Probably the biggest ripoff of a book (in this case Vampire Academy) that I've ever read. Entire scenes and conversations were lifted from the pages of Richelle Mead and it's unfortunate that I have such a good memory of anything I read because as a big Mead fan, it was painful at points to continue. The few parts that seemed somewhat original were pretty cliche. 
 Despite that, I'll probably read at least another book in the series because I'm curious to see exactly how much can be copied and how much Armentrout might actually develop on her own. Maybe the other books will actually differ from the VA series but this first book at least was awful in the sense that the similarities were blatant. It's a pity because I get the sense that the author might not be a bad writer on her own, and normally I acknowledge that people can independently come up with very similar overarching ideas but execute them in different ways. Unfortunately there were so many similarities that the only thing that would save it is if Armentrout actually acknowledged somewhere that she was "inspired" by VA. Maybe she did in some interview but I didn't bother to look it up. The second star is my way of giving the author the benefit of the doubt and because the writing itself is decent by YA standards.