Exiled

Exiled by Sophie Davis 4 STARS

**  You must read the Talented Series before this book!

Synopsis-
Kenly Baker is alone. TOXIC has been defeated. Her friends from the McDonough School for the Talented are scattered to the wind. Even Kenly’s only living family member cannot hide the scared teenager from those who wish to contain her. Because Kenly is one of the Created.
For her, it’s a future worse than death.
She travels across the Atlantic Ocean, to the slums of London. There, Kenly finds tentative acceptance among a group of outcasts. They have spent their enire lives dodging shadows, barely staying alive. Kenly thought she knew what horrors haunt the night, but her new companions reveal predators far more alarming than anything she’s ever faced. Suddenly, she is brutally aware of the dark side of humanity.
Kenly’s biggest concern was the UNITED trackers, who round up and capture the Created. But there are adversaries in this new world who are far more terrifying. And unfortunately for Kenly, now their sites are set on the Created.

*A Copy was provided by the author for an honest review

Overall: Great new storyline intertwining well loved characters with new ones!
Characters:  Kenly, Willa, James, Honora, Riley
Page Turner: Sometimes
Series Cont.? Yes
Book Boyfriend: James?
Genre:  Sci-Paranormal Romance with slight dystopian feel
Sex Scenes: Nope

Overall-
This book, like all the others is pretty fast paced with lots of action and twists and turns. I loved having the original team of characters mentioned and involved, (hopefully bringing together a final book in alternate POV's?) I was really impressed with this new world building that the author created. I too, like Kenly, never really considered how other countries saw or treated the Talented, so it was truly eye opening to see it work so differently and the way that people were treated. I was so intrigued by this dark and dangeous world and the characters, they had such a crazy back story, so different than what we had seen in the other Talented books. I really enjoyed this book, it was fast paced, action packed with a little bit of romance and a slight cliff hanger (nothing too major though!) If you are a fan of this series, this is a MUST read!

What I didnt like was that it felt too slow at times, I almost felt like there was too much world building by telling than showing and experiencing. Specifically, Kenly's intake of information, which at times felt overloading and annoying (but on point) seemed to serve as explaining the world in which Kenly fell into, rather than showing me the world and having her explore it, basically it felt like Kenly wasnt putting the pieces together properly, and timely. This got better after the first 15-20% of the book, when Kenly really got in to the thick of things. There were scenes that I was confused about, especially towards the end, when it seemed like everything was just thrown together. I didnt understand the ending at all, and found the beginning to lack in entertainment, it was quite dull at first at the world building stage (which is why I docked a star).

Generally though, this is an excellent companion type novel of Talented. Im not sure how the author would get to the next book of Talia without this one though, so it will be interesting to see where we go next, but one thing is certain, I cant wait!

Characters-

Kenly- I'm not really sure how I feel about Kenly, I really liked her in the other Talented books, I found her intriguing and mysterious. And honestly, I am glad she got her own story, her own book, because she was quite prominent at times to Talia. That said, I was more than a little frustrated with her at times. Considering she had been training at the school for years and with Talia/Donovan for a while, I felt like her Higher Reasoning Power should have been more spot on than it was. And granted she was thrown into a VERY different world than she was accustomed to, I didnt understand how she could so easily let her guard down ALL the time! I also got quite annoyed with her "holier than thou" mantra. The idea that she was invincible or better than everyone else was really annoying. On the other hand, I found her nativity matching her new world, and the love interest to be interesting. I loved learning about James and getting to know him. As always the author amazing created such mystery yet mesmerizing scenes of vulnerability and openness. I was in awe at times at her ability to weave such beautiful scenes together, so effortlessly it seems everything fits together. Kenly also seems to have a temper, which I find odd considering she is a higher reasoning mind, so she should know better, but she let it get to her regardless.

I do like Kenly though, I love her spirit, her fight and her endless amount of love and hope. I found her will to help those she cares about endearing, as she was willing to sacrifice quite a bit to save someone she loves on numerous occasions. I liked that her personality really shown throughout the book, I was never confused about how she felt or what she was thinking. She was always honest with herself, in an entertaining way too. I found her relationship with James, while predictable, still touching. She actually spent time getting to know him before truly falling for him, and even admitted that she knew she couldn't quite call it love yet. Overall, Kenly is another great strong female lead character and I look forward to her role in future books. One thing I love about Kenly that really shows off her Higher Reasoning Power is the way her brain works, the constant thinking and analyzing, her brain truly never shuts off. And over the course of the book I think she realizes that not everything is a problem to be solved in her heard but that she needs more.

James- Oh James. Where to start with this one. I couldn't get a good read on him at first (yes i know thats the point!) I wasn't sure if I would like him, and honestly, even though I like him now, I don't love him like I love Erik (he's hard to overcome). I liked James, that he had a tough exterior for a purpose. I like that Kenly had to peel back his layers, he didnt just reveal himself or his past for a pretty new girl. James was caring, and compassionate. He speaks through his action (or sometimes lack thereof). His bond with Kenly really blossoms over time and their relationship is much more than just skin deep.