The Almost Girl falls into a middle ground for me. One where I can't always put my finger on the reasons why I only just liked or ok'd it. With a gripping prologue and a suspenseful sounding premise the progression of the book was a bit uneven for me. But then on the flip side when action scenes appeared they were well written and engaging. 
 Character development! 
 Again I experienced this flip flop reaction when it came to the characters. Riven was such a strong female lead and a General in the military on her own world, that I found some of her behavior incongruous with what I was expecting. I know, I know I shouldn't expect a character to behave a certain way, but I'm sure we all have those moments. I did love her character development and how she seems so rock solid in the beginning to being more vulnerable and human towards the end. I'm going to lump my romance thoughts in here and say...It's there. I'm usually a hit or miss person on the romance in the ya fiction that I read. I love reading young adult books but for some reason I only enjoy about half of the romances that in the ones I read...and if you don't know already, almost every young adult book features a romance. 
 Thoughts on editing. 
 Keeping in mind that I read the advance reader edition of this book, some things may have been changed in the published version. But in the bedroom I read I really felt the book needed more editing. I don't mean there were typos or anything like that, I just mean a plot or character nudge here, a removed scene there, providing more varied ways of delivering world building information - those sorts of things. I think it had the potential to have been a much smoother and gripping read. I can't really complain tho because I'm not a writer or editor and wouldn't know how to accomplish that perfect balance. 
 World building! 
 Once we get away from our reality things get good. I struggled more so with the portion that takes place in our reality, but once the characters make it to Neospes my interest was definitely peaked. What a world! The technology and the creepy vector android zombies?, the technology, pretty much everything there had my sci-fi itch jonezing. 
 Fans of strong young adult heroines and alternate worlds may very well find The Almost Girl to be a winner.