I'm not even going to lie - this book definitely reminded me of The Hunger Games (more often than not), and I wasn't super impressed. I've been wanting to read this series for some time, and put it off because I needed a break from dystopia. 
 The book is textbook dystopian, the characters not fully developed, and several parts of the plot were dull and uninteresting. A lot of things happened in this book, yes, but I didn't really feel connected to any of the characters. I wasn't a fan of the insta-love/shallow romance aspect either. It just felt like a filler romance to me, when the story didn't necessarily need one. There was definitely potential for this book, but it just comes across as another dystopian series dumped into the market. I definitely caught myself skipping over parts, but I think if I had read this book before reading The Hunger Games, I would have enjoyed it more. 
 What I did like was the way information about the world was given to the reader - it was incorporated into Cia's tests. I didn't dislike Cia as a character, but I definitely wanted to see more depth to her in this book. I just couldn't relate with her as a character. 
 My low rating for this book is mainly based on the lack of connection I felt to the characters and the dull portions of the plot. I definitely can see why this pales in comparison to THG, but I will also add that there were some aspects that were unique to this book and had the potential to make it stand out. 
 2 stars overall because there's a small possibility that I could revisit this book again, but it's not very likely.