Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza

Title: Mila 2.0
Author: Debra Driza
Publisher: HarperCollins
Released: March 12th 2013
Pages: 480 (eBook)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Mila was living with her mother in a small Minnesota town when she discovered she was also living a lie.

She was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was never supposed to remember the past—that she was built in a computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much, and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology.

Evading her enemies won't help Mila escape the cruel reality of what she is and cope with everything she has had to leave behind. However, what she's becoming is beyond anyone's imagination, including her own, and that just might save her life.

I was really excited for Mila's release, as I'm a bit of a sci-fi nut, and the concept completely appealed to me. However, after I read What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, I was hesitant. These two books are completely unrelated, but in my mind I'd sort of paired them together, and had high hopes for both. When Zhang let me down just slightly , I was worried that Driza would do the same.

Moving house after her father died in a fire, Mila just can't seem to adjust to her new life in Minnesota. With her mother being distant and a very unstable group of friends, Mila just wants to go back home - that is, until Hunter moves into town. Suddenly, things seem to be looking up. But with all good things comes a hitch, and Mila soon uncovers some unwanted truths; she is essentially a military weapon created to look like an ordinary teenage girl, stolen from the lab by her mother in an attempt to save her from termination. Despite succeeding, the military are still on the prowl for her, and Mila soon finds herself on the run.

As I said earlier, Mila 2.0 is a brilliant concept. Similar things have been done (cough, Artificial Intelligence, cough), but it was interesting to read about it rather than watch a film with all the CGI effects. It was a new experience, lets say. Driza's writing wasn't particularly amazing, but it was pretty good and was very readable. I found myself able to relate to the protagonist despite her being a...well...robot, and I thought the main characters were all well-characterised. However, Driza truly shone during the chase scenes and action sequences, as they were written in depth and held the right pace for the reader to digest what was going on. For most of the novel, but more so towards the end, I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation, as if my Kindle was super-glued to my fingers!

Mila was a very easy character to like, as she was just your average teenage girl. Well, not average exactly, but Driza wrote her as if she was. There wasn't any exactly defining characteristics about her that made her rememberable, but she was a good narrative.

I was a bit confused with the whole love interest scenario. Not to post any major spoilers, but what I really liked about their relationship was when Mila had to run away, she didn't pull the oh-i-can't-possibly-leave-my-boyfriend-he-holds-my-heart-we-will-never-part stunt, which annoys me to no end. Although the chemistry didn't lack per-se when they were together, Hunter wasn't actually in this book very much, which I think is what was the problem I had with it. However, I have my fingers crossed that he will star in the next one much more!

Overall, Mila 2.0 was an enjoyable read, and was thick with action and suspense. I managed to read it in just a few hours straight, but I don't know whether that is a comment on how fast I read, the books length, or how crazy-addictive it was! All I know is that it was a good debut, and I look forward to seeing what Driza next has in store for us.
Rating: 3/5