Beta by Rachel Cohn

Ever wanted to live in paradise? Just bask in the sun, play all day, relax without the worry of any work whatsoever? Demesne offers just that to its human inhabitants...but not for the clone workers who serve the humans as slaves, taught from the moment they are created that they are soulless, devoid of feeling and emotion, only there to obey the humans. Elysia is one such clone, a Beta version of the new teen model; she is bought by one of the island's most important families to be a companion. She's beautiful, naive and curious about the world, probably a tad more curious than a emotionless, desire-less clone should be. Elysia begins to suspect she's not as perfect as everyone once hoped...she can taste (she adores chocolate!), she has feelings, she's even attracted to a boy. These are things that clones should never experience, but worst of all, she has visions from her First, the girl who had to die in order for Elysia to be created, of a boy her First must have loved. As Elysia comes to grips with the fact that she might be "defective," she learns to stand up for herself and not accept the life that has been prescribed to her. She's going to create chaos in paradise.

Beta by Rachel Cohn

This book has some really super awesome parts, a few seemingly pointless sections and just a couple of muddled moments. Overall, the pacing is good: not too fast, not too slow. It was an enjoyable read, and I like that Beta deals with moral issues such as slavery, freedom and human rights. I loved the first 3/4ths of this book more than I loved the end. The end is decent, but the storyline seems to become confused and rushed toward the last fourth of the book. A new relationship is introduced, and it is very quick and sudden. The multiple twists at the end gave me a bit of a headrush but they also made me want to grab the next book, even though it won't come out until forever from now.

As for characters, I wasn't totally in love with either of Elysia's love interests, since one is rather distant and the other appears suddenly near the end. However, I did like Elysia as the protagonist of the story; she grows emotionally from a naive clone to a self-aware young woman who knows she deserves more than a life of servitude. Oh, and I want to know more about Astrid! She wasn't even in this book, really, except as just someone who everyone else referred to, but she sounded like a feisty, studious, deep character. I hope that she appears in the follow-up novels to this one.

Overall, Beta was a good book with a few plot issues, but it still kept my attention and left me wanting more!

Thank you very much, Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley.com, for letting me read the ARC galley for this book!