I really like Nemesis but I can't continue with the huge plot holes. I have way too many questions about the basic world building and technology. If science and learning are outlawed, then how were Diabolics created? It makes them seem like a new creation, but isn't new science outlawed? And where do you draw the line on blasphemy? Is learning to sew a crime? What is considered BAD learning? 

Again, Nemesis is cool. But I take too many issues with the plot.

I don't know how to feel about this book. Just about every character was awful and grated on my nerves. But the story was compelling and I had to see it to the end. So I am really not quite sure what to say. I will just give it 3 stars and call it a wash.

You know, I used to feel really, really guilty about putting a book down before I had finished it. Like I owed the author something. But after suffering through way too many terrible books with one-dimensional characters and cliche plots, I learned I only owe MYSELF the respect of actually enjoying what I read.

This book, what I was able to read of it, was boring as crap. At first, I was okay with the characters, but the more you read, the more you realized they were absolutely lacking in any depth. Elias is just the straight-A, rich jock type with mommy issues, Laia is the pretty-not-pretty girl with no spine but a world of talents and no brain.

The world, which was billed as Rome-like, didn't feel Roman at all. In fact, I didn't feel much world building at all. 

The names of the people in this book were like something from a children's book. The Martials, the military types. And the Scholars, the smart ones. Really?

The Resistance uses Laia as a spy to bring down the Empire. That's the point I quit because Laia, despite her parents supposedly being huge Resistance leaders, is an idiot. What well-oiled revolution is going to use a stray they just found in the sewers as their spy? It reeks of stupidity on all parts. The girl couldn't even say a sentence without stammering and she's being sent into the Commandant's quarters.

Oh, and there's lots of mention of rape. The Masks, the really "good" assassins, really like rape. 

Is this what passes as literature? This book was so fucking hyped it's all I saw on my Instagram feed for months. God, I have got to learn to trust you guys here over pretty pictures on Insta. Those people take great pics of trash writing.

I have been listening to this for almost 7 hours and absolutely nothing has happened. Nothing. A lot of Lada being an absolute bitch to anyone and everyone and her brother being an obviously homosexual wannabe Muslim and everyone else is out to kill them. I am so over this mess. I hate Lada. She is nasty and vindictive and rude. Everything she does "out of love" is manipulative. I kept on listening, praying for this to pick up, but it never did. All battles were skipped, which is such a Twilight move. Any time a fight scene might come up, the chapter ends, the next begins and everything is over. It's just lazy writing. A lot of fluff and filler. Boring. 

Okay, I am giving this 2 stars because I can't decide if it's true or not and I don't want to be made a fool. Several people have said Misty gives contradictory stories about happened in her life. And a couple of people who are former Amish have said that her description of Amish ways are not accurate, right down to how deacons are put into place. There is also the fact that this book is just so much bad, one event after another; while that isn't, in itself, unrealistic, it's coupled with wildly miraculous events, and that is where it gets hard to really believe. Everyone outside of the Amish is always telling Misty how amazing she is and how smart she is etc. She passes her GED on her first attempt even though she only has a 2nd grade education and never even saw algebra until a couple of months before the test. I don't know.

Then there's the sheer volume of grammatical errors, spelling errors and missing punctuation in this book. There could not have been an editor. The speech was stilted, the conversations were terribly unrealistic and nobody is that dang CHEERFUL. Especially given how bad her life has been. She keeps saying how optimistic she is, while having panic attacks and crying in corners. She clearly defines cheerful differently than I do. Oh, and this book was ridiculously long. Like, mind-numbingly long.

I suppose we won't ever know if she's telling the truth since Amish folks probably don't even know this book exists. But I am heavily skeptical.