For Full Review go to http://seeingdoubleinneverland.blogsp...5 out of 5 starsI loved every twist and turn of this book and just loved going alone for the ride of this twisted world Evie lives in!

Read a guest post by J. A. Souders and enter to win the full trilogy from Tor Teen HERE

This review is also available over at my blog.______________________Holy crap.Um, wow, I'm not even sure where to start.Okay, so, in the underwater city of Elysium, which is ruled by a woman that goes by Mother, Evelyn Winters has been trained to be the Daughter of the People, and the one in line to be the leader of the city. She had a perfect life, loved by Mother and all the citizens of Elysium. But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, somehow manages to enter the city, Evie starts realizing that her whole life is a lie. Her memories are constantly altered and her mind not under her own control, and the city's beloved Mother is a monster. As Evie and Gavin form a bond together, they plan an escape to the surface. But Mother has many terrifying secrets, including one that could destroy everything.I loved how this was written. I liked that during the first few chapters, there were ones that started exactly the same, with sentences like My life is just about perfect and It's nice to have someone to talk to and so on. You could definitely tell when Evie was mind-controlled or not. The whole mind-control thing overall was a very nice touch with Evie, because during the last half of the book, it caused a lot of crazy shit to go down. Actually, something hella crazy happens at the end of the first chapter, so that's pretty much a warning about how intense the book is gonna be.Evie was likable. When she was in control of her own mind, of course. She didn't make any stupid choices, and she was definitely far from a Mary Sue. Starting the book, I actually was expecting her to be a Mary Sue. Imagine my surprise when she turned out a pretty borderline-kickass heroine. Especially nearing the end. Holy shite. My jaw went straight through the floor and into the ground several times.I also quite liked Gavin. He has a southern accent, which I rarely see YA heroes have. xD And I thought he was pretty sweet and never came off as a douche. The romance between him and Evie was unfortunately insta-love, but, get this: I was not annoyed with it whatsoever. I know, right? What sorcery is this? Insta-love has always been a one-way ticket to a low rating for me, but this time the book was just so damn awesome that it made me overlook the insta-love. And to be honest, I really liked their chemistry.Mother. Okay, this bitch is straight-up batshit insane. Seriously. She's way past the point of drunk with power. She's so obsessed with wanting her city to be completely flaw-free that she would do anything to ensure that. And by anything, I really do mean anything. Double, triple, quadruple emphasis if needed. Besides Mother, there's also Father, but he was pretty much just a shadow. He only appears, like, once in the whole book, and had about one or two lines. I felt like he was the King from Alice in Wonderland: barely there, completely passive and letting his woman take care of everything.I liked the world-building, and the whole Enforcer thing I thought was very...unusual. They're females that are selected from the age of three to become these assassin-type murderers that serve Mother. It was crazy that all of them were these really young girls, most of them barely sixteen. I give props to the author for that whole concept, because I think it's pretty damn original. Although I did feel like the details of how Elysium came about were very brief and sort of vague. And I also kept wondering what it was like in the surface. Was it like our modern world? Or was it completely torn apart by wars, as Mother wants the citizens of Elysium to believe? There weren't any details about it, really, besides the quotes at the beginning of each chapter (which are all from Mother's words so that's why I'm skeptical) but I'll let it slide because this is the first book, and I know there will be more info in the next one.Around 250 or so pages, I started getting into this book so damn much. The amount of action was overwhelming, and all the scenes were very gripping and intense. I was so into it that I swear I was panting as I read. I was ready to give the book 4 or 4.5 stars, until the last half. I thought if I rated this book any less than 5 stars it would be a friggin' crime punishable by law.I'm glad that the ending wasn't quite a huge cliffhanger, or I would've been pissed the hell off. I am extremely excited to see where this series goes, because there are countless unanswered questions swirling in my head right now.To put it shortly, this book was pretty damn awesome, despite its few flaws. Hell, the simple fact that the insta-love in it didn't annoy me at all just proves how awesome it is. I would recommend you get your hands on this book as soon as possible.Billions of thank you's to NetGalley and Tor for sending me this galley!

