Wither by Lauren DeStefano

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek 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 sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet 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 has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. 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?

Out Now!

Initial thoughts; OMG THAT COVER IS SO PRETTY! (Fever is beautiful too!)

I first saw this book while surfing the waterstones world of books online, and to be fair it didnt tickle my fancy. Obviously the screen was too small to appreciate the books cover, and how amazingly well it ties in with the novel. The blurb is also built to entice.

Initial problems with the book; why in EVERY dystopian i read is it America...America...America. Please give me a good reason why every time something bad happens, America survives? Why not Europe or Asia? also if only a portion of America remained how can they be industialised, where are crops grown and so forth. Moving on from this the story is very pretty, poetic even.

Rhine's world is always changing, and now she is a bride to a man she doesn't love, but who adores her. Rhine is abviously a likable person becoming friends with Rose (the first wife who dies) and Jenna, another wife who was picked. DeStefano portrays all of Rhines misgivings and thoughts into her writing and clearly give the reader a real sense of how Rhine negotiates her way around the house and Lindens world.

Each character was built up that they would be remembered and even as the book goes on you wonder.. what happened to XXX? DeStefano also makes sure that the romantic element was constructively given a back seat in this novel without ever disappearing. You were left with two possible loves, Rhine and Linden or Rhine and Gabriel, which is so creatively done you feel that she could live happily with either.

DeStefano also makes sure it is not lost on the reader that Rhine knows she is dying and that all she wants is freedom, but  Hey, her father-in-law has other ideas.

This book left me with the feeling that freedom is very important to Rhine and that while she could live happily with Linden she wouldn't actually be happy.

P.S. Im team Linden, he's so much cuter than Gabriel!!!

Talia xx

Competition Time ;o! (UK ONLY)

So yes I have decided to host a competition!

The book you can win is ~ Allison Rushby's wonderful "Shooting Stars".

I just have to warn you, it has been read, but otherwise is in good condition.

So what do you have to do?

It's really simple.

1. You have to be a follower of the blog.

2. You have to leave a comment here with a random number between 1 and 150 (whole numbers please!) and a way of contacting you (twitter, email etc)

I retain the liberty to cancel the competition if fewer than 20 people.

Winner will be picked from a random draw.

If two people pick the same number, I will email back the second person to let them choose a new number.

You must be a resident, living in the UK.

Competition closes 4th June at midnight.

Sorry about the long opening, i have exams!

Edited  15th May 2012

Vampire Academy (Series) by Richelle Mead

St. Vladimir's Academy isn't just any boarding school it's a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They've been on the run, but now they're being dragged back to St. Vladimir's the very place where they're most in danger. . . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy's ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi the world's fiercest and most dangerous vampires make Lissa one of them forever.

Published by Penguin Books

For starters this book is XXX times better than Twilight.

Richelle Mean brings a new and exciting idea into the world of vampires. That there is 2 races and a mixed race, Moroi/Strigoi/Dhampir. It was interested getting to know the different types and how they all differed in strength, power and magic.

Rose is our protagonist and was saved by Lissa durning a crash that killed all of Lissa's family. Rose has her own problems, she doesn't know her Dad, hardly see's her Mum and is on a one way road to be kicked out of the Academy.

We have  a typical love triangle that is effectivly dealt with by Mead over the 6 books and it is enjoyable to see how they continuosly flow form one book to another. I have to admit Rose and Dimitri are one of my all-time favourite couples. The way that they have obvious chemistry and are inseperable even in the toughesdt of decisions is made, that even Lissa is able to support their relationship which is forbidden.

Vampire Academy introduces a host of characters that are all given enough depth for the reader to sympathise their situation and cry with joy when they are reunited or something good happens to them.

It was great to find out that Mead has introduced a 'sister' series following the alchemists and Adrian, who i felt deserved more than just ending with him heartbroken.

Mead has effectively made a world that the reader is drawn into and to be honest doesn't want to leave!

Talia x