** spoiler alert ** 
 Read more reviews at my blog, Words and Tea Bottles. 
 I had mixed feelings about Beta. On the one hand, the concept itself is great, and for a lot of the book, it's carried out beautifully. Even when it takes a darker turn it's not bad. I'd say it's average, but 'average' means it certainly didn't live up to the apparent hype that was around it, or to the name of the author. Rachel Cohn is pretty well-known in YA book circles by now. 
 I think most of the problem I had was with the ending. I don't normally put spoilers into reviews, but I'll say what I want to emphasize my point. After Elysia's raped by her brother, strung-out on drugs at the time, she escapes to an island at the end of the chain Demesne is in, where she meets up with M-X, who turns out to be the clone who was in her orientation video at the start of the book. This is the first thing I wondered about: M-X rebelled, saying she escaped after they found out about her healing powers. Why? She isn't shown to have magical powers. She just uses some herbs from the jungle to help Elysia heal. Anyone with knowledge of plants could do that. 
 Then we find out Elysia is pregnant, presumably from when her brother raped her. We find this out because M-X apparently did a blood test? If I'm remembering correctly, blood pregnancy tests involve testing for elevated estrogen levels. How in the world could they do that in the middle of nowhere? 
 Finally, the biggest twist of all at the end. I won't say it, but it makes me wonder about several things in the book, including Alexander supposedly imprinting on her if she's not really her First. 
 I guess what I'm saying here is that it was a good concept and a good start, but it slowly descended into madness. I might read the sequel just to see how she explains the very end. Although I'm a little tired of authors continually putting huge, rough cliffhangers at the ends of their books. It's happened in three I've read now! The kind of cliffhangers that make you flip forward and think "Wait, that's it?" because it's not really an ending.