere interesting in the next book.
Our protagonist, Ven, is a five-year-old clone of 18yo Raven Rogen, a wealthy socialite and daughter of the guy who invented the "product" that Ven is. After some attempts on Raven's life, her Imitation Ven is pulled from the clone development location to take her place to protect the Authentic girl and hopefully draw out and catch whoever is after her. Ven must take Raven's place and act as her in all ways, with very little background, and without any feelings or desires of her own. As she slides into Raven's life, Ven starts discovering things about herself and her situation that send her on a new path beyond that of the obedience she's been taught.
From a scientific perspective, there are a few issues that I wish had been covered more deeply, though perhaps by being stated in passing as fact that works better. One, how do you grow a human facsimile at an accelerated growth rate? Or are they created as adults? Two, even though Ven and her compatriots get "observation time" where they watch their Authentic and learn about their behaviors and world, they get very little instruction on relationships and how to act beyond that. Three, the glimpses of changes to other "products" and future development sound rather far-fetched, even given the premise of the book.
Several dark and currently-appropriate themes are mentioned and explored to varying degrees, including the creation of a class of "others," voting and elections being rigged, and the control of the whole country by a few rich white men. These are concepts that do need to be explored from multiple angles especially now. Ven could've been fleshed out a bit more, but then again she's really just barely 5 and has no life experience at all - her development has been stunted by design, after all.
The writing was sound and overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to starting the next one shortly.
Our protagonist, Ven, is a five-year-old clone of 18yo Raven Rogen, a wealthy socialite and daughter of the guy who invented the "product" that Ven is. After some attempts on Raven's life, her Imitation Ven is pulled from the clone development location to take her place to protect the Authentic girl and hopefully draw out and catch whoever is after her. Ven must take Raven's place and act as her in all ways, with very little background, and without any feelings or desires of her own. As she slides into Raven's life, Ven starts discovering things about herself and her situation that send her on a new path beyond that of the obedience she's been taught.
From a scientific perspective, there are a few issues that I wish had been covered more deeply, though perhaps by being stated in passing as fact that works better. One, how do you grow a human facsimile at an accelerated growth rate? Or are they created as adults? Two, even though Ven and her compatriots get "observation time" where they watch their Authentic and learn about their behaviors and world, they get very little instruction on relationships and how to act beyond that. Three, the glimpses of changes to other "products" and future development sound rather far-fetched, even given the premise of the book.
Several dark and currently-appropriate themes are mentioned and explored to varying degrees, including the creation of a class of "others," voting and elections being rigged, and the control of the whole country by a few rich white men. These are concepts that do need to be explored from multiple angles especially now. Ven could've been fleshed out a bit more, but then again she's really just barely 5 and has no life experience at all - her development has been stunted by design, after all.
The writing was sound and overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to starting the next one shortly.
Review originally posted at www.fictitiousdelicious.com on 08/21/14:
I almost wish I could give this book two ratings--one for the first 2/3 and another for the last 1/3 because I have different feelings between the two. But since the strict rules of book blogging established at the same time the wheel was invented prevents me from doing this. So, we're going to mesh the two ratings together for an average.
The first 2/3 of this story was pretty darn good. There wasn't anything wrong with it--it just didn't stand out as particularly amazafantabulous to me, you know? There's a lot of world setup, which was well done, a pretty predictable story line, which was also well done, and a main character who's yearning to, well...BE, which was--you guessed it--really well done. See? No complaints. Just nothing to necessarily write home about.
And then the last third happens.
This is where Hildenbrand's story started running on all cylinders for me. You may be able to guess where the story line is going, but let me tell you THIS: It won't matter. Fun seems like a completely inappropriate word to use when describing all the things that happen to Ven, but it was. It was fun. I tore through the pages because there's a good dose of action, a scene with a motorcycle I imagined myself into, and twisty twists that twist! That's a recipe for fun if I've ever heard one.
I'm confident that DEVIATION, book two in the series, is going to own my attention from the moment I pick it up through the last page. I expect great things based on how things end in this installment. C'mon, December! Get here.
I almost wish I could give this book two ratings--one for the first 2/3 and another for the last 1/3 because I have different feelings between the two. But since the strict rules of book blogging established at the same time the wheel was invented prevents me from doing this. So, we're going to mesh the two ratings together for an average.
The first 2/3 of this story was pretty darn good. There wasn't anything wrong with it--it just didn't stand out as particularly amazafantabulous to me, you know? There's a lot of world setup, which was well done, a pretty predictable story line, which was also well done, and a main character who's yearning to, well...BE, which was--you guessed it--really well done. See? No complaints. Just nothing to necessarily write home about.
And then the last third happens.
