DNF
At this time, I'm no longer interested in this title. Thank you for the opportunity to read the book and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy,

It was a great follow up to Want, a quick paced sci fi read for young adults.

I thought this was a great follow up to Want. I loved all the characters as well as the author's interweaving of environmental and social issues into the story. It didn't feel preachy, it came off as real.

I was so excited to read this installment because I really enjoyed the first book back when I first read it last year, so I had such high expectations with this one, and though I found that some parts were super interesting and I overall enjoyed the plot and what we discovered in this sequel, I feel there were some things that could potentially have been better.

One of the strongest part of this book and the series in general is the pacing. I didn't struggle getting into the story or remembering everything that happened in the previous installment, and Ruse was such a fast paced read with lots of action packed scenes that made it super easy to read and enjoy.

It was so much fun to be back into this world and these characters that I loved so much in Want, and though not much happened between them that made them evolved throughout the story, I still really enjoyed their interactions and dynamics, and how valuable their friendship was. I still adored the cast of characters and their different personalities, and I liked how we got to know a bit more about them.

My only complain with this book was that I felt at times like I was reading Want all over again. Tough the plot was completely different, the way it was done made me compare it to the first book, and that made me not enjoy Ruse as much as I hoped to. There were certain elements that seemed a bit repetitive, and I was expecting much more from it.

Overall, this was such a fun and entertaining book, and I enjoyed diving into this world again. Though it didn't reach my expectations, I'm still glad I decided to read it in the first place.

I feel so fulfilled! Ruse feels like a natural progression for the events that happened in Want. I ended up reading this in 2 sittings, which goes to show that Ruse has a similar inhale-read quality to it that Want had. The other members of the squad (Arun, Iris, Lingyi) get more moments to shine here than they did previously. Ruse also showcased their friendship with Zhou a lot more than in Want, which was a very welcome addition. My only big complaint is that Ruse is more plot-heavy at the cost of losing the more character-driven quality that was a driving force in Want, but I don't have any problems with the plot itself.

Pros:
- Lotus paste mooncakes are my fave too. I feel so seen. (tho yolk isn't my thing but different strokes for different folks)
- Friends who buy each other food are the best friends
- So many mentions of Vic
- JUSTICE without murder. Go figure?
- So much food even the dinosaur on Arun's shirt is living the good food life with dandan mian
- Knife boy (Jason) and trash girl (Iris) are like Want's version of Jake and Rosa from B99
- Ruse just solidifies that everyone looks at Jason's butt.
- Arun becoming fabulously wealthy and helping those in need
- Daiyu still being bitter about her dog
- Lingyi is always the Boss with a capital B.
- This book expands on the gang's friendships!!!
- Jason and Daiyu are unabashedly horny teens and I was sort of living for it bc they didn't care and their friends tease them for it.

Cons:
- The only page I dont like is pg 95 where they make it seem like hacking into the hotel room is quirky cute illegal type activity but the rest of the book isn't like that so was it a fluke.
- Not as character heavy as WANT, but still has good moments esp. for the friendships.
- Could have expanded more on Lingyi and Iris' relationship but I guess it was like *saxophone music* at first sight so ok. They're still cute af.
- Jason and Daiyu are horny teens so those parts detract from other aspects of their relationship somewhat, but at least this is consistent with how they were in Want.

Disclaimer: I received this book for an honest review through NetGalley from the publisher.

I've been awaiting this book since I finished Want just after it first came out. Want was my first book by Cindy Pon and made me buy two more - which I haven't read yet, but #booklife problems - and it was amazing. It blew me away. It was young adult dystopian, which I thought I was just over - the market had been saturated and I wanted nothing more to do with it.
The market was saturated, that's not a lie, but it was saturated with white, US based dystopian fiction. All of it taking place in the US - honestly I don't remember very many taking place outside the states, even - and so this felt amazing.
It was a very feminist, intersectional book, with a cast of people of color and also casual queer characters - meaning their being queer didn't really matter, it was just who they were as they were while trying to save the world.
The plot of this surprised me and I was scared it was going to go in a direction that'd make me angry but it didn't go that route. To be honest, I'd almost call this wholesome dystopian, but really it's just good, old (but new) YA dystopian where the heroes, of course, win.
Not without losses and, if you haven't read the first book I won't spoil it here but their plans are ambitious and intense. And they complete them.
The one thing in this book, following up Want that I really enjoyed was seeing a different city in this world. Not far from their city of Taipei, they end up in China - Shanghai to be exact - to help out a friend and to, once again, screw over Jin Corp.
To wrap this up, so I don't just continue to spew love - I really enjoyed this duology, and this book was even better then the first. Fast paced, fun, good characters that you wanted to root for, and also an important look at what our very near future may look like because of climate change.
That's one of the main reasons this book is so important to me because it's terrifying how close we are to this future - this dystopian future - but also maybe people reading this book will get a kick in the pants about the world around them.
Highly, highly recommend this duology, this book especially, and I'd love to chat about it in the comments if you guys have read it or plan to.
Happy Reading!

Cindy Pon’s writing is exquisite and so very descriptive. She really takes you into the world she’s creating. The streets of dystopian Taiwan come alive, the sights, the hotel receptions, the scaffolding Zhou scales, the apartment Girl lived in, the food, the smells.

There’s so many things that I loved about this duology as a whole. Great characters and character development, amazing writing. I loved how Ruse dealt with the death of a close friend in the story. So many fantasy and sci-fi books just sort of skim over deaths and they hardly seem to affect the characters left behind but Cindy Pon’s characters deal with their grief on page and it’s not brushed off. You see it in Lingyi suffering from PTSD and grieving over Victor, you see it in Zhou’s survivor’s guilt.

