Review: Sever (Chemical Garden #3) by Lauren DeStefano (September Sequels Challenge #4) #TackleTBR Read-a-thon Final Update

I won this book a while back, but again, it was before I started marking the books so I could remember when I reviewed them where they came from. So whoever I got this from, thanks!!  It has been 2 years though since I read the 2nd book in the series, Fever, so of course I was a little bit behind when I first picked it up with trying to remember everything.  I really feel that this book did answer a lot of the questions from both the 2nd book, as well as the first one, Wither.  But, I think I can see many ways that I like for some books to be added to the series.  I think one from the aspect of Rhine's brother Rowan would be really great to read. To see his take on Vaughn.  As well as a prequel, following their parents, which would also include Vaughn.  Here is my summary, with spoilers unfortunately for anyone who hasn't read the first two books.

We begin with Rhine in the hospital, recovering from being experimented on in Vaughn's basement.  Linden and Cecily are there with her.  They have sworn to find her somewhere else to go besides back to the mansion.  And this ends up being at Linden's uncle Reed's house.  Reed is an interesting character.  Quite the tinkerer, constantly building and working on things.  He is no longer allowed on Vaughn's property, even though it was once his home as well.  Reed seems to click with Rhine, partly because, as with Linden, she reminds him of Rose, the first wife.  Cecily ends up going back to the mansion with Linden and their son Bowen.  Linden asks Rhine to wait in her search for her brother.  To heal, and to let him come up with things to help her on her way.  But during the time she's waiting, tragedy strikes Cecily, and this tragedy makes Cecily no longer trust Vaughn, and she has her family now move out to Reed's place as well.  Where Reed promises to protect them from Vaughn.  When Rhine is ready to go, before her brother can blow up another clinic, she hears on the radio that he thinks she is dead.  This leads to talking to the person who did the report on the radio, causing Rhine to know she must find Rowan right away.  There are more pitfalls along the way, Vaughn puts out a missing person report for Linden and Cecily, getting all three of them caught on their search.  And who they end up with, well, it will bring back nightmares for Rhine, but in the end, it may be for their best interest.  More things are learned about Rose, and yes, Rhine does get to her brother, only to find out he may have signed a deal with the devil, even if it was for the good of the cure.

Lots, and lots of answers given in this book.  The world outside of where they've lived?  Much different than thought.  History books, possibly re-written before Rhine and her generation read them.  A good ending, although as I said at the beginning, I really wish there could be a companion and a prequel.  

Unfortunately I didn't do so well on this Read-a-thon.  My goals were to read 4 books, and while I ended up reading 3/4, only one of those was on my predicted list:  Asunder.  Sever is the 3rd one, and Unravel Me was the 2nd.  These 2 weeks just didn't quite go the way I planned.  I'll just have to work to do better next year if I participate again.

Book Beginning: Sever (Chemical Garden Trilogy #3) by Lauren DeStefano

This is a meme I've seen others do, but haven't tried myself yet.  So I'm going to join Rose City Reader this Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book I am reading, along with my initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. It is to include the title of the book and the author's name.

"In the atlas the river still flows.  The thin line of it carries cargo to a destination that no longer exists.  We share a name, the river and I; if there's a reason for this, it died with my parents."

I think this sentence has a lot of foreshadowing for the story, as well as giving some more background from the past books.  From the point in the book where I am currently reading, we see that this river may or may not really be gone now.  We are left wondering how much of the history has been changed by the men in charge of this society, and how much of the world may really still be out there.

How did the book you're currently reading begin?  What do you take from the beginning of my book?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Internment Chronicles: Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting. This week I've chosen a book that I know a lot of other blogs posted as soon as the cover was released, and so I may be a bit behind.  But it is by an author that I just adore, Lauren DeStefano, author of The Chemical Garden series, which includes Wither, Fever, and Sever, the last one I still need to read.  I follow the author on Facebook and Twitter, and have been seeing all her little posts of bits of the new series, and so have been very intrigued to see how it would turn out.  So, here is the blurb for the first book in The Internment Chronicles:  Perfect Ruin:

On Internment, the floating island in the clouds where 16-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives, getting too close to the edge can lead to madness. Even though Morgan's older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. She tries her best not to mind that her life is orderly and boring, and if she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in best friend Pen and her betrothed, Basil.

Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially when she meets Judas. He is the boy being blamed for the murder — betrothed to the victim — but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find — or who she will lose.

Sounds intriguing to me!  What do you think?  What book are you eagerly anticipating this week?  And while you're here, make sure you go sign up to win a $10 gift card on my stop in the Freedom to Read Hop, or one of the book on my stop on the Reading Road Trip.

Delirium Stories: Hana, Annabel, and Raven by Lauren Oliver

A lot of times the little 1.5 or 2.5 stories that authors make available are only in ebook format.  I'd assume these originally were as well, but I was excited to see they were all put together into one actual paper book.  I bought this with the Amazon gift card that I won from The Reader's Den.  And I'm glad to say it was definitely a good way to spend part of that prize!  I also often feel that the little in between stories are a waste of time, and while $1.99 or whatever the small price they cost seems fair, on occasions I am left feeling like I wasted that money.  As much as I love the Wither series by Lauren DeStefano, the short novella, Seeds of Wither, was actually kind of a disappointment.  There really wasn't that much new in it.  All three of the stories in this book though were 5 star stories in my opinion.  And so I'll review them each on their own.

Hana - This is the story of Lena's best friend from the first book, Delirium, it is considered 1.5 in the series, although it's not really in between the first and second books, just during the first one.  But I love hearing about their friendship from Hana's side.  To see things from her perspective really opens up the story.  Even makes me want to go back and re-read the first book to fit in my new thoughts as I read the story.  Whereas in Delirium, I actually didn't really like Hana.  Without this story it was hard to understand her.  This story really makes you like her, or it did me.  You even feel sorry for her and hope things could be better for her.

Annabel - Now we get to meet Lena's mother and what led up to her being put in the prison cell.  It is 0.5 in the series.  Learning how her "delirium" actually even worked when she got her "matches" so that she was able to marry the man she loved, even if he would never be able to actually love her like she loved him.  We learn about what her sister, Lena's aunt was like as she grew up.  Again, another emotional story that really added to the story.  Not just a little, but so much to learn about the world before, where all this began.  A great beginning to the series.  Although I think it is good to have read it after reading the actual stories, to make it all more emotional.

Raven - The 3rd and final short story, counts as 2.5 in the series.  Now of course, it does go back a little, and kind of meets up with the 2nd book, Pandemonium, but it also ties in to the end and I believe leads us up to read book 3, although I haven't read it yet!  I can't wait to read it, but no money, and since I have so many other things to read, it's on the list for maybe a library check out this summer.  I don't remember a ton about Raven from the 2nd book, but again, this story really helped to meet her and get to know her.  I do remember Blue from the 2nd book, and so reading about her and Raven was really emotional.  Just another viewpoint that gave so much more information about the story, a whole other aspect of a character.  And not just "extra" but more to the story.

If you're going to pick short novellas to spend the money on, these are definitely worth it.  All 3 of them.  I wouldn't leave any of them out.  If only all novellas had this much.  Really the only one I can remember that I felt had this much to it was in The Goddess Test series by Aimee Carter.  I'll keep trying them though!

Desperately Wanting Wednesday (1): Books that give me evil thoughts!

Saw this on A Soul Unsung's blog and it is so much what I've been feeling with all my jealousy about the Insurgent ARC's that I thought I'd join in this week!  This was created by Parajunkee so that we don't only have to talk about upcoming releases, but can also talk about books that we've missed, have already been released, or that you want and haven't purchased yet.  So here is my list, a few anyway.

Books that give me evil/illegal thoughts:

Well, I have to start with Insurgent.  I got an ARC of Divergent at the bookstore where I worked I think, and so I'm kind of sad I didn't get the ARC of Insurgent as well.  I really wish I could get all the ARCs in a series if I get to start the series out that way.  Especially when I really LOVED the series!  So, I am overcoming my evil thoughts or my jealousy in that a couple of the people who did get them for these really cool contests, are also doing giveaways for the ARCs.  So I'm trying that way.  :-)  In fact, to show how NOT jealous I am, here are some links to the different factions:

The Divergent Lexicon is leading Team Amity
Divergent Fans are leading Team Dauntless
The Divergent Examiner is Team Abegnation
The Story Siren is Team Candor
Bookalicious is Team Erudite

Because we're talking about books that could be older ones, I was sooooo jealous of anyone who got a Fever ARC.  Since I also got the ARC for Wither, I wanted to keep reading that series in all ARCs too.  I loved Wither, and so am again disappionted I didn't get an ARC.  However Fever wasn't AS good as Wither, it was good, and I kind of would like the matching set of ARCs. 