This is where Hildenbrand's story started running on all cylinders for me. You may be able to guess where the story line is going, but let me tell you THIS: It won't matter. Fun seems like a completely inappropriate word to use when describing all the things that happen to Ven, but it was. It was fun. I tore through the pages because there's a good dose of action, a scene with a motorcycle I imagined myself into, and twisty twists that twist! That's a recipe for fun if I've ever heard one.
I'm confident that DEVIATION, book two in the series, is going to own my attention from the moment I pick it up through the last page. I expect great things based on how things end in this installment. C'mon, December! Get here.
From Rebel Angel.
This book sounded like it would be right up my street - set in a Dystopian near future with the description mentioning clones. It follows Ven, who is a complete carbon copy of her wealthy counterpart Raven Rogen - she has lived her whole life in a unit packed with other clones, learning how to serve should they needed in the real world, knowing somehow that even if they aren't called to that, they may be used in other, slightly more gruesome, ways. Of course as you can imagine, Ven is finally called to serve her life's purpose as Raven in the real world - she has anticipated this every day of her life, watching videos of her, imitating her, knowing seemingly everything about her, and yet she feels nervous at the prospect. There has been an attack on Raven, and her wealthy and very important father decides the plan of action is to draw in the culprits with the fake version of her, so this is what Ven must do, and not let anyone know who she really is.
The story flows as you might imagine - it's YA so there is of course a love interest, the usual struggle with identity (heightened in this case) and also Ven's struggles to try to keep secret who she is in the face of a growing underground revolution. It was a good story, definitely what I was looking for when I picked it, but did have some slightly more childish aspects (the very rushed love story). I have read some negative reviews saying that the book delves too far into "slut shaming" and dehumanises those who choose to be more sexually active - I disagree slightly with these, as it's coming more from the perspective of someone who doesn't know this world and is not conveying the views of the author as it's fiction. Overall, a good book but not a great book. The Goodreads page for it calls it "Clone Chronicles #1", so imagine there are more to come - I'd definitely be interested in reading these and seeing where the story goes.
This book sounded like it would be right up my street - set in a Dystopian near future with the description mentioning clones. It follows Ven, who is a complete carbon copy of her wealthy counterpart Raven Rogen - she has lived her whole life in a unit packed with other clones, learning how to serve should they needed in the real world, knowing somehow that even if they aren't called to that, they may be used in other, slightly more gruesome, ways. Of course as you can imagine, Ven is finally called to serve her life's purpose as Raven in the real world - she has anticipated this every day of her life, watching videos of her, imitating her, knowing seemingly everything about her, and yet she feels nervous at the prospect. There has been an attack on Raven, and her wealthy and very important father decides the plan of action is to draw in the culprits with the fake version of her, so this is what Ven must do, and not let anyone know who she really is.
The story flows as you might imagine - it's YA so there is of course a love interest, the usual struggle with identity (heightened in this case) and also Ven's struggles to try to keep secret who she is in the face of a growing underground revolution. It was a good story, definitely what I was looking for when I picked it, but did have some slightly more childish aspects (the very rushed love story). I have read some negative reviews saying that the book delves too far into "slut shaming" and dehumanises those who choose to be more sexually active - I disagree slightly with these, as it's coming more from the perspective of someone who doesn't know this world and is not conveying the views of the author as it's fiction. Overall, a good book but not a great book. The Goodreads page for it calls it "Clone Chronicles #1", so imagine there are more to come - I'd definitely be interested in reading these and seeing where the story goes.
~~ I received this book in exchange for an honest review~~
I have read Heather's work before and it has never let me down, this book is no different. I couldn't put this book down at all. I think I was eating and reading this book, I know I was not sleeping because I was reading this book, that is how drawn into it I was.
In the early 1990's we saw the first sheep that was cloned, Dolly was the sheep's name. In this book, they have taken that achievement and gone a step further. They have cloned people. They just didn't clone them, they are exact replicas of their Authentic, down to their DNA. When they are "birthed" they are learning every mannerism that their Authentic does. Their personality, their attitudes, who they hang out with, what they wear, who they date etc... The imitations learn everything they do just in case they need to replace their authentic.
Ven is an Imitation to a very wealthy, very snobby, very popular Raven Rogen. But, Ven is different than other Imitations, Ven thinks for her self and questions authority. She is under the watchful eye of Titus, her father, or rather Raven's father, and Ven is protected by Linc. She feels something when she is around Linc. But, there is an underlying danger that Ven is involved in, and not by choice. Can she escape her house and escape the watchful eye of Titus? Can they help the other Imitations that she use to live with?
Heather never disappoints me at all. She writes books with such imagination that you can't help but to fall in love with her books. I know I am a fan for life, and you will be too, when you read this book. I can't wait for the second book to come out. I NEED to know what happens with Ven and Linc. I want to know if they can be safe.
