3.5 stars

While the pacing was way too slow, making Deception suffer from middle book syndrome, the murder mystery gave the plot an interesting twist.

This second book in the trilogy was better than the first in some ways and not as good as others. For instance, I wish more things had been tied up in this installment. However, I luh-huv who turned out to be the bad guy! Loved it! Called it a bit, too, so I dug it even more! I like the fact that the setting of this series is different than most stuff on the market for YA's these days, too. Nice!

Its nice to see that rachel is finally stating to work through all her issues with avoiding the pain that's inside her. Also interesting twist about logans past and how its going to affect his present. I really hope they manage to put the commander in the dirt once and for all.

review to come

I won a free ARC of this book in a title reveal contest. To start, I liked it a lot more than the first book! I found the characters more engaging and I really liked Logan. Rachel's character was a little too depressing- I understand that her whole life is about loss and revenge but it was a lot of heavy emotion to wade through. I also found it frustrating how little happens for a book that is 480 pages. It is a lot of camping, then death and hurrying away from attack. Repeat. I felt like that could have been cut in half and it would have had the same harrowing effect. I enjoyed it more for the last hundred pages, although I really had to keep the reveals straight! I'm interested enough to see how the trilogy concludes and definitely enjoyed this more than I expected. It felt a little too much like a "second book" though. I didn't feel like the Commander was as effective a villain either- he wasn't even in the book much. And I'm really confused about the timeline of everything! There is an older character who was alive during the "old civilization", which means the catastrophe couldn't have happened more than 50 years ago, yet NO ONE knows ANYTHING about the old civilization! How is that possible?! Was it really wiped out that extensively, throughout the entire world? And where did the Cursed Ones come from? How did they wipe out all technology? It seems like the old civilization is supposed to represent our world, but I find it all confusing.

Love Logan and Rachel!

Deception by CJ Redwine is the second book in the Courier Daughter's trilogy. The first book, Defiance, was a book that I absolutely LOVED when I read it maybe two years ago? And I was always going to be excited to carry on the trilogy. ...It's just taken me a little longer than I expected to do so.

Despite the length of time between reading the first book in the trilogy and the sequel, I didn't find that I'd forgotten that much when I started reading Deception. I felt like CJ Redwine did a great job of creating a memorable world, memorable characters and definitely a memorable scenario that we find ourselves reading about. And right from the first page of Deception, I found it very easy to fall back into this world. And it felt exciting and emotional right from the start.

This book will contain spoilers for the first book in the trilogy, Defiance, but will not contain any spoilers for Deception. If you haven't yet read Defiance but are interested in reading this trilogy at some point, I suggest that you stop reading now.

Deception takes place right after the ending of Defiance. Rachel and Logan are in the battered remains of Baalboden and it's up to Logan to organise everyone and shift all of the survivors of Baalboden out into the Wasteland and kept safely away from the Commander's army that is chasing them down. He has a plan to ally himself with one of the other city-states but must face new challenges, the pressures of leadership as well as a mole within his straggling band of survivors.

At the same time, Rachel is really dealing with the grief over her father and Oliver and also her conflicted feelings over killing a man. These losses weigh heavily on her and at the same time she feels so much rage against the Commander and wants him to pay for what he's done and what he's taken from her and everyone around her.

Most of this book is like a road trip story as Rachel and Logan and the others are trying to get from one place to another but with Cursed Ones ready to pop up and destroy everything in sight, an army chasing them from one side, a tracker picking people off from another, dissension in the ranks as well as some hot tempers.

What I really loved about this second book in the trilogy is that we see more development of all the main characters, the action is moved along without that much unnecessary drama and we get a bunch more information about the world, the Commander, our main characters and the Cursed Ones. I especially love the elements of technology and of fighting and the ways in which the community of Baalboden change their opinions of both gender and outsiders.

Willow and Quinn, the two Tree People that we meet in the first book play a huge part in Deception. Quinn faces a lot of criticism and name-calling from some of the Baalbodens and I loved the way in which she went out about winning them over. And I loved the way in which Quinn's relationship with Rachel unfolded and hearing more about his upbringing and why he has the no weapon policy. I found it all very interesting and I wanted more. This entire book is filled with fascinating people and relationships and I read this whole book wanting more of everything!

At the heart of this book, though, is Rachel and Logan. And I thought they were both adorable in this book. Obviously dealing with a lot, but they end up dealing with things together. I love how they both let each other stand on their own and they fight all of the co-dependency issues that most couples in YA succumb to.

I absolutely loved this book and this trilogy so far! If you haven't yet discovered this trilogy I really highly recommend them.

I love it. It is a definite page - turner.

Deception by C.J. Redwine was a fantastic follow up to Defiance. It was an unexpected mysterious adventure novel with the survivors of Baalboden trekking through the Wasteland to try and find refuge. Along the way a mysterious enemy lurks among them leaving ominous messages and death in his wake.
We return to Logan and Rachel’s world right where we left them, after the destruction of Baalboden. Logan at just nineteen has to take on the weight of being the leader to a group of people who don’t always trust his leadership. He has to fight the entire time to protect these people and get them to safety even while knowing some of them still don’t think he should be their leader.
Rachel’s dreams are soaked in blood as she tries to deal with all the horror she’s encountered. She’s just as strong as ever, but there are some wonderful moments in the book where she can’t figure out how to deal with her grief properly and Redwine uses these moments to teach her and us how worthy human beings can be.
I really enjoyed the multiple stories intertwined throughout the story. The big obvious one was the need to get to safety and away from the Commander, but the real villain of the book is the mysterious traitor in their midst. It was nice to have someone other than the Cursed One and the Commander to fear. This new enemy his in their midst as they fled through the Wasteland. It was a faceless enemy they couldn’t see and how do you stop an enemy you can’t find?
This was a great read and I am so happy I already have the next book so I can finish off this trilogy!

Gah this book was pretty depressing & I often wanted to smack some of the characters for being so frustrating! But it was a crazy adventure, I was excited that I guessed at least some of it right. Rachel is pretty BA, but she kind of loses it a little. I loved her & Logan, could have used more happy moments between the two of them. Can't wait to see where that ending leads!

Another solid book. Although I didn’t like this one as much as the first one, it was still a good read. I’m looking forward to reading more.