ARC Review: Renegade (Mila 2.0 #2) by Debra Driza

MILA 2.0 #2 – Renegade

Author: Debra Driza

Series: Mila 2.0

Pages: 448

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Amazon

Release date: 13^th May 2014

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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.

Review: 4 out of 5 stars

Contains possible spoilers from the first book in the series. 

As a big fan of the first book in this series, I was eager to start on Renegade, the sequel to Mila 2.0 which follows on straight where the first book left off.

Mila 2.0 ended on a heart-breaking cliff-hanger which left Mila making a panicked phone call and coming to rely on a boy she has a crush on – Hunter, but Hunter has no idea who and what Mila really is or why she is running from General Holland and the Vita Obscura, a mysterious group who want to dismantle, examine and sell her technology so the action packed journey whilst they are on the run and while Mila was learning more about her android abilities was quite interesting.

I didn’t feel we got to know Hunter very well in the first book but that certainly changed and I found myself really liking his character, his sweet nature and the kindness he shows to Mila, especially after what she has had to endure and his reaction to finding out what she is was believable. Mila continues to progress as a character, her emotions and abilities are evolving and I am so eager to find out why she is changing so much – she reads like a regular girl with her thoughts and feelings rather than an android voice, a few titbits were revealed in this book which has left me eager to know more.

The multi-layered plot is interesting and Debra Driza’s writing was mesmerising; it’s a well written story with many intense scenes, the ongoing action and evading of the bad guys and the information we received kept the pacing flowing well, the setting was vivid and the details of Mila’s android inner workings was explained well, I like the human/android balance and whilst I still have many questions there was still a lot explained in this book.

There were many bad guys in this book – Holland, Quinn etc. but there were also a few who I found to be quite intriguing; I still adore Lucas who seems to be forever there to help Mila, there are very few people who she can rely on now so it was nice to have him there as a support.

Overall, Renegade is filled with conspiracies, intense action scenes and a complicated romance that hasn't been forced or rushed; it left me satisfied yet eager to learn more.

Thank-you to Katherine Tegen Books for the opportunity to read and review Renegade via Edelweiss.

About the author (website): I’m Debra Driza, and I’m a physical-therapist-turned-Young-Adult-author and a stay-at-home mom. Not to be confused with a stay-at-home mistress—those are the ones who eat bon-bons and watch soap operas all day long. The soap operas sort of fall by the wayside when you have a seven-year old, a three-year-old, three dogs (one of them seriously defective), one extremely messy husband, and deadlines to meet.

Seriously, though–my family is great. I wouldn’t change one second of our crazy, messy, unorganized lives. What this house lacks in a paper or dog-free spot on the couch, it makes up for in laughter and hugs.

I’m represented by Taylor Martindale of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.  The first book in my YA sci-fi thriller series debuts in Fall 2012 from Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Collins.

Feel free to email me at houndrat at yahoo dot com.

The stunning series covers!

  

Waiting on Wednesday - Mila 2.0 #2 by Debra Driza

Hi everyone, thank-you so much for stopping by my WoW!

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine which spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My WoW for this week is Renegade (Mila 2.0 #2) by Debra Driza. I really enjoyed the first book and think the sequel after the ending we were left with is going to be amazing!

My review of Mila 2.0 #1

 Author: Debra Driza

Series: Mila 2.0

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release date: 13^th May 2014

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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.

What are most anticipating this week?

ARC Review: Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza

 

Author: Debra Driza

Series: Mila 2.0

Pages: 480

Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books

Amazon Pre-order: Mila 2.0

Release Date: 13^th March 2013

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Mila 2.0 is the first book in an electrifying sci-fi thriller series about a teenage girl who discovers that she is an experiment in artificial intelligence.

Mila was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past —that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.

Mila 2.0 is Debra Driza’s bold debut and the first book in a Bourne Identity–style trilogy that combines heart-pounding action with a riveting exploration of what it really means to be human. Fans of I Am Number Four will love Mila for who she is and what she longs to be—and a cliffhanger ending will leave them breathlessly awaiting the sequel.

Review: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

The gorgeous eye-catching cover of Mila 2.0 is what initially captured my attention of this book and the intriguing synopsis had me sold; I have only recently started to embrace the Sci-Fi genre and Debra Driza’s action-packed debut certainly kept me entertained from the beginning through to the end but also left me with a number of unanswered questions.

Sixteen year-old Mila believed she was a human living in a small town with her ‘mother’ after the death of her ‘father’ and was never meant to find out that she was an android, built in a science lab and kept hidden to avoid not only the person who helped create her but another group intent on using her for her abilities.

Mila was a really sweet likeable character, I adored her devotion, vulnerability and loyalty, and you wouldn’t have guessed she was a machine based on her emotions and feelings; she really grew in strength as the story progressed both in personality and physically but it took me a while to fully understand her and the reasoning behind why everything had been kept so hidden; I think there is a lot of information we are yet to find out.

The plot was quite intriguing; Mila was created as a military experiment in artificial intelligence and has been programmed to do the unimaginable and the group behind the experiment were brutal in their teachings and with the plans they had for her. The story was written well, the ongoing action and the information we are being fed kept the pacing consistent although at times I found it was information overload, scenes were being drawn out and sensory details seemed at times to be missing, it was enjoyable none the less but as the first book in the series, it didn’t truly wow me.

I liked the secondary characters but we don’t really learn a lot about each of them, I wanted to know more about Hunter especially but he didn’t play a huge role and I feel there is still a lot we haven’t yet found out about him. Lucas was wonderful but also quite mysterious and Mila 3.0 and the bad guys were each written well but needed to be further developed.

I would have loved more romance and initially I thought there would be an opportunity between Hunter/Mila but unfortunately nothing really progressed, although he seemed to play heavily in her thoughts there was no real outcome and he was absent for a majority of the book.

The ending was heart wrenching and I still have a number of unanswered questions so I am definitely eager to see how the story progresses in the sequel.

Overall, Mila 2.0 is filled with conspiracies, violence, intense action scenes and hopefully the possibility of a budding romance; it left me satisfied yet eager to learn more.

Thank-you kindly to Harper Collins Children, for the opportunity to read and review Mila 2.0.

Waiting on Wednesday (18th July)

 

Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My choice for this weeks WoW is a Young Adult novel titled Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza; the (temp?) synopsis has me completely intrigued, especially since I love the Bourne Identity series and I was also drawn to the stunning cover.

What are you looking forward to?

 

Author: Debra Driza

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Genre: Young Adult – Sci-Fi

Release Date: 12th March 2013

Amazon Pre-order: Mila 2.0

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Pitched as a "Bourne Identity"-type sci-fi thriller about a teenage girl who discovers that she is a Mobile Intel Life-like Android, an experiment in artificial intelligence created by the U.S. government, and her scientist mother, who kidnapped her when she was found to have human emotions.