After the bombing of the Jin Corp Headquarters Jason, Daiyu, and the others are still trying to recover. Daiyu’s father, the head of Jin Corp, is out for revenge and will stop at nothing to acquire Jany’s new air filtering technology. When Jany is murdered and the tech is stolen, Jason must fly to China to help Iris and Lingyi. Can they trust Daiyu or is she on her father’s side? This action-packed sequel will keep readers on the edge of their seat. The suspense builds throughout and doesn’t wane. This is a great sequel for everyone who loves Want. The series is a great match for those who love futuristic, but realistic science fiction.

Taking place in Shanghai, Ruse follows Zhou and the gang as they take on the same evils that continue to threaten everything they love.

Ruse begins where Want ended but this time we see those final moments through Lingyi’s eyes. With its stunning cover, I was excited to explore this world in Lingyi’s shoes since she was a favorite of mine from the first book. I figured she was going to be our main POV in Ruse, but sadly she wasn’t and that was disappointing. I wanted to get to know the “boss” and see more of her relationship with Iris.

It was nice to see everyone back in the sequel. Zhou and Daiyu still play the biggest roles throughout this series with even their relationship being the core of the plot. Which I have to be honest, I was never a fan of their love since Want and in this book my heart didn’t sway. It was nice getting to know Daiyu better, though. All the characters are struggling six months after the events in Want, but in particular Daiyu grapples with being Jin’s daughter or following her own heart.

As the story continues, the pacing of the plot felt a bit off at times. Most of the book is spent building up to the final act but once it gets there, everything feels too rushed. There’s no doubt that Cindy Pon is a fantastic writer. I appreciate how well she developed this world that takes on a topic we don’t see much of in books. Climate change and the differences in social classes are both well explored throughout this series. It sets Want and Ruse apart from other YA books.

Overall, Ruse isn’t a bad book but it lacked the spark the first book had. I enjoyed seeing the characters struggle only to find the closure they needed by the end of everything. In the end there was still something missing for me. I wanted to love Ruse but I didn’t. However, it’s a good book with great diversity that takes on tough topics.

I enjoyed reading about the characters again. I really loved the descriptive background of Shanghai and the plot was solid for a second in a series. I was hoping for a little more character development, but with a series I am sure it will come in more novels. A good book for teens.

I loved Want, and was really excited when I heard a sequel was coming.

The cover of Ruse is gorgeous but while Lingyi is one of the narrators of Ruse, after the initial few chapters it feels like the story centers more around Jason and his dilemma of being torn between his friends and Daiyu. I love the friendship between Lingyi, Jason, Iris, and Arun, and the relationship between Lingyi and Iris, but Ruse doesn't add much depth to the characters or their relationships from what we already learned in Want. The book is primarily plot-driven, with the group urgently trying to keep an important technological invention out of Jin's greedy hands. This makes for a very quick, action-packed read.

I loved that the setting of Ruse moves to Shanghai, and the descriptions of the city and the food were one of my favorite parts of the book. Some of the strongest moments were when the characters addressed their grief and opened up to each other. I still can't believe that character died, and I could feel in Ruse how deeply it affected the group. I also liked Daiyu's character arc, as she faced a complicated situation and had to make some tough choices.

Overall, while this wasn't the strongest sequel, I was glad to have more time with characters I really liked and to have a conclusive ending to their story. I loved the futuristic Taiwan and China setting that Pon created, and the environmental themes.

DNF @ 30%

I know exactly what went wrong here. The same thing happened when I tried to read The Brink of Darkness on NetGalley a year after the first one came out... except it's been two years since I read Want. Something about the combination of not reading a physical copy, and not caring about the world or characters anymore just makes a terrible mix.

I honestly feel bad about not finishing this, but I just don't have the time to be reading books I'm not enjoying.

However, if you just read Want, and you're wondering if the sequel is any good, I honestly think it is. It's just been too long for me to still be invested in the story. I need to start reading more series with all of the books out already!

[this review will be up on my blog, acquadimore.wordpress.com, on March 23, 2019]

I didn't love Ruse as much as I loved Want. I do think it is a solid sequel, and worth reading if you liked the first book, but the combination of my expectations and this book just not being as compelling and well-paced as the first one was led me to enjoy it less.

Let's talk about expectations: I believed Lingyi would be the main narrator of this book. She's not; most of the novel is still narrated by Jason Zhou, and while Lingyi is slightly more prominent and has a few chapters in her PoV, she still doesn't get much development or more depth that she had in the first book.
While I love Zhou, I expected this book to be different, to get more into Lingyi and Iris' history, and their relationship. It doesn't.

I also thought this book was less thematically strong than the first one. It still talks about class and environmentalism, which I really appreciate, but it does nothing with these messages that the first book didn't already do more effectively. The descriptions of the excesses of the rich and the poverty felt far more vivid in the first book.
The pacing was also uneven, which made some of the flaws already present in Want stand out even more, like the lack of character development (the only character who actually gets an arc is Daiyu. Who is of course the best character in the book and we don't deserve her).

However, I still really enjoyed reading this! I loved reading about this diverse group of teenagers trying their best to take down an evil rich man. They doubt each other and mess up and feel guilty for not being able to do more in a world that is so unjust, but... I admire all of them a lot.
Also, the novel was still very atmospheric (it's set in Shanghai instead of Taipei this time and I really liked seeing this new place from Lingyi and Zhou's eyes), and it has the kind of food descriptions that will make you hungry.

This was a super exciting book! If you're looking for something to really get your adrenaline going, you picked the right one. I can't say too much without giving spoilers, but I loved how the characters grew and developed and just everything about this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to see when I was approved for this. I loved her other book so I had to have this one. I highly recommend this book.