And another one that I got as an ARC for the first book, but not the 2nd, was Crossed.  I loved Matched.  In fact my ARC of Matched didn't even have a picture on it, so I don't even have the pretty cover of the published book.  But I still wanted a matching set.  Again, Crossed was not as good as Matched, but like Fever, it carried the story on just right.






So, there are others, but I'm going to end this post for now.  What books give you evil thoughts?

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I waited so long to read this from when I got to read the first book in the series, Wither. I wished really bad I'd get an ARC of it since I'd gotten to read Wither as an ARC. But it didn't happen, so I had to check the book out from the store where I work. I gave Wither 5 stars I loved it so much, and this was really good, but had some of the same issues that a lot of 2nd books in a series seem to have. I was a little surprised they that Rhine and Gabriel ran into a trap so soon, but I guess I'd have realized that if I'd read the summary on Goodreads. :-) But it made sense because that is where they met "Lilac" and her daughter Maddie. It is also where we got the idea that their former housemaster, Vaughn, Linden's father, had more secrets than we had even begun to find out in Wither. At first when Rhine started feeling sick, I wondered, was she finally pregnant? It doesn't really ever say that she and Gabriel go that far. But I was a little confused. Then, when you figure out what Vaughn may have done, it all begins to make sense. I knew that the whole situation with Linden couldn't be finished yet, it just wasn't completely tied up, and this is how we get back to begin to deal with it. I was so anxious for Rhine to find her brother as well. And I'm glad we do finally get some satisfaction on whether he's still alive at the end. I'm almost wondering though, if we still have more to learn about their scientist parents, and if they were as good as a child remembers their parent to be.
So now I'm eagerly awaiting the 3rd book! It would be so awesome to get an ARC of that, but not holding my breath, so at least this time I'll be waiting the same amount of time as everyone else who has to wait till the book is actually published. In conclusion, I liked the book, and am still hooked on the story!
This book will go on my "C" for the A-Z Reading Challenge, for being part of the Chemical Garden series.

View all my reviews

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (1)

It's Monday!  What are you reading? is a weekly event hosted by Book Journey where we share what we read last week, what we hope to read this week, and anything in between.  I first learned about this from Lost in Literature. 

Read last week:

Blood Rose by Andrea Cremer.  Check out my review here.

What I'm currently reading:

Transcendence by C.J. Omololu

I also pulled out of my car to read some more:  Revenge (Ghost Whisperer series) by Doranna Durgin.
What I'm hoping to start reading next:

I have a copy of Fever by Lauren DeStefano checked out from the store where I work to read next!

Waiting on Wednesday - Fever (Chemical Garden Trilogy #2) by Lauren DeStefano

Waiting on Wednesday is sponsored by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.

I haven't done this in awhile because I felt I'd pretty much listed all the books I'd really been waiting on. But, au contraire, mon frere. It's just that a lot of the books I'm not waiting on will not be published for another year because I read the first one in the series before they were published, so they've just been published and now I'm waiting. In fact, this book I'm choosing today will not come out till 2012. And at the moment I haven't found a cover for it, it is supposed to be revealed sometime this month.

Fever is the 2nd in the Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano. It is the sequel to Wither, one of the latest dystopian teen novels I enjoyed reading this past year. Wither is currently on my Staff recommendation table at the bookstore where I work. In this story, because humans have figured out how to live long lives, now their children die young, girls at the age of 20, boys at the age of 25. So young girls are kidnapped to be sold to rich men to have their babies. It is even possible for these rich men to basically have harems of wives. Other young girls are sold to research lab so they can try to figure out how to solve this problem.

Rhine is our main character, and she had been kidnapped away from her twin brother and forced to marry Linden to have his babies. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the first one yet. But needless to say we left off at a cliffhanger and I want to know where it goes next!