So I read this book & finished it in September, but am just writing the review for it now (Dec 7). So my review will be a little vaguer and shorter than usual; I like to write my reviews about a week after I finish it. I like to take that week to muse on it, to reflect on it, to frame my thoughts and start writing the review in my head; much longer than that, and I start to forget the little details in the book that usually frame much of my review; much sooner than that, and I haven't had time to formulate my thoughts properly. Unfortunately I got behind on reviews, and since I was really iffy on this book, the review never got written.

So, overall thoughts. I liked it, and I see why everyone compares this series to the Hunger Games - the testing theme especially seems very Hunger Games-ish, and some of the world building is similar in feel, as well. Of course we have the female, teenaged main character, who magically (and instantly) falls in love with the male lead character. I didn't see any chemistry between Cia and Tomas, and the romance seemed forced to me, but whatever.

Cia is way, way too perfect, and that really affected how I felt about the book overall. She's always the smartest one in whatever group of people she's in, she always has the right instincts, never says the wrong thing, never stumbles just a little bit, or feels ackward. No one is any one thing, everyone has good and bad in them, positive and negative traits, and perfection is simply boring. Large parts of the book dragged for me. Luckily the book was still a quick read, even with all that.

A few months later, revisiting this book and this world, even though I'm only giving the book 3 stars, I did like the world building enough that I do think I'll try to read the rest of the series, though I'm not going to make a big effort to do so.