*A copy was provided for review purposes*I highly enjoyed reading Renegade, by J.A. Souders. In my opinion, every single aspect of this book deserves high praise, from the detailed cover art to the depth (no pun intended) of the authors prose. She has created a captivating and unique underwater society in which the residents all have entertaining personalities and are a huge part of why this novel is so wonderful. In a way, this book could represent dystopia, but excluding the whole end-of-the-world theme. It has different districts with a matriarch called Mother, who right of the bat to me seemedoff. She rules over an underwater settlement called Elysium, in which there is power, surprisingly, and the mer-people actually do inhale oxygen, once again, surprisingly. Shes everything you dont expect a mother to be. Complete opposite, totally batty, I cant say enough times how much this woman is crazy. But shes not only crazy, shes creep-tastic, and exactly as described in the synopsis, a monster.I really liked Evelyn as a main character, although my relationship with her character had a rocky start. Ive learned to not judge a character by the first few chapters, ok, maybe the first few sentences, a while back, but I still end up judging them anyway. And this is why I didnt like Evie in the very beginning. She came across as a very annoying and dull character, and I was instantly turned off with her perspective. But thank god for character growth because she gives Sharpay from High School Musical (XD) a run for her money with the sudden twists of personality. Evie grows from wimp to kick-ass, and dull to pretty damn interesting. I mean, come on, she faces a mother who tells her to dress up in a baby doll black dress and go hunt for boys, I think that crossed the line of attention-grabbing a few sentences ago. As she discovers more about her past and who she truly is, the book takes a turn for the better with even better dialogue and more of an engaging plotline. I really hope that theres an ever bigger growth in her with the second book, but as of now, Evie has been the perfect main character for Renegade.The romance in this book was very sweet and natural. It wasnt rushed, but it wasnt torturingly slow either, it moved at a perfect pace. Gavin has a very down-to-earth, funny, and charming personality, which I felt was very refreshing from the regular tough bad-boys I read about. His interactions with Evie and their adventures together exploring the whole of Elysium and its different societies were entertaining to read about and very engaging. Gavin was definitely a great add to this book, and I will be looking forward to reading more about him and his relationship with Evie in the next book. Overall, a great novel with jaw-dropping plot-twists, a unique utopian society, and a romance thats sure to warm your heart.

A copy of Renegade was provided to me by Tor Teen/Netgalley for review purposes.'We are all Mother's children. It is a privilege to show her our ultimate obedience to her laws.'Evelyn Winters is the Daughter of the People in the underwater world of Elysium. She is a flawless specimen with ideal genes perfectly suited to create flawless children. Mother has worked hard to solidify Evelyns perfection and the perfection of all citizens in Elysium. Mother will do anything and everything to make sure this remains so. All is not as it appears in Elysium. Look carefully, beyond the perfection.... and you'll see the malevolence hidden closely beneath the surface. 'Greed has poisoned men's souls. Surface Dwellers have destroyed what was once beautiful and turned it into a ghostly illusion of what they call peace. But down here, we have real peace. There will be no fear, or sickness, hunger, hate, or greed. We have created our Utopia. And it is magnificent.'Evelyn is told from an early age that her people escaped to Elysium to hide from the evil Surface Dwellers that war with one another but when a Surface Dweller manages to breach Elysium Evelyn cant help but be intrigued by him. His name is Gavin and with his help Evelyn realizes that the very world she lives in is a complete lie.An underwater utopia? How. Awesome. I loved the descriptions and details of how everything worked and how people managed to not only survive but to truly thrive and be completely self-sufficient under the sea. I would have loved for it to be explained more in detail in the beginning rather than a conversation between Evelyn and Gavin when hed ask a question here and there. I believe an introduction in the beginning on the underwater society would have been better.Very intriguing from the very first page, its quite obvious that something is wrong with Evie and it all has to do with Mother. The introduction of Gavin had to be done in order to set in motion the entire story, but I didnt buy how incredibly easy it was for her to understand and accept that she was being brainwashed. You'd think that for someone that was brainwashed for over almost her entire life wouldn't just begin having doubts just because someone (that she doesn't even know) randomly suggests it once. I think if there was more time spent on the overall character building that I wouldnt have a problem with Evie trusting Gavin immediately or their instant bond which while it wasnt quite insta-love veered a bit too close for my liking.I shiver at the sounds surrounding me: Gavins gasping breaths. The thunder of my heartbeat. The ripping of flesh. And, making it all worse, the mans rasping voice as he sings.The action is intense and ongoing and it never seems to let up throughout the extent of the book. Towards the end though, the story takes an extremely gruesome turn. Mother was a truly evil villain and one that conducted some particularly shocking experiments in order to secure her perfect society. A textbook villain is one that is willing to do whatever is required to get what she wants, and Mother was definitely prepared to do that. You dont realize till then end bits just how far she had gone with her experiments and what the end result was.When I began this story I was under the impression that it was a standalone novel but there were far too many questions that were left unanswered for there not to be a follow-up. I will definitely be reading the follow-up, Im quite excited to find out how everything is explained and to see where the author takes the story. Despite the few issues I had and the lower rating this was still a highly enjoyable, edge-of-your-seat kind of read that fans of dystopian and sci-fi genres will enjoy.2.5 stars overall