Archenemies (Renegades #2) – Marissa Meyer

The Renegades Trilogy continues, in this fiercely awaited second installment after the New York Times-bestselling Renegades by Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles.

Time is running out.
Together, they can save the world.
But they each other's worst nightmare.

In Renegades, Nova and Adrian (aka Insomnia and Sketch) fought the battle of their lives against the Anarchist known as the Detonator. It was a short-lived victory.

The Anarchists still have a secret weapon, one that Nova believes will protect her. The Renegades also have a strategy for overpowering the Anarchists, but both Nova and Adrian understand that it could mean the end of Gatlon City - and the world - as they know it.

Another extremely enjoyable book from Marissa Meyer! It’s so easy to fall into her worlds and be wholly absorbed, and I really enjoy every second that I spend with her characters. We get even more depth from Nova, Adrian, the Renegades, and even the Anarchists and I really appreciate how each character gets their own personality and highlights. The developments are artfully crafted so character history reveals are perfectly timed (I’m still waiting to see what Phobia is all about and I’m really hoping that’s revealed in the last book!) and how well the characters play off each other, especially the romance in this series. With all of the tension between Nova and Adrian and of course, their secret identities, I actually love how guarded they are and how slowly they’ve come together as a couple. It feels natural and wonderful not to rush them into anything more than what we’ve seen on these pages and I love that slow burn and forbidden romance all wrapped into one!

The action sequences are great too. Marissa Meyer’s books have always felt so cinematic to me and I can really picture exactly what’s going on in each scene. She has a great way of bringing readers right into the setting and blocking out the rest of the world. I’m so easily engaged in every piece and the action scenes are so fast-paced yet quite detailed that’s it’s easy to picture everything as it’s happening!

I do find myself missing the fact that this was originally supposed to be a duology, and I think it could have been done. I feel like the reveal moments for Adrian as The Sentinel and Nova as Nightmare are kind of dragging a little bit and there’s a little toomuch tension and anticipation at this point. I thought they’d be revealed to each other in the first book (back when I thought this was two books and it would have been a good place to leave RENEGADES) and it still continues on in ARCHENEMIES. It feels a bit too drawn out and it could have created other drama, action, and conflict here instead of this all coming out in the last book for what I expect will be quite the explosive conclusion.

I think that’s my only hang-up about this series, is that while I’m enjoying not rushing things, they do seem to be a bit too drawn out. I can’t shake the feeling that this could have been fit into two books, even if they were long ones (I guess even these books in the trilogy are 400+ pages!) and I don’t think I would have felt like I was missing things, but we’ll see how the third book goes and maybe the conclusion will make everything feel like it fits much better once we get all those reveals and action-packed moments!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brittany S. (@bookaddictsguide) on Nov 20, 2018 at 8:04pm PST

Kept Me Hooked On: Superheroes. I love the clash of heroes and villains in this book! It’s especially great to read both sides and see those lines blurred.
Left Me Wanting More: Plot movement. I felt like a few more things could have happened here to move the story forward. I’m always up for reading as much Marissa Meyer as possible but I felt like more could have happened in this book.

Addiction Rating
Read it!

This whole series so far is worth the read, for sure. I always enjoy Marissa Meyer’s writing. So far it’s not my favorite of her works but I’ll read her books forever!