This picks up right after the first book and things go from bad to worse for our little group of misfits. Everyone gets separated, so we follow Lemon, Zeke, Cricket, and Eve separately. And oh boy, it gets all kinds of crazy. There’s a lot going on in this book that easily kept me invested right up to the end. Omg, that ending! Anyway, I’m not going to say much, but it’s cool how Kristoff brought it all together.

One thing is for sure, Lemon is still my favorite. Lemon Fresh, you certainly are not a sidekick! Then there’s Eve, who … well, let’s just say she takes a drastic turn. We also meet a whole slew of interesting new characters that are totally enduring, and some not so much.

I really do love this series and don’t know how I’m going to wait for the next book. Because, again, that ending!

<u> <b>Review for <i>DEV1AT3 (Deviate)</i> by Jay Kristoff </u> </b>


ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
Thanks for the opportunity to review this book!

<u>All opinions are my own.</u>

<b>Trigger Warnings (TW):</b> For violence, warfare, guns, etc. Be safe, friends!

<u> <b>Summary: </u> </b>
<u> <b>SPOILERS FOR LIFEL1K3 AHEAD</u> </b>

<b> “Lemon Fresh has seen better days.

After the climactic battle in Babel, she finds herself separated from Ezekiel and Cricket in the wastelands. Lemon’s abilities to manipulate electricity mark her as a deviate, and deadly corporate operatives are hunting her to use as a weapon in the war between BioMaas Incorporated and Daedelus Technologies. Instead, Lemon finds herself falling in with a group of fellow deviates—a band of teenagers with astonishing abilities, led by an enigmatic figure known as the Major, who may hold the secrets to Lemon’s past.

Meanwhile, Cricket finds himself in possession of the puritanical Brotherhood, a religious cult set for a head-on collision with the Major and his band. Searching for Lemon, Ezekiel finds a strange ally in an old enemy, and uncovers a plot that may see him reunited with his beloved Ana.

And inside Babel, a remade Eve hatches a plan to bring an end to the world.” </b>

In <i> DEV1AT3 </i> we pick up right where we left off at the end of <i>LIFEL1K3</i>.
We continue to follow Lemon, Cricket, and Ezekiel as they make their way as far from Babel as they can. Lemon and Zeke are both coming to terms with their recent fall out with Eve. As they make their way through some desert wastelands, they’re eventually all split up, and we follow each one as they try to make their way back to the others.

<u> <b>My Thoughts </u> </b>

<b>WOW </b>
I remember last year, when reading <i>LIFEL1K3</i> how much I adored this world. It is reminiscent of Mad Max, Borderlands, and Fallout to me.

<b><i>“Lemon stepped on the brake with both feet, brought her monster truck (which she’d secretly named Trucky McTruckface) to a skidding stop.”</b></i>
<i> <u>Quote taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication. </i></u>

This quote made me immediately think of Tiny Tina from Borderlands and is one of the many things I enjoyed about this book. We get to see so much more of the world in <i>DEV1AT3</i> due to the fact that everyone is spread out and searching for each other all over it. I would happily read all of the books Jay ever wants to write in this setting.

If the setting and book one hasn’t compelled you to pick this one up, I’ve got a few quotes about some of my favorite types of humor as well. Jay gives each of his characters such a huge personality, and I’ve absolutely loved Lemon from the beginning for her smartass comments and dead-pan humor, as I feel it mirrors my own.

<b><i>“Hi,” Cricket waved. “I don’t suppose you just wanna be friends?”
“Target acquired,” the Storm called in a booming voice, turning on Cricket. “Mission: Destroy.”
“Okay, then.” Cricket nodded. “Good talk.”</b></i>
<i> <u>Quote taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication. </i></u>

Throughout this story we meet many new characters, two whom I think will be new favorites for entirely different reasons. First, Lemon meets Hunter, who is essentially a hive that uses their bees to kill anyone who gets in their way.

