Sometimes it's the simplest things that are life-changing.
Mila and her best friend end up both liking the same new boy at school, so when Kaylee picks up Hunter on the side of the road, she forces Mila into the back of the pickup. Some intentional rough driving throws Mila from the truck, and rips her arm, exposing not tissues and tendons, but wires and white fluid. Mila finds out from her "mom" that she is really a Mobile Intel LIfelike Android. The problem is... she doesn't feel like a machine. Shortly after the truck incident, Mila and her mom are attacked by agents they mistakenly believe are military men, and then they realize more than one group is after them.
Mila 2.0 is well written, fast -paced and very engaging. Even as I was admiring her machine-like efficiency, my heart was breaking for her circumstance. Thoroughly enj

Wanted to like it, but just couldn't. To be fair, what Applegate was trying to do was pretty tough, and I know she didn't want to give things away too early, but what she couldn't reveal and the hints she dropped is what I didn't like because I figured it out right away. I have no idea how I'd have written it differently. All I know is I didn't enjoy it, the characters didn't grab my interest in the slightest, and I had to struggle to finish it. I'll still donate it to my school library, because there will be students who will enjoy it, but I'm glad it's a stand alone because I wouldn't want to be buying book two.

If I can get past how much I disliked the helplessness of Cleo, I could say that I enjoyed this book. I did not, however, like Cleo's acquiescent nature. She's a princess for goodness sake, but acted more like a peasant girl accustomed to being ordered around. I like my female characters to have a little more spunk. The rivalries between the kingdoms reminded me of a very watered down Game of Thrones plot, but without the rich writing or the complexity... 
I have put it on our shelves, and I will be buying the next book, but I think the fact that the book shifts between three kingdoms every couple chapters might make it inaccessible for any except decent readers.

In the town of Claysoot, boys are "Heisted" when they are 18. Gray, who has to deal with the disappearance of his just turned 18 brother, decides that he's going to take his fate into his own hands and go "over the wall" before he turns 18. However, he finds out that he and his brother are twins and Gray doesn't understand why he didn't suffer the same fate as all the other 18 year olds. 
What follows left me surprised, hopeful, angry, puzzled, and interested enough to want book 2. Don't want to giveanything else away. I did feel that some of the circumstances surrounding Gray and Emma were a bit too convenient, but overall I enjoyed it.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I found it confusing in many places because I didn't understand what Lorders are doing or who pays their salaries. Most people seem to be afraid of them, and that makes me wonder who wants them there. I'm confused as to how or why so many teens would become terrorists that they'd need a system to deal with them, and even though I read the explanation quite carefully, I'm still confused. I do wonder whether Kyla's difference is accidental or engineered. I'm not in a huge hurry to read the second book because by the time it comes out, I'll have forgotten the plot (don't you HATE that?), but if someone puts a free copy into my hands, I'd read it. I like the possibility of missing children being slated but I still don't really understand who decides to wipe someone's memory and I still don't know who is behind it footing the bill. No one does medical procedures for free. The essential question that I haven't yet answer is, who benefits from these slatings?