Yes, I read it sometime last year. I gave it four stars on Goodreads, and it's a YA I consistently say to be one of the better ones. I don't really write reviews on anything, but I think I remember enough to give you a decent amount of insight into why I think it's good. I'll just list some elements of it, and tell you what I liked, so the post is sure to be a bit lengthy.
I know this post is coming a bit late, so you may have read the book already, but maybe just for future reference this could be of some use.
Love Square (yes, square): I generally despise love triangles because they're generally poorly executed and unnecessary. In this case, she's thrown in another person, so it should be nightmare fuel, but surprisingly I actually thought it worked out pretty well. Whilst the people they are attracted to is predictable (which is true of real life too), the way it ties into the plot is well done. Particularly with Elias. His affection for his childhood friend Helene is great, because they share a fundamental difference in ideology, and I won't spoil it, but the way the plot goes forward, has consequences for their relationship on more than one occasion, whilst seamlessly highlighting the issues of the society they live in. On Laia's side, I think it was a bit more of the typical YA romance, mainly because it seemed forced to me. She falls for some guy in the resistance, and I can't really recall why, nor do I remember finding it as compelling. Laia and Elias's relationship was kind of interesting because they come from opposing backgrounds. For him, you could say that Helene represents the Empire, and Laia represents freedom, which is a running theme in the book. That's not something I got as much from Laia, because whether she chose Elias or the other guy, the result didn't seem as drastic, probably because they're both rebels.
Dual POV: She alternates between POVs with each chapter. Laia, Elias, Laia, Elias. So it's got a fixed structure. So you don't have to wait too long between cliffhanger chapters to find out what happened.
'Trials' Plotline: She made it work, and she made it actually quite interesting. I don't recall which trial it is, but whichever one that puts them in the sandstorm is my favourite one, and I loved reading it. Sabaa Tahir done some stuff in that scene a lot of writers for some reason wouldn't do, and it made her book much stronger. Again, an aspect of YA stories I typically don't like, because it's so standard now, but I think she made it refreshing with her approach to it. Not extraordinarily so, not to the point of subverting the trope completely, but enough for me to be fine with it.
First Instalment: Probably of a trilogy if we go by the average YA series structure. If so, I will say that this is one of the few YA books that I would call 'fulfilling'. It's one of those books that has a mostly complete story arc, with some dangling plot threads for future stories. The way I describe it is that the story lives up to its title, unlike books which have a title but the book has nothing to do with it, usually because the book has no real arc to it. I'm looking forward to the next book at least, so that's saying something.
You could have wildly different views on it, but I don't know many people (particularly males) who read YA, or specifically the books I have, so it would be interesting to see what you think about it.
