Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Archenemies was definitely a more exciting novel than Renegades, I was a lot more invested in the characters and story by the time I started this sequel. However the story is quite predictable and that deducts a star from the rating for me. So although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm not sure I would read the series again.

A fantastic conclusion! Marissa Meyer really rounded out the story well. I loved the cliffhanger from the previous books and this book really connected all the thread! Highly recommend this series

I really enjoyed Renegades when I read it last year - it’s a smart, fast-paced take on superhero tropes that explores a lot of ethical questions, while still remaining fun. Archenemies is a perfect follow up! It offers more character development for Adrian and Nova, and keeps the twists coming as they both try to maintain their double lives while dealing with their feelings for each other. It’s extremely YA, but also extremely good fun, and I can’t wait to see how the trilogy wraps up. Five stars!

Back in the world of the Renegades...and I love it. Almost like watching Heroes all over again! (You know I'm sure I said this about book 1 too!!!)

Nova is still on the hunt for Ace's helmet, Adrian is still trialing Sentinel, Max is still pulling at my heart strings and the Anarchists are still hell bent on over throwing the Renegades.

We also have the introduction of something new. Something bad in my opinion. It's like tempting fate and you know it's all going to go horribly wrong!

I loved Nova's attempts of seduction to Adrian, although coming from a place of truth, was funny. Well maybe Adrian's reactions were funnier! I also wanted to cuddle Winston!

All in all it was a fabulous read. I really didn't think I'd enjoy a genre like this but I really do!

Bring on Supernova!

-Contains spoilers for Renegades, book one-

After the staged fight between the Detonator and Nightmare, the world now believes that both of the Anarchists are dead.
Still pretending to be Insomnia, a Renegade, Nova continues to work for the Anarchists and her uncle Ace. In her undercover role, Nova discovers that the Renegades have a plan that threatens the future of the Anarchists and anyone that stands against the Renegades.
Will Nova's real identity be discovered?

I enjoyed the first book, Renegades, and was intrigued to see what would happen to the characters in the second book, especially after the reveal at the end of Renegades.
It was interesting reading Nova's thoughts and seeing how she reacted to things that happened.
I found Adrian more likable in this book compared to the first one. His power is an intriguing one that has a lot of possibilities.
The romance isn't one of my favourites, but I don't dislike it.
I liked Adrian's friends, Oscar, Ruby and Danna, and enjoyed reading more about them.
The plot was a bit slower than I would have liked. It didn't really feel like much happened and I did find myself becoming bored.
I liked the questions that were raised by a certain thing that happens in Archenemies.
The writing was easy to follow, but I wasn't gripped.
I'm not sure if I will read the third (and final) book but I am kind of intrigued to see what ends up happening to Nova.
I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

This was a fun read, further progressing the story. It has the frequently used 'getting rid of power' gimmick and the resulting discussion of who gets to use it when, which then feels very X-Men-esque. It always suprises me that we still get the same blind opinions that it will be used for good - you'd think people would know better by now. But then again the Renegades are nothing if not blindly optimistic. I did like the shifting dynamic between Sketch and Nova, both hiding who they are but then trying to recruit the other to help. Interesting to see what happens next!

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy for review.

Archenemies is the second part to The Renegades Trilogy by Marissa Meyer, a fantastic and epic series following a band of superheroes in a futuristic dystopian world. It picks up from the first and takes the characters on even more adventures at even higher stakes than before.

I am a huge fan on superhero movies, but I have yet to read many books about superheros, besides Infinity Son by Adam Silvera, so it makes it nice change. It is a really fast paced series and I love how the sequel easy picks up the pace from the first book and builds even more tension and stakes.

The characters are brilliant and we get to see them established and interact even more in this book than in the first which is something that I always love about sequels. They develop individually, but we also get to see their dynamics together develop and grow over the course of the novel which is something great to read.

I'm sure the final installment, Supernova, will be just as brilliant.

This was a bit of a fail for me as I loved the first book in the series so much and this one really let it down. Even though the characters were well written and virtually the same as the first book, I did not care about them as much this time. The story was well paced and Meyer's writing is always good but this book just felt a little flat. I may not continue with this series if the third one is like this.

