Author: Lauren DeStefano
Format: Paperback
Pages: 358
Rating: 8 out of 10
Summary (via Goodreads): By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?
My Thoughts: I was originally told that this was an awful book but, for some strange reason, I felt that I needed to read it anyway. I went against what this person told me and bought the book. This was partly because Kristen wouldn't let me leave the store without a book and partly because I hate waited so long to read this book that it was just time to buy it. I wasn't disappointing with my choice. I'm so glad that I did it.
This novel jumps right into the action. It doesn't throw the reader so far into the story that the reader cannot catch up with what is going on. Everything was explained clearly, thank goodness!
I found myself caring deeply for Rhine. Whenever she made a choice to do or not do something, I was freaking out! Then I had this massively inner turmoil whenever it came to Linden and/or Gabriel. I couldn't choose what I wanted. I didn't understand how she could know. I had to remind myself that I was not her. I'm not sure how I ever got myself confused that I was since I would have given up for sure but Rhine never did.
I also found that this book was really good for using a variety of words. There wasn't the same word over and over. That drives me nuts!
Final Thoughts: I would recommend this novel to anybody who likes YA romance or dystopian. I found that I could figure things out in advance so if that bothers you, beware. Don't worry, there are still some surprises! Check this book out and let me know what you think!
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