I had always heard complaints from a lot of people about the really nonsensical analogies and similes in this book and now that I've actually read it I totally understand what they meant. I'm not a huge fan of purple prose (overly flowery language) to begin with, but this book in particular just has a lot of comparisons that don't make sense. At some point Mafi compared an open jaw to a shoelace. I also distinctly remember her comparing hate to something that sounded ridiculous. This goes on for a good 2/3 of the book. I think the side characters are what really saved this book to get it to 1.5 stars. The romance is definitely insta-love, which is one of my top, if not my top, pet peeve in books. We are told that Adam and Juliette knew each other before the events of this book and that is used to justify their willingness to put their lives on the line for each other. It's not necessarily that this explanation bothered me, but the execution did. Juliette just tells us that when she was a child Adam was the only one that was nice to her. I feel like the romance would have been more believable and way less insta-lovey if we had maybe gotten direct flashbacks of some of Juliette's experiences with Adam in the past. It would have given us a better feel for the traits each character had that are likeable. However, we didn't. We're essentially just told that we should believe in this romance with very little to back it up. 

Warner, the main villain, is just strangely obsessed with Juliette. His feelings for her are more of a fixation on power. I don't think he actually sees her as a love interest, but really just finds her attractive because of the powers she wields. Even his feelings for her were more understandable to me than the feelings Adam had for Juliette. Warner is crazy and there are reasons beyond just Juliette herself that he is interested in her, so it makes more sense. 

Now getting to the side characters, James is probably one of my favorites. I think his relationship with Adam is very compelling. Adam has taken care of James his entire life and does everything he can to keep him safe. Their relationship was definitely the most interesting to me in the book. You can tell that Adam and James definitely love each other and James looks up to his older brother in a very endearing way. James also has a very bubbly and talkative personality that really brought the book back to life when he was introduced. I feel like Kenji also helped bring some life into the story. He likes to push Adam's buttons, which was actually really funny to watch for me. He's very charming and I was hoping he wasn't just a villain out to get Adam and Juliette. Although, I think even if he was he'd be a very charming villain. 

The end of the book takes a very different turn from what I was expecting, and I'm honestly glad. By the end of the book the setting feels very X-Men Days of Future Past. Let me explain what I mean. We learn that we have a world where Juliette isn't the only one with strange abilities, but that there is an entire rebellion that is made up of people with different powers. These people are being persecuted by the government and are fighting for people's right to live decently. This very much reminds me of how the X-Men have a school dedicated to "gifted" children and helps train them to fight the government that is consistently prosecuting them in a dystopian world. Hence, my conclusion that the story got super X-Men super fast. Kenji is one of these super powered people who has been spying on Adam for some time and was acting as a spy for the rebellion. His power is invisibility, which I think goes super well with his character and fits very well into the story. I'm glad that because they are in the rebellion compound underground James will have some stability and be safe (I don't actually care that much about Adam and Juliette, to be honest).

Overall, I definitely wouldn't recommend this series despite the likeability of the side characters and cool super powered compound at the end. The first 2/3 of the book are pretty uninteresting if not obnoxious to read if you're not a fan of a having similes and analogies that make no sense every other sentence. The two main characters don't have any distinct personality traits that make them likeable to the reader. Since this book does focus pretty largely on the romance, it just makes it hard to actually care about the romance when you can't even get yourself to really care about the characters. I personally highly enjoy character driven stories, and there isn't enough character build up for the romance to be believable. It's going to be a thumbs down from me for this one. I may continue the series just to see if there is any improvement, but I'm not guaranteeing I will. If I do continue it it's not because it's good, I can tell you that much.