Archenemies Book Review

From Goodreads: Time is running out.
Together, they can save the world.
But they each other’s worst nightmare.

The Anarchists still have a secret weapon, one that Nova believes will protect her. The Renegades also have a strategy for overpowering the Anarchists, but both Nova and Adrian understand that it could mean the end of Gatlon City – and the world – as they know it.

First up, thanks to the folks at Macmillan for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to start by saying how much I enjoyed Renegades. When I reviewed it last year, I thought it was a very unique and interesting story. And Marissa does such an awesome job of really bringing the reader into the story.

Admittedly, I found it a little hard to get back into this story at first. The list of Renegades and Anarchists was useful in reminding me, although I did forget a few very relevant and important details. Mostly though, I pushed on at the start because I was so excited with how the first book ended and wanted to see how it panned out.

I thought the most exciting thing about Archenemies was the ongoing internal discussions about morality and responsibility. This was a core theme of Renegades, but there are aspects of this book that really amp up the tension. It works wonders on helping readers understand Nova’s dilemma. I wasn’t entirely sure I bought her ‘my parents died because of your negligence so I will destroy you all’ stance in the last book, particularly after she infiltrated the Renegades and began to have feelings for Adrian. However, Archenemies really helped to add to her motivation in a way that I thought was very believable. And it was utterly heartbreaking, because the whole time I was on the edge of my seat wondering if this was the moment where she made her mind up and crossed a line and couldn’t change things afterwards.

I would say the pacing is a little slow and meandering for quite a large portion of it. There are a handful of chapters where there’s a lot of tension, mostly because you’re trying to figure out if a character’s secrets are about to be discovered. For the most part though, it did sag a little in the middle. But then, you get to the last few chapters and BAM there’s just so much happening and it is so tense that all of a sudden you are frantically tearing through pages wondering how the hell it could possibly end there. And yes, like Renegades this book ends on a HUUUUUUGGGEEE cliffhanger that made me want to immediately find a time turner that could somehow go forward in time so I could get a copy of the next one.

In all honesty, I don’t have too much have to say about it. I liked seeing more of the characters and how they worked alongside each other, and I simply loved how the two main characters are basically given a secret and then have to interact with each other [it makes for a great amount of tension]. However, I am still a bit confused about Nova’s motives earlier in the novel. I feel like she could totally just get away with being a Renegade and giving up her Anarchist ways. As I said though, there are some great explanations for her motives further in, so I can’t really complain too much.

One of the characters I wasn’t so keen on was Dana and how she behaves throughout Archenemies. I don’t want to post spoilers, so I won’t get into it, but I just didn’t like her all that much. Everyone else was pretty cool, and I will be really interested to see how the Anarchists function and behave with each other in the next book. Also, I really just have to say that I love seeing how each power works. Lots of them seem kind of odd or not that useful, until Marissa explains them on the page and then wow, they seem like the best thing ever.

Overall then, I’m going to give Archenemies an 8.5/10. I still prefer Renegades, but I loved loved LOVED the ending of this book so much. And now if you excuse me, I’m going to go cry in the corner until Supernova comes out.

Has anyone else read this book already or plans to? What do you all think of it? Let me know in the comment section down below ❤