<b><i> Hunter nodded. “A Hunter sees with many eyes, Lemonfresh.”
“Right,” the girl replied. “Out into the street, walk it like we own it, head straight for the gate. If a patrol stops us, keep your deathbees calm, let me talk. Fizzy?”</b></i>
<i><u> Quote taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication. </i></u>

And further throughout the story we meet many others, though I don’t want to spoil the magic of meeting those guys for any of you. Needless to say, if you were a fan of book one, I have no doubts that you will love book two. I would say I loved book two a little bit more than I enjoyed book one, mainly because I love Lemon and we got to hang out with her more than we did in the first book.

I’m also personally a fan of the terms Jay incorporates into his book. He does it to show the reader they’re in a completely different world from our own, and for me, it’s definitely a win. I know that some people had issues with this in book one, or from his other series, but for me personally, it works, and I dig it.


<b> <u>Overall (TLDR)</b> </u>

5/5 Stars for me.
If you loved book one, just do yourself a favor and pick this one up so that you can laugh and cry just as much as I did.
If you didn’t read book one and you read this review (even though I gave you a spoiler warning), you should go read <i> LIFEL1K3 </i> and then read <i> DEV1AT3</i> as well.

This series is absolutely for fans of Borderlands, Mad Max, Fallout, or post-apocalypse books with an incredible amount of witty banter and humor. If you’re a fan of robot sidekicks and magical abilities that Jay’s incredibly unique characters have and use against each other, then this one is definitely for you.

Thanks again to NetGalley for letting me have a chance to read and review this book! All thoughts are my own.

Find me on Instagram and Twitter!
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/delaneyreads">Instagram
<a href="https://www.twitter.com/delaneyreads">Twitter</a>

Oh Jay Kristoff, you make me want to thump your head after that ending! How am I going to wait another year to find out what happens to my girl, LemonFresh, and Cricket, and the new friends they’ve made?? Grrrrr...

Lifel1k3, book 1, was touted as “Romeo & Juliet meets Mad Max meets X-Men, with a little bit of Blade Runner cheering from the sidelines" Dev1at3 was all of the above times 3!! It felt way more Mad Max and X-Men and to top it off, sidekick Lemon starred in this book! Her and Cricket were my favorites from book 1, so to have book 2 feature both characters as the main POVs, I enjoyed it even more! And then both Lemon and Cricket meet new friends and I adored them all just as much! Well... most of them.

In Deviate, the story picks up a few hours after Lifelike ends with Lemon, Ezekiel, and Cricket leaving Evie (per her request). Not long after, the 3 get separated, and each go on to have their own action packed crazy adventures.

In the meantime, every so often, we’d get snippets of Eve’s story.

I can’t wait to see how the series ends! Kristoff is kind of scaring me as he doesn’t seem to feel bad at all about going to the dark side. I’m already worried about how some of my favorite characters will fare in book 3. Overall though, this book is just pure fun!!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Knopf Books for the advance copy!*

Jay has such a unique voice that as soon as you opened a book of his without looking you would know it was a Kristoff book.

I love how masculine his writing is but still appeals to everyone. Definitely recommend this!

The book begins about five hours after the last events of Lifel1k3, in which Ezekiel, Lemon and Cricket are running away from Babel Tower, leaving their friend Evie behind. Very quickly they are separated in the wastes and their individual adventures begin.

The story has different POV's which is great because I love getting to see their individual characterizations and the development without the other characters being present. Lemon Fresh is seen struggling not only with her powers but with being left without any of the people she cares about. I think her struggle with trying to find a family was portrayed beautifully and very realistically. When she finally meets others like her, she feels a sense of belonging and a sense of finally finding a real family.

As for Cricket, I loved getting to see more of him! I think he is such an underrated character and his development was absolutely incredible in this book. We get to see him dealing with having new 'owners' who treat him horribly, something he is clearly not used to because Lemon and Eve treated him with love and compassion.

Finally, we get to see Ezekiel and his struggle with loving both Eve and Ana, and trying to figure out if he loved Evie because she was supposed to be Ana or if he loved her as her own person. He also struggles with his love for his family versus what he knows is right: saving the human race.

All in all, the plot was very fast paced, interesting and had a heck of a lot of action and adventure. I felt like I was on a roller coaster of emotions, feeling scared for a moment and then being incredibly angry the next. There was a moment where I had to roll my eyes because I could see the plot twist coming from a mile away, but it was nothing that I would say took away from the story. If anything, it kept you on your toes, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I would highly recommend this book for any fans of Jay Kristoff's writing style and for anyone wanting to read an amazing dystopian fantasy, complete with robots trying to end the human race, humans developing powers and lots and lots of drama!

Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

Dev1at3 is book two in the Lifel1k3 series by Jay Kristoff and trust me…if you haven’t started reading these books you definitely need to fix that. They are a mix of sci-fi, dystopian, post-apocalyptic…and I love it! I will do my absolute best to not spoil anything here but be warned that there could be spoilers to the first book if you haven’t yet read.

This book picks up where we left off in Lifel1k3 and Kristoff ends up giving us a view into each character’s storyline by giving us chapters from each perspective and I really appreciated that because very quickly they all find themselves on different paths. Evie, Lemon, Ezekiel, and Cricket are the perspectives we get, and I loved how each chapter pulled all the separate stories along even though the characters weren’t together.

If you’ve read anything by Kristoff, you know he doesn’t take it easy on his characters and that is certainly the case in this book. Each one of these characters is on a journey and whether they end up in a good place (or not) is something you will just have to pick up the books to find out. There are some new characters in this book too and I loved how they added more to the existing stories vs distract. Abraham, Grimm, Diesel, and so many more…I just can’t say enough about how I loved how Kristoff aligned all of these character’s stories with the overarching plot.

I can’t say too much about the actual story without ruining it so I’m not going to. Just know that Evie is determined to destroy the world, Lemon is figuring things out, Ezekiel is making some real difficult choices, and Cricket is finding new ways to survive within the confines of the laws of robotics. I’m really looking forward to the third book in this series. So much happened in the last few chapters of Dev1at3 that all I can say is brace yourself.

If you are looking for a story that is unique, has tons of action and twists, and will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what the characters will have to face next, this is a book for you. I’ll just be over here waiting for the next book so I can see who will make it out of the situations they are in…hopefully as undamaged as possible.

This was a great book, as good, if not better, than the first! It action, drama, suspense! Wonderful characters all with different plans and agendas that interconnected. Some characters changed, some for the good, some not so much. The ending was crazy good, I cannot wait until the next one to see what happens!

DEV1AT3 is the second installment in author Jay Kristoff's LIFEL1K3 trilogy. In the wake of an uprising in a post-apocalyptic USA, the robotic populace have been reduced to slaves, and androids (robots who look like humans) have been outlawed. LIFEL1K3 was about a girl named Eve and her best friend Lemon who find a ruined android in a scrap heap; an almost-boy named Ezekiel, who knows the truth behind the robotic revolt and has been searching for one Ana Monrova.

While LIFEL1K3 gave readers the making of a villain in Eve, DEV1AT3 focuses on Lemon’s rise to claim her destiny as a hero. The story itself alternates between Lemon, Ezekiel, Cricket, as well as Evie who made an interesting choice at the end of the previous installment. The story begins 5 hours after Lemon, Ezekiel, and Cricket escaped Babel Tower and the revelations that have no divided one best friend from the other. After a short fight for their lives, Lemon, Ezekiel and Cricket end up going in different directions for pretty much the entire length of this story. So, let's start with Lemon.

Lemon is coming to terms with a power that she has long denied. She is also being hunted by Daedalus who wants to use her for her powers that can be used as a weapon between two conglomerates who are fighting over world dominion. Lemon is her usual sassy self and we see her delve further into her abilities, bolstered by those who are like her. While searching for Ezekiel and Cricket, she meets a boy named Grimm. Grimm, Fix, and Diesel are like her. They are considered to be abnormal. Lemon finds a sense of belonging among the other genetic deviates. But all is not what it seems, and with enemies and friends, heroes and villains wearing interchangeable faces, Lemon, too, will join the race to locate Ana Monrova before her former best friend can get to her.

Meanwhile, Cricket who was given a new body in the previous installment, finds himself being sold to the Brotherhood and is forced into fighting in the War Dome. If you know anything about Cricket, he is fiercely loyal to Evie, as well as Lemon. He hates being separated from his friends, but with the Brotherhood in control of the city where he now is forced to fight other Bots, it will take a miracle for him to escape and be reunited with Lemon. Cricket finds a way to unlock the 3 laws which are an imperative for all bots. This actually is pretty straight forward but adding in Solomon was a nice touch by the author.

