Man, I wanted to like this book so much, but it just didn't deliver. The world building was incredibly thin and the effectiveness of the two boys absurdly adhering to tropes was completely undercut by the fact that none of the other characters had more depth or realism to them. I kept waiting for Juliet to reveal that she too was lying all along and was like, using the boys to get close to the LIC which she'd already learned of or something, because she seemed as fake as either of the boys. And you're telling me that this has been going for centuries in our world? With no real explanation as to how that could possibly work or why they target teens (seriously "you haven't read many YA books have you" is not an explanation, it's a joke, why on earth would they try to pair people up permanently in high school)? There's so much suspension of disbelief involved across the board that I just couldn't let that slide. Great premise in theory, but the writing and world building were just...young.

Two stars because it wasn't like, actively offensive, just bad. ( )

Hm. I... enjoyed this book. Tentatively.
The main characters' romance is well-developed and builds at a good pace. The concept of Love Interests works better than you'd think, bringing a lot of interesting tension to the three main characters' relationship, and the novel plays with and subverts the love triangle trope (and the writing of gay characters in general) in fun ways. I found it interesting that equal focus was put on both the false romance (between the narrating Love Interest and the person he was assigned to) and the endgame one (between the two competing Love Interests), and I like that the girl wasn't villainized and came to be seen as a friend. Overall, the character relationships and romance worked well for me.
But when the development of these relationships gets left behind for action scenes and dramatic ultimatums, the story stops working. The last part of the novel depends strongly on the worldbuilding, which is the weakest part of the story. Why does this organization with super-advanced tech only use it to partner up powerful people? Why does this teenage girl use her genius only for inventions that have combat applications? How did these kids raised in batches to be expendable come out anywhere close to well-socialized? The answer, of course, is narrative reasons.
This part of the story is hard to follow, simply because of the sheer amount of un-foreshadowed information being revealed, and a lot of the character and plot development at this point seems like part of an arc that the rest of the book has not been following. It feels like part of an earlier draft.
I was pleasantly surprised by the first 3/4 of this book, and disappointed by the end. I really liked the characters, but their arcs did not come to satisfying ends, and the plot was altogether disjointed. I would recommend it to someone looking for cute, gay, YA romance and a light read. Overall, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I could have. ( )

Very promising beginning before it fizzles out. The ending gets a little cheesy and violent. It honestly feels like a mood whiplash. The story pokes fun at obvious YA tropes while wrapped in a spy theme until the blandness of the characters collapses underneath its weight.

Ain’t nobody really interesting in this book. Juliet was pretty run-of-the-mill. She’s supposed to be quirky and awkward, a little bratty too. I forgot she was supposed to be a super genius. Caden himself wasn’t interesting but his circumstances were.

Overall, this is a unique story that would’ve benefited from a dual pov. I wanted to know what Dylan was thinking. He was too real for LIC. I wouldn’t have mind learning a bit more about M and D too. Like, how D had failed and why he was so surly.

About that Trevor mess: While I was upset with Caden glossing over Natalie’s valid hurt (especially since he was understandably torn up from the floor up when he saw Dyl making out with Juliet), that was a nice plot twist. I’m not even going to play with you. I didn’t see it coming.

Y’know, being upset over someone cheating is not irrational or unreasonable. TV shows are not indoctrinating no one on that, kay. Like, what type of dusty logic???

Also, the reporter was a grown woman. “Y’all are going to jail! Period!”

Another thing, I don’t know if Dyl was lying to Caden to save face or to hurt him so he wouldn’t mourn after his death, but that totally came out of left field. Sir, you are full of lies.
( )

Not what I was hoping for, too bad, it sounded good.

So this is part romantic satire, part sci-fi, part sucks you into its own romance.

The satire was generally good but inconsistent, which left me wondering if the author couldn't maintain it or didn't intend to.

The storyline itself I loved, but for whatever reason it felt choppily put together. Perhaps it is the narrator having little sense of himself other than survival becoming defined by the people closest to him or he was there all along etc etc. Regardless, there was an issue with flow that i can quite articulate.

Was it fun? Yes. I enjoyed the read, but I think the flow/writing felt choppy. ( )