This review originally appeared on the book review blog: Just One More Pa(i)ge.

So I’m binging the crap out of this series, obviously. As it’s only taking me a couple of days to read each of these books and they’re all over 500 pages long. It’s that perfect mix of compelling, fast-paced, easy to read and edge-of-your-seat exciting that is keeping my glued to them (to the exclusion of everything else I’m supposed to be reading right now). But honestly, that’s exactly what I was hoping for. I’ve had a really intense reading year so far (lots of serious/contemporary fiction type reads) and I needed some escapist lit to get my summer kicked off. This is perfect.

In regards to timeline, Gemina, picks up right where Illuminae leaves off. But the major difference is the perspective. We open on board the Heimdall space station, the station the Hypatia is heading towards, with all the Kerenza refugees (including our beloved Kady and Ezra from book one). Naturally though, BeiTech is still attempting to cover tracks for the Kerenza disaster…and they’re sending a whole team of “auditors” (read: trained operatives/assassins) to do the dirty work. But clearly, they did not account for the space station’s resistance, led by Hanna (captain’s daughter), Nik (unregistered resident and part of a crime family network), and Nik’s cousin Ella. They also clearly did not account for wormhole malfunctions and deadly drug-producing space alien creature things.

Similar to the last installation, the story is told in “dossier” of documents, tracsriptions, messages, recordings, etc. And it has, again, some of the most creative and artistic visuals, including text/passages through pipes when our characters are, IRL (ish), crawling through pipes, and various drawings/entries from Hanna’s journals. So, like Kady in book one, Hanna is our primary voice/perspective. She’s a kickass strategist and martial artist, complements of her single father’s father-daughter bonding activities (can we, again, hear it for the strong AF ladies in this series?!). And Nik, who has my heart way more than Ezra ever did (though I was full-on into his romance with Kady too, of course). Because I am a sucker for a “bad guy” who is actually secretly the good guy. Like, past being drawn to the “bad for you guy” I just love the dark pretense over a legit heart of gold. Ugh. Plus, I am into tattoos and his sound (and look, from Hanna’s drawings) gorgeous. Anyways, and then Ella. AGAIN, ladies in computer/tech/STEM, can I get a “hell yea!”? And, physical disability rep too! So much to admire there. The relationships in this one had me more emotionally invested too. I’m not sure exactly why, because it was more than just the type of characters that I was more interested in…but, I know I choked up more in this book than the last one.

Bottom line, same as with the first one, I literally could not put down this book. The short sections and constant action make it impossible to not try to read “just one more page.” (See what I did there?) And though there were, of course, some parts that stretch believability (same as in the first one), I can’t say it bothered me too much because I was so into the story. The only thing I was truly less into here, as opposed to the first book, was the whole situation with the wormhole. I won’t give away what actually happens/how things work out, of course. But it’s a complex physics theoretical situation that, while it was explained in lovely layman’s terms, still stretches my brain farther than it was interested in going at times. This happens to me any time this type of explanation/plot device is used, and it’s just not my favorite. Well, and a small second thing, is that one particularly emotional point was dulled somewhat because a similar plot device was used at a critical point in the first one. It’s not bad in either case separately, but put together, I’m not sure I like it used so freely within the same series (it makes for unfortunate predictability). But as I said, things moved fast and I got past both issues quickly.

Other things to note: First, I loved the “voices” of our youth protagonists. Their chats are so wonderfully full of slang and snark and jokes that both cut the tension of the greater story and ring wonderfully true to life. It’s one of my favorite things about these books. Also, the eventual (we all know it’s coming, so no spoilers) “meeting” of Ez and Kady and Nik and Hanna and Ella, virtual though it was, lived up to my expectations. And AIDAN included, of course. Relatedly, I am into the greater meaning that was put behind the Illuminae Group after the first book and I was actually literally clapping with excitement at the way it grew by the end of this one. I am most excited to see how these wonderfully precocious and attitude-filled adolescents bring the pain against BeiTech to close out this trilogy. I love when the underestimated/overlooked become unstoppable.

Truly I cannot wait for the finale…I’m off to start it immediately.