Ezekiel is the hardest character for me to review since he has been forced into considering new avenues after finding out the truth about Eve, and the fact that the real Ana who he is in love with, is now a target for Evie and her L1felike brothers and sisters. Ezekiel ends up being teamed up with the dreaded Preacher for a great chunk of this story. He also ends up attempting to remind Evie that she isn't like the rest of her brothers and sisters who want to destroy humankind. But, will Evie listen, or will she go full villain?

Evie is such a twisted character which is typical of the author. He loves making them as conflicted as possible, and then laughs when the readers scream bloody murder for what happens when he tosses in a bunch of twists and turns and some curious questions as well. Is Evie really a villain? Or, will she rediscover that ending the human race isn't what she really intends to do? How can she possibly have feelings about Ana who she was modeled after while at the same time, hoping to find and take her DNA to open even more devastating wars?

DEV1AT3 introduces a new life form called Hunter. Their purpose is to hunt down high priority targets like Lemon. Lemon somehow managed to catch the eye of BioMass, and now Hunter is on her trail. These beings that blur the line between organic and artificial life make questions of robotic autonomy even harder to answer. Plus, there is the creep factor where these Hunters use bees to do their dirty work.

It is fair to say that in Jay Kristoff fashion, there is a brilliantly devious cliffhanger ending that leaves just about every single character hanging on for dear life. Will Lemon be able to stand and deliver? Or, will she become a pawn between Daedalus and BioMaas? Will Eve really become a villain, or will she discover a way to step back from the newest attempt at destroying the world? Will Ezekiel ever find happiness again, or will he crash and burn once he has to face his family one last time?

So…confession time.

While I remember liking book one, I don’t actually remember much about it. Even after reading this one, very little of book one came back into my mind. It could be that I’ve just read too many books since then.

But…

I really liked this! I loved Lemon Fresh. She’s our girl power star of this book and she’s so awesome. Cricket has a major storyline here too, and it’s wonderful and heartbreaking and…um… very robot power?

As for Ana/Eve, that was okay. I like psycho-Eve and fear that she’ll turn marshmallowy in the next book.

If the next book were available today, I’d already be reading it!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

I’m picky about the sequels I read these days but thought the 1st book in the Lifel1k3 series was as imaginative as it was action-packed. (You can read that review here.) It pulled me in for another 448-page romp through post-apocalyptic cities and barren desert with Jay Kristoff and his characters. I wasn’t disappointed.

Science fiction fans will appreciate Kristoff’s reinterpretation of Asimov’s 3 Law’s of Robotics, which he uses to underpin the conflict in this series. His characters include machines made to serve humans, humans—all sorts, including deviates with special abilities, and machines made to be better than humans. While Lifel1k3 was primarily told from a human point-of-view, Dev1at3 gives more time to the viewpoints of the machines. This allows Kristoff to explore more deeply their thoughts and choices, and the prejudice each faces at the hands of others. The correlation between this prejudice against the “other” in Kristoff's dystopia and that in the world around us boils under the story’s surface.

At the surface level, I love Kristoff’s characters. Whether human or machine, they come alive with voice and personality. The world he builds is larger-than-life and the story's action is out-sized enough to fill that world. Growing conflict and quick pacing make the story a page-turner.

What did I not like about this book? That because I read an advanced reader copy, the wait for book 3 will be really, really long.

Highly recommended!

Book review will be on The Winged Pen.com 6/11. Thank you for the arc.

4.5 Stars and WOW am I shocked...

Deviate by Jay Kristoff continues the story of Lifelike in this second installment. This time we follow Lemon Fresh's journey to find herself and to find a family after being kicked to the curb by Eve in the last book. This book is full of heartbreak, tragedy, and lots of destruction. These characters just can't seem to catch a break but are we really surprised? This is a Jay Kristoff novel after all. I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I did not enjoy Lifelike that much but I wanted to give this book a chance because I absolutely loved Lemon Fresh in the last one. I was not disappointed at all, I really liked this book. Deviate is way better than Lifelike and that is hard to do. It is rare that a second book in a trilogy is the standout.