I loved Renegades by Marissa Meyer and couldn't wait to read the sequel. Archenemies follows on from the events of the first book and from page one I was sucked right back into the world. I thought I knew the characters story arcs and where the novel was heading but Meyer left me shocked and on the edge of my seat. I physically gasped several times during reading this and struggled to put it down.
The characters in this are so believable and it feels like their motives and powers and personalities are so thought out that I never doubt their choices or feelings.

Once again you're left with a cliff hanger that leaves you desperate for more. I'm honestly confused as to who I should be rooting for and who I think the best side is. Every time I think I have it sussed a spanner is thrown in.

All in all a fantastic sequel that definitely doesn't suffer from second book syndrome.
I'm so excited for book 3 to come out in November.

5/5 Stars

Oh look, another book Leah’s had sitting around for far too long. My bad. Is it me, or is that becoming a recurring theme around here?
Archenemies is one of those books that I received before it was published and then just kind of sat around gathering dust. It is the sequel to Renegades, which I read and adored last year. In fact, I loved it so much that I requested the second book the moment I saw it was available on Netgalley and then I naturally got distracted. Story of my life.
Luckily, Endgame left me wanting more super heroes, so thank you Avengers for giving me the nudge I needed to pick this up. I love you 3,000.

Anyway….

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.

It’s always hard reviewing a sequel because… Well, spoilers. I’m going to give it my best shot though.

So, if you’ve not heard of this series, here is what you need to know:

This is a world where super powers are normal and certain people are just born with them, they’re known as Prodigies.
This is a world where a group of Prodigies, calling themselves the Renegades, are in charge after they won a war against a group of other Prodigies who had some very different ideas of how those with powers should be governed.
This story follows a group of teenagers with super powers working with the Renegades who have their own secrets who are just trying to make sense of everything that is going on.
We start off with Renegades, which introduces you to the ‘heroes’, (the Renegades) and the ‘villains’ (the Anarchists). These are the two factions of prodigies who have always been at war with each other over how they fit into the world. Book one centres on Nova and Adrian. Nova is a teenage Anarchist who lost her parents during the battle against the Renegades before being raised by the Anarchist’s leader, her uncle Ace. She has been brought up to hate the Renegades and has been instructed to join the Renegade’s X-Men style recruitment programme to infiltrate them and learn their secrets. That’s where she meets Adrian, who isn’t just a Renegade, but the son of the Renegade’s leaders. He has his own secrets what with being a vigilante and all, but importantly, he believes in what the Renegades are doing. Sort of. He hates the Anarchists partly because he has been told to and partly because he believes they are responsible for the death of his mother who also died during that time of war.
Which you’d think would make it difficult for them to be friends, but they are both keeping massive secrets about who they really are and what they want.

Archenemies picks up right after the events of Renegades, the lines between who is good and who is bad blurs even further and Adrian and Nova are both questioning their morals and beliefs. Their secrets are also starting to test the boundaries of their loyalties. The series then continues with Supanova, which I think is out next year and which I promise I won’t leave so long to read!

This series is perfect for those that are fans of the X-Men or just super heroes in general. The Renegades’ recruitment drives are very similar to Professor X’s reasons for surrounding himself with other similarly gifted people and the different powers everyone has are fascinating. If like me you don’t think you’ll ever be the same after Endgame, this is a great way to fill the void. And, it won’t make you cry. Well… Not like Endgame did anyway.

I’ve not read any other Marissa Myer books, but if they’re anything like this series, I might have to. These are so much fun, they’re engaging, fast paced and wonderfully rich in both story and character. The Renegades series is one I wish I’d written myself and I am very excited about how this is all going to end.

PS, Netgalley, if you happen to get Supanova, I promise I’ll actually read it on time.

We're back with Adrian, Nova and the gang, fighting crime!
To be honest I felt like this book was a filler, it wasn't as good as the first one, where we got to know all the characters in depth. This ones was mainly about Adrian and Nova and the will they won't they. Adrian with his secrets and Nova with hers, they always seemed to be moaning about something and oh maybe I should tell the other etc. I kept reading hoping something exciting would happen, but to be honest it never really did! While it wasn't totally all bad and I'm sure the more younger ya demographic would enjoy it. It just needed more umpf

I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

At the point when I received this book, I hadn’t read book #1 Renegades, so I read the two books back to back. You could probably get away with starting at book #2 but you’d be missing a treat if you did.

