A review by samantha_mlis
Exiled: Kenly's Story by Sophie Davis
4.0
Full review posted at: http://itsabooksession.weebly.com/home/review-exiled-kenlys-story-by-sophie-davis
Imagine, looking through my twitter feed and a new tweet appears onto my timeline. Sophie Davis tweeted that the next book in the Talented series was officially released on Amazon. Excitement and anticipation immediately flooded me. I absolutely adored the first four books of the series and the novella. Thus, I was really excited to see how Talia and Erik's relationship continued in this book, because let's be honest they had a really cute relationship going on. Instead, this book is centered around Kenly. After initial disappointed to settle in, confusion took over. My reaction of Kenly being the main protagonist resembled something out of an Iggy Azalea song when she sings "Who dat? Who dat?"
Turns out, Kenly was a character previously introduced in earlier books. She was Talia's protege because she wanted to become a Hunter but didn't have the skills to become one. Therefore, Talia trained her until leaving the school. After that Kenly didn't make many appearances in the series. Okay then.
The Characters:
Kenly:
As previously stated, Kenly is the main protagonist of this story. At times she is a feisty character, especially when fighting off Poachers or figuring out escape plans. At other times, Kenly can be quite ignorant of various situations. There were a few occasions where Kenly would wonder why Poachers are out to get the Created or Chromes, ask one of her new friends, then once she receives an answer, wonder again why Chromes (as the English call people with Talents). Umm, excuse me? But did someone not just tell you why you’re being hunted because you're considered extremely valuable on the black market?
Despite the ignorance Kenly was a fun character to read about. It was interesting to see her viewpoints of the events that occurred at the end of Created, as well as her opinions on: TOXIC, UNITED, her previous mentor Talia (one thing that did become annoying was a constant reminder of this fact) and how England viewed those with superpowers. I also loved to see how a person with a Higher Reasonability talent thought about things, or even how they dissect any situation (such as being in a fight scene, or storing peoples’ faces in a imaginary hard drive for later reference). It kind of reminded me of something Sherlock Holmes might do.
James:
James is what you can consider your typical “bad boy” in teen books. He comes from a dark past, where his family didn’t really accept him because of his abilities. In addition, he also had a rough time growing up in the city and being a homeless person after separating from his biological family and the circus family that took him in from the streets. He was an interesting character to read about, as he always kept to himself and only offered tidbits of information to Kenly when needed. His demeanour was mysterious and the best way to truly describe James Wellington. Throughout the book, his relationship with Kenly was one full of sexual tension but enjoyable to read. When required, James and Kenly comforted one another.
Overall thoughts on the book:
Despite having a slow start, Exiled was an enjoyable read. It had me clinging to the edge of my seat as to finding out what would happen next, and gave me an insight (although this may have not been intentional) as to how a slavery auction would have maybe been run in the past, minus all of the extravagance. The conclusion of the book, wrapped up the story well but lead to a tiny cliffhanger and illustrated that there would be another book in the series to follow, probably in Kenly’s perspective as well.
However, if a great length of time has been spent between finished Created and starting Exiled, I would recommend re-reading Created. This is due to the fact that throughout Exiled there are many references made not only to the events that occurred at the end of the previous book but as well as characters that at the time may have not seemed significant but now play a larger role in Kenly’s story. I personally found myself questioning and trying to remember what happened and these people Kenly was talking about all throughout the book. Although this took away from the experience of completely immersing myself into the story line, it was not a big deal.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Imagine, looking through my twitter feed and a new tweet appears onto my timeline. Sophie Davis tweeted that the next book in the Talented series was officially released on Amazon. Excitement and anticipation immediately flooded me. I absolutely adored the first four books of the series and the novella. Thus, I was really excited to see how Talia and Erik's relationship continued in this book, because let's be honest they had a really cute relationship going on. Instead, this book is centered around Kenly. After initial disappointed to settle in, confusion took over. My reaction of Kenly being the main protagonist resembled something out of an Iggy Azalea song when she sings "Who dat? Who dat?"
Turns out, Kenly was a character previously introduced in earlier books. She was Talia's protege because she wanted to become a Hunter but didn't have the skills to become one. Therefore, Talia trained her until leaving the school. After that Kenly didn't make many appearances in the series. Okay then.
The Characters:
Kenly:
As previously stated, Kenly is the main protagonist of this story. At times she is a feisty character, especially when fighting off Poachers or figuring out escape plans. At other times, Kenly can be quite ignorant of various situations. There were a few occasions where Kenly would wonder why Poachers are out to get the Created or Chromes, ask one of her new friends, then once she receives an answer, wonder again why Chromes (as the English call people with Talents). Umm, excuse me? But did someone not just tell you why you’re being hunted because you're considered extremely valuable on the black market?
Despite the ignorance Kenly was a fun character to read about. It was interesting to see her viewpoints of the events that occurred at the end of Created, as well as her opinions on: TOXIC, UNITED, her previous mentor Talia (one thing that did become annoying was a constant reminder of this fact) and how England viewed those with superpowers. I also loved to see how a person with a Higher Reasonability talent thought about things, or even how they dissect any situation (such as being in a fight scene, or storing peoples’ faces in a imaginary hard drive for later reference). It kind of reminded me of something Sherlock Holmes might do.
James:
James is what you can consider your typical “bad boy” in teen books. He comes from a dark past, where his family didn’t really accept him because of his abilities. In addition, he also had a rough time growing up in the city and being a homeless person after separating from his biological family and the circus family that took him in from the streets. He was an interesting character to read about, as he always kept to himself and only offered tidbits of information to Kenly when needed. His demeanour was mysterious and the best way to truly describe James Wellington. Throughout the book, his relationship with Kenly was one full of sexual tension but enjoyable to read. When required, James and Kenly comforted one another.
Overall thoughts on the book:
Despite having a slow start, Exiled was an enjoyable read. It had me clinging to the edge of my seat as to finding out what would happen next, and gave me an insight (although this may have not been intentional) as to how a slavery auction would have maybe been run in the past, minus all of the extravagance. The conclusion of the book, wrapped up the story well but lead to a tiny cliffhanger and illustrated that there would be another book in the series to follow, probably in Kenly’s perspective as well.
However, if a great length of time has been spent between finished Created and starting Exiled, I would recommend re-reading Created. This is due to the fact that throughout Exiled there are many references made not only to the events that occurred at the end of the previous book but as well as characters that at the time may have not seemed significant but now play a larger role in Kenly’s story. I personally found myself questioning and trying to remember what happened and these people Kenly was talking about all throughout the book. Although this took away from the experience of completely immersing myself into the story line, it was not a big deal.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5