This series is a dystopian, which typically is not my favorite genre, but there is something about it that makes it stand out from its predecessors. Deviate was a mix of X-Men, Star Wars, and I, Robot with some sass and dystopia thrown in. Where have you ever heard of a combination like that? The only place you can find it is in this series.

I don't want to say much about the plot of this book because I think it is best to go in not knowing much. What I will say is that we see the squad from the first book split up and doing their own things and finding their purpose. I think this choice to split up the characters was important and the perfect decision. They all grew so much (with the exception of one character who I will not name) in this book and it makes me so excited for the next one.

The reason this book is not a 5 star is because I just can't stand by or understand some of the characters' actions. I also am not super sold on all the characters, I liked most of them a lot better in this book but Lemon Fresh is still my standout favorite. There was some slow moments in this book as well that just had me a tad bit bored. Lastly dystopian novels are just not my favorite settings to read.

If you did not like Lifelike that much and are weary of continuing the series here is my advice: DO IT! READ THIS BOOK! It was so worth the chance and I'm glad I took it.

DEV1AT3 is an outstanding sequel to Jay Kristof's Lifel1k3. These pages will hook readers from start to finish. If you enjoyed the first in the series, you will be ecstatic with the results of the second. Fast-paced and filled with addictive writing, readers will be unable to put this down. The world-building is fantastic and the characters are excellent. Ending on a cliffhanger, readers will struggle to wait for the third in the series. Highly recommend this book series to readers who enjoyed Illuminae or anyone looking for a great YA sci-fi series.

Whew! One of the greatest things that has happened in my reader life is my discovery of Jay Kristoff. He writes *exactly* the type of books I never knew I wanted to read. And it's glorious.

In this installment of the LIFEL1K3 series, the focus is heavily on Lemon Fresh and her adventure after being sent away from Evie.

I have to admit, I questioned the wisdom of taking the story away from Evie for book 2, but I'm SO glad it's Kristoff's job to write these books, and not mine. Because it was EXACTLY the right thing to do. We do get glimpses of Evie and the other lifelikes, and of Ezra and of Cricket, but the story is categorically about Lemon. And now I'm wondering if the story's ALWAYS been about Lemon - that the first book was just a decoy.

The story is so much bigger than I thought. And I am eagerly waiting for book three. (You hear me, Kristoff? Forget about the vampires. THIS is more important!)

Wow. Just wow. I'm a big Jay Kristoff fan, and while I liked LIFEL1K3 and really died over the concept, I didn't love it. DEV1AT3 though. Wow. WOW.

Lemon as the protagonist was just perfect, but most of my rave just has to do with the mashup of worldly topics Jay tackled in this. He looked at the world, saw climate destruction, nuclear armament, extreme conservatism, mega corporations, the power of AI and genetic modification, cracked his knuckles and went HAM. The synthesis of all these things just made for a maddeningly good book. Combine this with Mad Max style truck chases, Transformer battles, Kristoff signature original fun lingo, sassy characters, and just general awesomeness, this is a 5 star read. He's so good at action scenes and perfectly building tension. I love that twist at the end. And I also really like his ability to make you like characters you previously hated.

I loved Cricket's perspective. We got some awesome meta on free will and the philosophical debate on what constitutes life. Also I love the Brotherhood just as a story element. Like they're crazy but they're an awesome thing to have in there. Make for such good conflict and they're so true to life.

I could really just go on and on about the perfection of this book, but let's just say I've read this already and I'm gonna pre-order it anyway because it's so good I'm gonna reread it as soon as I get in in hardcopy. And also, I LOVE GRIMM. That is all.

I love Jay Kristoff's works but I did think that this suffered from the sophomore slump. I will definitely read more from this author in the future though.

4.5 stars

I am shook.

I... loved this book.

How am I going to wait for the third book? Especially with that ending! Or should I say... cliffhanger?


I wouldn't be able to tell you if I loved this book more than the first. They were both really good and action-packed. I was hooked from the start and I can't wait to read the finale of this trilogy. But first, let me tell you a little bit about Dev1at3.

