Deviation by Heather Hildenbrand

Good morning, readers! Today I'm taking part in a review blitz for Heather Hildenbrand's latest, Deviation. This is the follow up to Imitation, so if you haven't read that one yet you may want to avoid this post as there could be spoilers. (You can jump over here if you want to check out my review of that first installment.)

Now that that's out of the way I have to tell you that I was really looking forward to this one. When we last left Ven, she was in a bit of a precarious situation having discovered that her Authentic's boyfriend was in fact working against RogenCorp and trying to free the rest of the Imitations. 

With Daniel under lock and key and Titus Rogen dead set on learning his secrets, Ven finds herself even worse off than before. Her Authentic's father is putting increased pressure on the Imitation to find out where the rest of the rogue clones are being held and Ven knows it's only a matter of time before he decides she's no longer of any use to him. Ven has no choice but to continue living as Raven and pretending to be on Titus's side - not only does her own life depend on it, but she's the only real hope for both the escaped clones and the ones still remaining at Twig City. 

Sooo, I kind of didn't realize that this one wasn't the last one. As I got closer and closer to the final page I kept thinking there was NO WAY things were going to be resolved and of course they weren't. Deviation had just as much - if not more - of a cliffhanger ending than its predecessor! And there's no release date listed for the next book as of yet. Argh!

Ok. I'm good. Seriously, though, with much of the early character introduction and world building/set up out of the way, Deviation is pretty much all action. Hildenbrand ratchets up the tension by revealing a few key pieces of information that increases the danger for Ven and the other clones, accelerating their plan timeline and really launching the pace of the story into the stratosphere. The way the plot develops in this sequel is really great. Her relationships with the characters around her continue to evolve and Ven also finds a few new allies, which makes her own situation a bit less bleak and gives both the characters and the reader hope for what might come next. 

And I'm dying to know what that might be!

I think I actually found Deviation to be a bit more satisfying than Imitation. While the first book left me interested in reading more, this second has left me completely on the edge of my seat in anticipation of future Clone Chronicles titles. This is definitely a fun series, one that seems to be getting better with each new book. 

Rating: 4/5

For more info on Heather and her work (including news about a potential TV show and a giveaway), be sure to head over to Heather's site here. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.