2.5 stars
I am struggling on my rating for this book. I enjoyed the first book quite a bit. I originally read it in 2018 and gave it 4 stars. I re-read it via audiobook before jumping into this second book, and I still enjoyed it, though perhaps not to the same level as when I first read it a year ago. Still, I was looking forward to this second installment, as the first book leaves off on quite the cliffhanger.

I should say, there may be spoilers for book one in this review, so if you haven't read that book yet and don't want any spoilers, it's probably best to click away now.

What I liked:

1. There is a recap of book one. I know that there are books that do this, but I think this is the first book I've read that has actually had a recap. It wasn't long, just a couple pages to jog the memory. Of course, I'd just re-read the first book in order to do that, and I think I still would've re-read even if I'd known, but I really appreciate that it was there. I wish more series would do this.

2. The new characters had a lot of potential. The first book was almost entirely Jules and Mia. There were other characters, but much of the time was just spent with the two of them on their own. This book introduced a handful of new characters. Dex and Atlanta were very interesting. I loved their dynamic and when they were thrown together with our protagonists I was really excited. Neal also had a lot of promise as a character.

What I didn't like:

1. I was bored. Sorry, not sorry. For about 250 pages of this 308 page book, very little happens. And what does happen is very repetitive. Mia and Jules are hiding from someone who wants to hurt/imprison/interrogate them; Mia and Jules have a revelation that they should've had several pages earlier; Mia and Jules find a way to escape; Repeat. I honestly feel like this and the first book could've been streamlined and put together as one book, because there is A LOT of filler here.

2. Wasted potential re: the world and the characters. There was so much potential for this story. I was really intrigued by the world and how everything worked (or didn't) in the future. The glimpses we get of how society works in this futuristic Earth is really fascinating. Unfortunately, it takes backseat to an underwhelming love story. And while I do think the new characters (specifically Dex and Atlanta) showed a lot of promise, they were woefully underutilized. I wanted to know more about them, and I hated that we had to wait until the last 40ish pages to get more than cursory information about them.

3. It was predictable. Mia and Jules are supposed to be intelligent characters. Jules in a bookish way, and Mia in more of a 'street smarts' kind of way. They each had their strengths that complemented each other really well in the first book. It felt like that was all thrown out the window in this second book. It took them forever to realize what was going on. And these were painfully obvious to anyone paying attention. There were actually times when they would learn something that I was positive they'd already learned. Like, they should've been able to put two and two together and get four. But then it would be treated as this huge game-changing reveal and I'm like, "How did they not already know that?" The ultimate explanation of everything that was going on was so obvious that I was bummed it was the actual answer. And when it was revealed it was done in a very info-dumpy manner.

4. I couldn't tell the difference between Jules' and Mia's perspectives in this book. I didn't have this problem at all when I read the first book. I'm not sure what happened, but in this book I felt like I kept getting confused about whose perspective I was in. They sounded identical to one another.

5. The romance was lackluster. I would've been okay with a romance between these characters if there hadn't been so many weak, contrived obstacles to keep them from being together. Especially when they were physically together for so much of the story. Also, this is bordering on insta-love to a degree that I just found eye-roll inducing. I would've been fine with them as a couple in the beginning stages of liking each other, but when Jules says things like, "Wherever she goes is where I belong," after they've only known each other for about five minutes, I just find it a little silly. Especially when you consider the stakes they're dealing with.

I'm really bummed that I didn't enjoy this as much as Unearthed. I felt like there was so much potential wasted and it's really too bad. I still really love both of these authors, and this doesn't change that, but I'm still disappointed.