I have read Heather's work before and it has never let me down, this book is no different. I couldn't put this book down at all. I think I was eating and reading this book, I know I was not sleeping because I was reading this book, that is how drawn into it I was.
In the early 1990's we saw the first sheep that was cloned, Dolly was the sheep's name. In this book, they have taken that achievement and gone a step further. They have cloned people. They just didn't clone them, they are exact replicas of their Authentic, down to their DNA. When they are "birthed" they are learning every mannerism that their Authentic does. Their personality, their attitudes, who they hang out with, what they wear, who they date etc... The imitations learn everything they do just in case they need to replace their authentic.
Ven is an Imitation to a very wealthy, very snobby, very popular Raven Rogen. But, Ven is different than other Imitations, Ven thinks for her self and questions authority. She is under the watchful eye of Titus, her father, or rather Raven's father, and Ven is protected by Linc. She feels something when she is around Linc. But, there is an underlying danger that Ven is involved in, and not by choice. Can she escape her house and escape the watchful eye of Titus? Can they help the other Imitations that she use to live with?
Heather never disappoints me at all. She writes books with such imagination that you can't help but to fall in love with her books. I know I am a fan for life, and you will be too, when you read this book. I can't wait for the second book to come out. I NEED to know what happens with Ven and Linc. I want to know if they can be safe.
[Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own]
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to.
The premise of the story was really great, I enjoyed everything about the clones and how they worked. Having said that, I do think this is an area where the story could use a little work - there were a couple of things about the world which I was a little confused about and thought could have been better explained. I of course assume that we will be provided with more information about the world in the next two books.
I really enjoyed the characters and the romance and I look forward to continuing on with the second book in the series.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to.
The premise of the story was really great, I enjoyed everything about the clones and how they worked. Having said that, I do think this is an area where the story could use a little work - there were a couple of things about the world which I was a little confused about and thought could have been better explained. I of course assume that we will be provided with more information about the world in the next two books.
I really enjoyed the characters and the romance and I look forward to continuing on with the second book in the series.
Firstly I would like to thank the author and netgallery for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review; the review is as follows.
This book was incredibly well written,with characters that are loveable and a storyline that drags readers in from the very first page. With the copy I was given being an ARC I did have a few problems with the formatting, not knowing where the start of the next chapter was being one of them. But I felt that in this case it added to the reading experience as it seemed to flow seamlessly.
The main character a clone called Ven has lived her whole life in a city for one's, where they are trained to know everything about the person who they are cloned from so that they can step in whenever needed. Ven gets called upon when her replica Raven's life becomes threatened although stepping into the life she has been trained to know Isn't as easy for her as she thought it would be. There are a whole bunch of things which she is unexpectedly forced to face and with the father of her replica being the creator of the clones she finds her life is threatened in more ways than most. The main character was very easy to love and support during her trials and I very much look forward to reading more from this series.
The most noteworthy secondary character for me was Link although there are a lot more in this book. Link is the security for Raven, so when Ven steps into her shoes he by default becomes the security for Ven. The two share a relationship and this forces the two to share secrets which should probably not be shared.
The storyline is original and unlike anything I have read before, with the likeable characters making it easy to get hooked on and the twists and turns making it deep and giving it body and structure. The pacing was also great and I loved that it ended on a cliffhanger making the readers want more from the series.
This series shows great potential, 3.5 stars
This book was incredibly well written,with characters that are loveable and a storyline that drags readers in from the very first page. With the copy I was given being an ARC I did have a few problems with the formatting, not knowing where the start of the next chapter was being one of them. But I felt that in this case it added to the reading experience as it seemed to flow seamlessly.
The main character a clone called Ven has lived her whole life in a city for one's, where they are trained to know everything about the person who they are cloned from so that they can step in whenever needed. Ven gets called upon when her replica Raven's life becomes threatened although stepping into the life she has been trained to know Isn't as easy for her as she thought it would be. There are a whole bunch of things which she is unexpectedly forced to face and with the father of her replica being the creator of the clones she finds her life is threatened in more ways than most. The main character was very easy to love and support during her trials and I very much look forward to reading more from this series.
The most noteworthy secondary character for me was Link although there are a lot more in this book. Link is the security for Raven, so when Ven steps into her shoes he by default becomes the security for Ven. The two share a relationship and this forces the two to share secrets which should probably not be shared.
The storyline is original and unlike anything I have read before, with the likeable characters making it easy to get hooked on and the twists and turns making it deep and giving it body and structure. The pacing was also great and I loved that it ended on a cliffhanger making the readers want more from the series.
This series shows great potential, 3.5 stars