Imitation | Heather Hildenbrand | Review by Anjali

Imitation | Heather Hildenbrand | Review by Anjali

• Friday, 27 February 2015

*Review copy c/o Netgalley

"Everyone is exactly like me. There is no one like me. 

A clone of wealthy eighteen-year-old Raven Rogen, Ven knows everything about the girl she was created to serve: the clothes she wears, the boys she loves, the friends she loves to hate. Yet she’s never met the Authentic Raven face-to-face...She exists for Raven, but is she prepared to sacrifice herself for a girl she’s never met?"  

  

I was looking forward to this book, but I might as well tell you from the get go that I didn't really enjoy it. It tells the story of Ven, a clone, an Imitation, who has finally been called out of her world to imitate her Authentic, Raven, as there is a threat on Raven's life. Raven is the daughter of a high-flying man in the city, and trying to be everything Raven is, is hard on Ven. She's not treated well;  her 'father' is hard on her, her 'boyfriend' is too friendly for Ven's liking, and the guy who is supposed to be guarding her is distracting. As Ven discovers the truth of why she and hundreds of others are created exact replicates of their Authentics, she must be Raven in every way so that the unknowing public watching her all the time doesn't suspect she's anything but. With chases, and bad guys, threats on more than just 'Raven's' life, and a world she's not used to, Imitation has everything this sort of novel should have. However...
 
The first few chapters I really liked and I was getting into it. But then I found it sort of petered out and died. I no longer cared for Ven, I thought she fell in love way too quickly, and while the story line had some great potential, I didn't find it was that gripping. I liked Ven's friends, who were in the very beginning of the book, but because they weren't really in the rest of it, that element was put to the side and I was a bit disappointed that they weren't in it more. There are more books in this series, I believe, so I suppose they show up more in those books.  
 
While I didn't really enjoy it very much, if you like stories about clones and national secrets and good looking people riding motor bikes, then give Imitation a go. Just because I didn't particularly enjoy it, doesn't mean you won't!


Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a copy of this book, in return for an honest review. 
This review was written by regular reviewer Anjali, get to know her here. 
Image from Good Reads.