Review: I wish there was another 100 pages
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2012
Overall:  This book reminds me so much of the Animorph series I loved as a child.  Both have "aliens" (I say aliens but I'm not quite sure what these things are) impersonating high school kids and family members so well that no one can tell the difference.  I'm assuming that the plan is to take over the world - like Pinky and the Brain.  The doppelgangers hit one small snag in their brilliant plan, a girl with a very odd name, Citrus.  She's practically a loser in her high school and I thought it was hilarious that it takes something as strange as aliens for the popular boy to finally notice her.This is a book that doesn't fit into any one genre.  I think it has the potential to attract fans of many genres.  The narrative is aimed for the lower end of YA and innocent enough for MG students to read, but probably too innocent for adult romance fans to enjoy.  Overall, I wish more things were resolved and explained in this book, but it is an interesting series and I'm hoping future books do explain.Characters:  I thought at times that the cast was too large.  I'm not quite sure what the point was of involving adults like Citrus's mother into the equation.  Very little of the plot changed by involving this other group of characters and there was less room for development of the important characters.  I'm not huge on romances, but I enjoyed the chemistry between Citrus and Aeden.  Citrus was fairly immature and self-centered as a character (although I found myself laughing at her quite a bit), but Aeden was an all-around cool guy.  I didn't quite get why Citrus was so determined to hunt down the "real" Melissa when the two girls were never friends.  Personally, I would have left the chick to the crazy aliens...but maybe that's just me.  I think Melissa was my favorite character of the bunch.  She had such an in-your-face personality and was constantly at odds with Citrus, which made life even more difficult for Citrus.Plot:  Citrus overslept.  Citrus finds out she has a doppelganger.  Citrus doesn't know what to do next.  For much of the story, Citrus is reacting to the problem.  She isn't being proactive about any decision made.  I do like the twist revealed about halfway through the book.  Looking back there were so many clues leading up to it and I missed every single one.  Well played.Ending:  The action really gets intense about 80 or 90% into the book - and it ends on a cliffhanger.  I would be more pissed off it I didn't know that a sequel is already in the works.  I have high expectations for book two.  As I said before, this story really reminds me of Animorphs and it took K.A. Applegate about a few dozen books to make any progress in her plot - so I can handle one or two more with this one.  I do think that Citrus grew emotionally from the first page to the last.  She seemed less focused on her own problems and more on the wide-scale problem of these doppelgangers taking over.This is a great book for those who love and remembered the Animorphs.*I received a copy of this book from a book tour in exchange for a review.