In this book, we follow Cricket, Lemon, Ezekiel and Eve right after the events of the first one. If you're worried you won't remember what happened in Lifel1k3, don't be. I assure you the author does a really great job to remind you of the characters and just about everything that you need to know to feel comfortable going back into this world.

By the way, if you think you'll have many chapters from Eve's point of view, well... you're going to be surprised because we follow mostly the other main characters as they get separated. It really didn't bother me because I loved all of them but you might want to be aware of that. Also, you might find Eve less... likable in Dev1at3 but considering the ending of Lifel1k3, it's not really a surprise. She has to figure out what she really wants and who she wants to be now that everything was revealed.

We meet a bunch of new characters along the way. A few "deviates", some lifelikes and also a logika who likes to bend the rules. My favorite is probably Grimm. I think he and Lemon are really cute together and I really hope we'll get to see more of them... I really liked Solomon as well. He was quite endearing.

I expected some of the plot twists but not all of them. There's a few things I wish I could talk about here but I really don't want to spoil anyone so I'll leave it at that.


Hopefully, you'll enjoy this book as much as I did (or even more)!

Obviously, I will be eagerly waiting for the next book to come out. If I'm lucky, like I was here, perhaps I'll have the chance to get my hands on an ARC... *fingers crossed* ;)

(Thank you to the publisher for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

To be honest, I DNFed at about 30%. I really like Lemon Fresh and was happy to see this book was mostly about her. The issue was me and not the book. There was just too much going on for me to focus.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
Deviate picks up right where Lifelike ended and the hits keep coming.
Eve, Lemon, Cricket, and Ezekiel are all separated from one another now and some are in better positions than others (or are they?)
Cricket is looking for his human companions, specifically Lemon, but has found himself in a load of trouble with his new body.
Lemon is looking for Cricket and Ezekiel and might have found a safe place for Deviates like her and new allies.
Ezekiel is looking for Lemon but seems to get distracted by looking for Eve, and has picked up a questionable companion.
And Eve is looking for... Ana? Yep, that seems to be the case, along with some unusual companions who are most definitely not on the side of good.

This book, like the previous one, moves pretty fast. There is a lot going on and now that they’re all separated the chapters jump back and forth between them all, which worked for me, helped keep the book moving.

Lemon is still a delight, Cricket has some interesting growth, Ezekiel is still a bit bland to me, and I’m still questioning Eve’s motives. There is being lied to and being angry and there is being lied to and becoming a mass murderer. One of them isn’t justified but I’ll let you figure out which is which.

I feel like Jay Kristoff has it out for his readers and their feels, and he wants to destroy both. It’s both really great and really awful. Send help, I’m an emotional wreck after that ending,

I really liked the concept of the book. The plot was well developed and interesting. Most of the characters were likable. A few of them really stood out to me, including Ezekiel and Grimm. They were both so Robin Hood (you’ll get it if you read the book), Snowflake especially, that they were easily my favorites. Cricket also evolved into a being that could make his own choices, which was really empowering. Eve, on the other hand, is about as evil as they get. I’ve read very few books where a main character is the bad guy, so it was sort of refreshing. But then again, it doesn’t really makes sense why she is evil. I understand that she is hurting and wants to distance herself from Ana, the girl she was made to be, but that doesn’t mean she has to become a soulless murderer. And why would Snowflake (again, read the book) be the only lifelike that is on the side of humanity? How could anyone, lifelike or otherwise, become so corrupt they couldn’t see how their negative actions would adversely effect everyone?

Another issue that bugged me was how easily the characters would trust almost total strangers or people who were previously their enemy. It just wasn’t realistic, especially in Lemon’s case. Growing up on the streets would theoretically make someone tough and not very gullible. Sadly, this wasn’t the case with Lemon. I’m still feeling conflicted about her place at the end of the story. Every character was in a tough spot by the conclusion of what will surly be the second book in a series. It was, quite literally, an explosive ending. This story didn’t suffer from “middle series syndrome” and was packed with plenty of action. When the third book comes out, I will definitely be reading it.

I loved this book, it was a great follow up to LIfelike. I enjoyed how Lemonfresh was more of the main focus in this book, I didn't expect to see the twist with the Major, that threw me for a loop. Now I just need to wait for the third book.