Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand

Just last month, Amazon Publishing and Alloy Entertainment announced that they were teaming up to create a new digital first imprint focused on young adult, new adult, and commercial fiction. 

Here's a bit more about the new venture:

The new imprint, named Alloy Entertainment, will be part of Amazon Publishing’s Powered by Amazon program. Powered by Amazon enables publishers and authors to leverage Amazon’s global distribution and personalized, targeted marketing reach. 

“One of our strengths is working with talented authors to create and develop properties that have mass entertainment appeal,” said Leslie Morgenstein, President of Alloy Entertainment. “This program is an exciting extension of our business and will allow us to leverage Amazon’s ability to distribute to an incredibly diverse and broad readership.”

The announcement was paired with the release of the imprint's first three titles - Every Ugly Word by Aimee Salter, Rebel Wing by Tracy Banghart, and the one I'm covering today, Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand.

Ven was born and raised in Twig City. Just five years old, and yet a full grown teen, she was created as an Imitation: a perfect copy of someone living in the outside world, an Authentic. From day one Ven is taught to mimic her Authentic in language, behavior, and manner, all in preparation of one day being needed. When her Authentic is publicly attacked, Ven is sent to stand in until the criminals can be caught. 

But all the training in the world could never prepare Ven for being Raven Rogen. Ven is her own person, and she's nothing like Raven. Pretending takes every ounce of her concentration, but she's willing to do it until she can find a way to escape. 

I've been in a mood of late, readers. A bit of a blah mood. It happens to the best of us and for me, while it makes it harder to settle on a book, the kind of escape I get out of a good book is exactly what I need. I can say that while I wasn't blown away by Imitation (and some of that can be chalked up to the mood) it did provide the kind of escape I was craving. 

The story takes place in a futuristic setting wherein the über rich can afford genetic clones for whatever purposes they can think of. The clones - or imitations - are supposed to be exact copies and so they spend much of their time observing their Authentic. The idea is that no one will know the difference between the Authentic and the Imitation. This is particularly difficult for Ven because Raven is pretty much a self-absorbed snob. 

I liked Ven and I liked the setting. I thought Hildenbrand did a pretty good job putting together a believable situation as well - someone is after Raven and it's up to Ven to be the bait until that person can be caught. There's much more to the story, of course, and Ven realizes that as soon as she steps foot outside Twig City. 

I wasn't surprised or really wowed at any point during the story, but I did enjoy it. There was a nice twist at the end and a super cliffhanger that makes it clear there's more to come. Imitation is technically a reprint so early readers likely have already read the follow up, Deviation. The Alloy Entertainment edition is due out in December. 

Rating: 3.5/5