Review Detail

If you love strong female MCs, and cliffhangers that make you want to find out where the author lives, The Institute is for you.
I'll say it. Dystopian has been done to death and I was leery of picking up yet another one, but this book captured my interest within the first few pages and never let go.
With Allira, we get what is so absent today in YA. We get a real girl, with real issues and insecurities; but it's the way she faces a challenge that really made me stand up and take notice. Allira doesn't always know the right thing to do or say (well ... she's really good at saying the wrong thing) but she rises to the challenge, always determined to persevere because, as her Aunt Kenna says, "This is how strong people are made."
Alliria is accompanied by a host of well rounded characters, and her love interest(s) and the situations she finds herself in are 100% believable. I never got that unrealistic insta-love vibe, and I've enjoyed watching the way these relationships and friendships have developed and progressed in a very real way throughout book one. I'm definitely looking forward to book two.
My only criticism - and I won't spoil anything here - is with some of the supernatural abilities. I love super powers - wish I had one, but sometimes these things were just a little tenuous in they way they worked or didn't work in different situations. There were a few instances where it felt like the rules of certain abilities weren't established quite clearly enough.
But the ENDING! Did not see that coming for this book. You don't want to miss this cliffhanger.