HELIX Review (Reviewer Copy)

     Ava's memory is still fragmented, but determined to find her newly discovered twin, she returns to ISAN. Ava is on the lookout for information to help her in her quest, but the more she looks, the more lies she uncovers. She learns Helix may not be what gives her her enhanced abilities and that ISAN is suddenly recruiting a large number of male assassins even though Helix is supposed to be too much of a strain on them. Ava learning these secrets puts her in a dangerous position with ISAN. In order to survive, she may have to join the mysterious rebels she supposedly has a past with, but she has to be able to get out of ISAN first.

    Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Additionally, the author sent me this book as a free review copy; however, this did not influence my review. This is 100% my honest opinion. Let's begin:

    In my review for the first book in this series, I mentioned how it felt like I went from 5% progress to 40% in a matter of 5 minutes. Well, Mary Ting did that yet again. On Goodreads, it does appear like it took me a while to get through this book. However, this is only because I was able to start it and then had to stop for a bit. When I was able to get back into reading it though, I breezed through it.

    I found the plot of this one to be just as interesting, if not more, than the first. I loved all of the secrets that were unveiled and the pacing of these reveals was really nice. Even the slower parts of the book never made me bored because they still had things going on- it just wasn't direct action. Also, the cliffhanger at the end just killed me. It seemed like, for a second, Ting was going to do the big reveal, but alas, I had hoped too much. I definitely cannot wait to get my hands on the next book now, though, because I just HAVE to know the answer to one of my biggest questions.

    The characters were great. I really liked that Cleo became a bigger character (though I was a bit worried about a possible effect she would have on the story). I also enjoyed all of the new characters and am especially looking forward to getting to know more about a couple in particular in the next book. All of the original characters, especially Ava and Rhett, only grew stronger. I love them even more. I loved getting to know Rhett more by having his perspective included in the book. To avoid spoilers, I won't name the person, but the MAJOR plot twist with one of the main characters was phenomenal, and I adored it.

    The only reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 was because of the world-building. I mentioned in my review for the first book that there wasn't a ton of world-building but that this was okay because it wasn't a super major thing in the first book. I don't think the world-building improved much in this book, and I did find that it effected me a bit while reading. For example, I would have whatever image my mind decided to conjure up in a scene, and then I'd be taken aback by something being said that completely changes how the scene would be. I did not realize some of these things that changed the scenes because I didn't know that the world was like that. I am not sure how to describe what I mean, so hopefully you understand that. I still am holding out hope that this will improve in the next book though.

    Overall, I did really enjoy this read and am very excited for the third book. Ting does a fantastic job doing reveals while also keeping readers in the dark and wanting more. The characters are very strong and I think readers will attach to them easily just like I did. It felt like I got through the book super fast because of how much I enjoyed it. While there was the one con, there were so many more pros, so I highly recommend picking this one up and giving it a try.

    Thank you so much to Mary Ting and Angie from the Instagram page @marytingnews for the copy of this book!

Rating: 4/5 stars

Author: Mary Ting

Publisher: Vesuvian Books

# of Pages: 366 (Kindle edition)

Genre: YA, Sci-fi

Series: International Sensory assassin Network (Book 2)