ARC Review: Renegade (MILA 2.0 #2) by Debra Driza @DebraDriza @KatherineTegen @harperteen

There is no one left for Mila to trust. Except for a boy she barely knows.

But Hunter has no idea who—and what—Mila really is. She can’t bear to reveal her secret, even though he’s unwittingly joined her search for Richard Grady, a man who may know more details of Mila’s complicated past.

Yet the road to the truth is more dangerous than ever. With General Holland and the Vita Obscura scouring the earth for her whereabouts, Mila must rely on her newfound android abilities to protect herself and Hunter from imminent harm. Still, embracing her identity as a machine leads her to question the state of her humanity—as well as Hunter’s real motives.

Perfect for fans of I Am Number Four and Divergent, this action-packed and heart-wrenching second installment of MILA 2.0 will leave readers breathlessly awaiting the series conclusion

TITLE: Renegade (MILA 2.0 #2) 

AUTHOR: Debra Driza

PUBLISHER: Katherine Teegan

PUBLICATION DATE: May 13, 2014

RATING: 3/5 STARS

THE COVER CONTESSA'S REVIEW:

I want to thank Harper Teen/Katherine Teegan Books for providing me with an early copy of this book for review. I read the first book early and was itching to see how the next one panned out. Receiving this book for free has in no way influenced my impression or review.

If you haven't read book one in this series, stop here. There are more than likely to be spoilers for that book in this review.

Once again I am in love with the cover of this book. It's so simple in it's make-up. Like the first cover, just the girl on the front, fragmented as I would imagine an android trying to figure herself out would be. It's truly beautiful. And I love the color!

This book picks up right where book 1 left off. Mila and Hunter are on the run, though he doesn't know this as Mila keeps it a secret. And Mila's mom is dead. 

Once again I found Mila to be a bit annoying in this book. I have to say that my least favorite part of her personality is her reasoning for keeping secrets from people. I hate it. I understand she thinks she's going to lose people, but when you make someone come meet you half way across the country I think he deserves to know what he's getting into. I find her to be selfish more than not. And her internal dialogue gets grating and on my nerves. She's very naive, and often times easily trusting (when I would think she would not be after all that's happened to her from the first book). 

But Mila is not the only one who is naive, Hunter is right there with her. He's so accepting of everything. He never questions things, even when they seem odd to him. Of course we are never in his head since Mila tells the story, but just from the way he reacts to her and their situation I can tell he's fairly clueless. I really want to like him, he seems so sweet, but I can't stand that he's portrayed as so stupid most of the time. How could he not have figured things out. And this remains so for about 75% of the book!

If found this story to drag a bit. I think it was a lot longer than it needed to be. There is a ton of narrative that takes you out of the story. Mila often goes often for two sometimes three pages about how she's feeling or how she thinks others are feeling, repeating herself.  It took away from the action of the story and made it more boring than it needed to be. It could have been cut down so much, it felt like filler, as if the author were trying to make the book longer by doing it.

There are some good action scenes, although I think Mila and Hunter get away with a lot more than they really would. And some great plot twists are sewn into the book, causing Mila to distrust almost everyone in her life. But the pacing is even slower than the first book. I did like that Hunter was included in this one (since I had a huge issue with him being pretty much absent for almost the whole first book). The major stuff really takes place in the last quarter of this book. I didn't really feel like the events that happened along the way were necessarily needed for the most part. And I didn't feel the sense of urgency that I would imagine would be there if she's running from people who can easily track her (seeing as they have such amazing technology).

I wasn't sure how much I liked the romance in this book. At times it was sweet, but then I also felt like it was unbelievable. I had a hard time believing the connection these two had over such a short period of time. It wasn't even insta-love, just like and not much to base that on, either. Mila spends a lot of time pining for the boy who is right at her side, confused as to whether or not she should be honest with him.

Overall this book was just ok. I did enjoy the last quarter of it, but for the most part I was a bit bored. I will more than likely read the next installment since this one ended on a cliffhanger. Fans of sci-fi may or may not enjoy this as it's a bit slower than most sci-fi books I've read.

I'm the author of the MILA 2.0 series and the owner of the messiest purse on the planet, aka: the black hole of doom. I think bow ties are cool and when I grow up, I want to be Veronica Mars.

I rarely check my account at Goodreads, so if you need to get in touch with me, try twitter or Debra at debradriza.com.

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