The Renegades series is about a world where there are a percentage of people called prodigies who develop extra powers. In the past two prodigy groups fought for control, the Anarchists and the Renegades. The Renegades won.

Nova is an Anarchist, the niece of lead Anarchist, Ace Anarchy. She hates the Renegades because of what they have done to her family. She decides to go undercover as a Renegade in order to better know how to destroy them and re-establish what she sees as the freedom of anarchy. She is teams up with Adrian, the adopted son of the head Renegades. She is, however, unaware that Adrian has an agenda of his own. Nova and Adrian are attracted to one another and become increasingly close to finding each other’s secrets out, which ratchets tension throughout the book.

The opening chapters of Archenemies focus entirely on Adrian. Nova feels like she’s not really there, and I missed her. There’s plenty of action to keep us busy but it isn’t till Chapter 6 that we finally get into Nova’s head again, and start seeing the flip side of this story.

The theme of the supposed ‘superheroes’ behaving badly and ‘supervillains’ who are actually quite moral, is prominent throughout the books. For the most part the Anarchists are surprisingly benign and feel like victims rather than perpetrators. Meanwhile some of the Renegades are out and out bullies.This is not a new concept but it is handled well, leaving the reader with interestingly conflicted feelings about the characters. I found Nova particularly frustrating as she lived through the terror and devastation of the Age of Anarchy but stubbornly defends its purpose.

At first I had a bit of trouble remembering names and characters. Every character has a name plus a prodigy name based on their special power. Nova has two prodigy names since she is undercover. I never, though, had trouble jumping from Nova to Adrian’s POV and back, which I have sometimes experienced in other books with multiple POVs.

Some of the fight scenes read remind me of 60s Batman with Burt Ward. All that is missing are cartoon word pop-ups such as “POW” and “BAM”. I was a fan of the old series though, so this just adds to the fun for me.

This book, in fact both books, are is a quick read with short chapters that lure you into a cycle of ‘just one more chapter’ until you suddenly realise you’ve been reading for hours. Descriptions are very visual and easy on the imagination. The characters are likeable and the story engaging. If you like a good superhero story and fancy a change from the Marvel Universe, this series is lighter, funner, and altogether more human and definitely worth your time.

IN SUMMARY: Though an improvement over RENEGADES, ARCHENEMIES doesn't push the barriers hard enough to stand out on its own.

MY THOUGHTS:

ARCHENEMIES was simply... okay.

Literally. I'm struggling to find anything particular brilliant or terrible about this book. I didn't dislike it, per se, but it was hardly attention-grabbing. I was never desperate to sit down and read it.

I liked Nova and Adrian's characterisations better in this one. I do think Nova's constant wallowing on about wanting revenge and making friends with her enemies got old really quick, but overall, both characters had clear motivations and obstacles to their goals. I'm more onboard with their ship, but still not enough to want them to get together.

A recurring problem from RENEGADES is the dumped load of characters. This one decides not to refresh you on who anyone is, so it was struggle to remember the characters. Especially the Anarchist's Leroy (Cyanide). Like... who is this guy and what is his role? I don't even remember him from the first book.

I'm also disappointed that secret identities weren't revealed. I suspect both will be uncovered perhaps halfway, or maybe even nearer the end, of SUPERNOVA, and it will rush through tension it creates without giving it a chance to flourish. Early days to make that prediction, but a whole book would've been perfect to give the characters the chance to react and act accordingly.

Want to mention the mediocre prose, too. There was no music. No poetry.

Overall, not blown away. This was probably four stars for enjoyment, but three for technicalities.

WILL I READ ON? Yes, if only to see how everything plays out. Meyer has set up an interesting premise for SUPERNOVA, so I hope she can pull it off.

I have to start by saying how much I enjoyed Renegades. When I reviewed it last year, I thought it was a very unique and interesting story. And Marissa does such an awesome job of really bringing the reader into the story.

Admittedly, I found it a little hard to get back into this story at first. The list of Renegades and Anarchists was useful in reminding me, although I did forget a few very relevant and important details. Mostly though, I pushed on at the start because I was so excited with how the first book ended and wanted to see how it panned out.

I thought the most exciting thing about Archenemies was the ongoing internal discussions about morality and responsibility. This was a core theme of Renegades, but there are aspects of this book that really amp up the tension. It works wonders on helping readers understand Nova’s dilemma. I wasn’t entirely sure I bought her ‘my parents died because of your negligence so I will destroy you all’ stance in the last book, particularly after she infiltrated the Renegades and began to have feelings for Adrian. However, Archenemies really helped to add to her motivation in a way that I thought was very believable. And it was utterly heartbreaking, because the whole time I was on the edge of my seat wondering if this was the moment where she made her mind up and crossed a line and couldn’t change things afterwards.

I would say the pacing is a little slow and meandering for quite a large portion of it. There are a handful of chapters where there’s a lot of tension, mostly because you’re trying to figure out if a character’s secrets are about to be discovered. For the most part though, it did sag a little in the middle. But then, you get to the last few chapters and BAM there’s just so much happening and it is so tense that all of a sudden you are frantically tearing through pages wondering how the hell it could possibly end there. And yes, like Renegades this book ends on a HUUUUUUGGGEEE cliffhanger that made me want to immediately find a time turner that could somehow go forward in time so I could get a copy of the next one.

In all honesty, I don’t have too much have to say about it. I liked seeing more of the characters and how they worked alongside each other, and I simply loved how the two main characters are basically given a secret and then have to interact with each other [it makes for a great amount of tension]. However, I am still a bit confused about Nova’s motives earlier in the novel. I feel like she could totally just get away with being a Renegade and giving up her Anarchist ways. As I said though, there are some great explanations for her motives further in, so I can’t really complain too much.

One of the characters I wasn’t so keen on was Dana and how she behaves throughout Archenemies. I don’t want to post spoilers, so I won’t get into it, but I just didn’t like her all that much. Everyone else was pretty cool, and I will be really interested to see how the Anarchists function and behave with each other in the next book. Also, I really just have to say that I love seeing how each power works. Lots of them seem kind of odd or not that useful, until Marissa explains them on the page and then wow, they seem like the best thing ever.

Overall then, I’m going to give Archenemies an 8.5/10. I still prefer Renegades, but I loved loved LOVED the ending of this book so much. And now if you excuse me, I’m going to go cry in the corner until Supernova comes out.

Brilliant, this is such an entertaining and well written series. There are so many layers and thought provoking ideas. Love the different abilities and the way they enhance personalities, a lot of thought has gone into making this a rich experience.
I love Max and really want to know more about him.
A definite recommend for superhero fans everywhere!

I love the premise of the "Renegades" series and "Archenemies" is another excellent installment, to the point that I think I prefer it to the Lunar Chronicles. The entire Agent N plot is a fantastic idea and I love how morally grey both the Renegades and Anarchists seem as a result. Nova and Adrian's romance is as heartbreaking and adorable as I could hope for, though the ensemble characters are just as note-worthy of praise. And that ending! I really can't wait for the next book, so much left unanswered that is going to have devastating consequences.

Picking up where Renegades left off Archenemies is a whole lot of fun to read.

It isn't going to be for everyone as it is a lot less action packed than Renegades. Archenemies is more character driven than its predecessor which was not necessarily a bad thing but i wish there were more focus on some of the minor characters rather than solely the main characters. I still love Nova and think she was great in this book too. Archenemies also explored the renegades more and you got to see more of the operational side which i was actually really entertained by.

Every time i think we've seen every superpower known to man another one shows up so props to the Marissa Meyer for creativity.

I really liked the ethical dilemmas this book explored and i especially liked that we got to see the argument from both sides.

Despite this being a lot slower than the first book i still really enjoyed this one and will definitely continue on with this series!

The second installment in Marissa Meyer's superhero series is just as interesting as the first one.
In this book we see more of Nova and Adrien and their blossoming relationship.
The characters are very well written, though I do wish there was more of a focus on all the other relationships that Nova has, instead of just her and Adrien.

This book sets up the plot nicely for the third one, I cannot wait to read that!

I really liked the book. It was enjoyable and sweet, and hit the same beats as book one. Somehow it just didn't quite hit the spot for me. I really like Nova and Adrian. And the slow burn romance was good. There were also some decent action scenes. However I didn't feel as fully invested as I expected to be. I'm sure this is me comparing it subconsciously to the Lunar Chronicles and refusing to admit that I might just have grown out of this style of YA novel. Still a good book and I expect it would resonate more with someone who fell more firmly into the target audience.