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.

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Book Blogger Hop #11 and Follow Friday #8

Wow, the past week has been really busy, haven't had time to blog. I hate that! And, kind of busy today and tomorrow. Today my sister leaves to move to New York. Sad, I'll miss her, but kind of exciting because it's something she's always wanted to do, and I can't wait to go visit her! Then tomorrrow, well, I'm thinking of getting a new puppy. I still have my dachshund that you can see an image of on the top of my blog, but she's getting older, and everyone seems to think a puppy will kind of give her a little bit of life back. I'm just worried about her being jealous or sad. But I think I'm going to try it. But I decided to go ahead and jump into my normal Friday hops to get back in and meet some new people. I'm guessing a new puppy will also take away from blogging time, as well as school starting again in a couple weeks, but I'm dedicated to this blog, so I'll do my best to not let it. Let's get on with Book Blogger Hop.

Book Blogger Hop is a place for readers and bloggers to connect over the weekend and chat about books. It is sponsored by Crazy for Books. This week's question is:
What is the one ARC you would love to get your hands on right now?
This is hard because there are so many. But I think there are 3 main ones, Fever, the sequel to Wither by Lauren DeStefano; Crossed, the sequel to Matched by Ally Condie; and The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. The first two are books that I read as ARCs in the first place. And so when you do that, (and LOVE them), you have to wait even longer for the sequels to come out because you read them early in the first place. And those two books were so awesome, I just can't wait to read on! The third, well, I love Maureen Johnson, and I've been hearing about this book for so long that I just can't wait to read it either!

And now for Follow Friday.

This is hosted by two blogs, Parajunkee.com and Alisoncanread.com. This week's question is:

Talk about the book that most changed or influenced your life (was it a book that turned you from an average to avid reader, did it help you deal with a particularly difficult sitation, does it bring you comfort every time you read it?).

I choose to talk about Twilight. I had been reading YA books for awhile, few and far between, mostly to read my state's award nominees so I could help promote them to my students. This was suggested to me by my librarian at the time. And when I picked it up, I was sucked in, couldn't put it down. Had to get New Moon the very next day because I'd swept through it so quick. And at the time, New Moon was only available in hardcover, so I gave my copy of the paperback to someone else and bought Twilight in hardcover as well. And that was it. I was sucked back into the world of teen books, in my 30's. I also love these books because I feel that they also really connected me and my sister who I mentioned at the beginning of this blog that is moving to New York. We'd become friends since she'd graduated college and come back home, but even though for her, it took seeing the first movie to really get her reading and sucked in, this series really connected us. We both can read them over and over, and our love of them lead us to both get tattoos based on the books, my first tattoo. And now, it may be the first excuse to get me to save money and go visit her in New York, as I'm planning to go visit her the week Breaking Dawn part 1 comes out, since we have been to all the midnight premieres together, but I'll have to go there, because she probably can't come home that week before Thanksgiving, and then come home again for Thanksgiving.

Those are my answers. Can't wait to hop over to other people's blogs and check our their answers as well.

2011 Debut Author Challenge 12: Dark Parties by Sara Grant

Dark Parties by Sara Grant

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The main character of this book is Neva, and she is 16. She has lived her whole life under the Protectosphere, and feels like she is trapped. Part of the feeling comes from what her grandmother used to tell her, at least before her grandmother disappeared, and even her parents acted like her grandmother never existed. Supposedly their was nuclear war outside of this dome, and so by staying inside they are protected from the wastelands and chemicals. But to Neva and her friends, it is like a prison. So Neva and her friend Sanna plan a "dark party" to recruit their friends to do some rebellious stuff. But through this more people will disappear, and they will soon learn where their loyalties are, and if they government is really lying, and if they are, what they will do to keep their secrets and order.

I did enjoy this book, it is another in what seems to be a growing list of dystopian novels that I'm reading lately. It had some of the same elements as several that I've read though. First it had what I would call a dome called a Protectosphere over this city, state, country, not sure from the book itself, and that made me think of the Goneseries by Michael Grant. Next there were issues with reproduction it seems, or not issues exactly, but the government was trying to control it, and that reminded me of several books: Wither, XVI, and a little bit of Delirium. I liked the name of the book, although it seemed that the only mention of "dark parties" was at the very beginning of the book, and then we never really saw anything like that again. There were several things left unanswered, but as I assume from the way it ends that there will be a sequel, really has to be, hopefully those will be answered. I will read on as I said if there is another. And it is a good quick read if you like dystopian novels. I read this as an egalley from Hachette Book Group that I got on Netgalley.com.



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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!

Top 10 Tuesday: Books You Want Made Into Movies

I know, I know, it's Wednesday. But when I was scrolling through my blog reading list this morning, I saw this meme on other's and thought it was such a neat topic that I'd join in this week and now have something to do on Tuesdays as well. This is sponsored by The Broke and the Bookish, and I look forward to participating in this because I enjoy lists as well. Now I thought this would be fun, so let's see if I can come up with 10 books!

1. In the Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I love this series, and since zombie movies really seem to need a good storyline anymore, I think this would be a great one to start with. And then the two sequels could make for a series of movies.

2. The Gone series by Michael Grant. I love this story about a bunch of kids left alone when all the adults, or people over a certain age just disappear. There are some great monsters and scary parts that could really draw in people.

3. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Yes, I know they already made a movie. But I'd like them to re-do it, making it more true to the book so that they can go on and make the rest of the books into movies as well.

4. Another series I'd love to see re-done that they messed up on the very first book is Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. That movie was so bad, they even had the mother killed at the end of the movie, thereby screwing up any chance of making the rest of the books into movies.

5. I also think the Suite Scarlett series by Maureen Johnson could make for a very humorous movie. Especially if they let the author help out around the set and with the script writing!

6. Delirium by Lauren Oliver. In my love of dystopian books lately, I think this would be a great movie. There are so many scenes that would be so dramatic in a theater.

7. Another dystopian book I've really enjoyed lately is Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I can see as this is supposed to be a series, it might even make for a good tv series.

8. I do think the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer would make for a great movie, or again I could see them as a tv series. On the WB or UPN. :-)

9. I think that after Julie and Julia was such a hit, and Eat, Pray, Love too, that another memoir that would be fun would be The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. It would be so fun to see her travel to all the different Little House on the Prairie locations and the story was so entertaining it wouldn't even have to be a documentary, it could be done as a fun movie like the two I mentioned at the beginning of this.

10. Finally, wow, there are so many that I love, trying to find one more that I think would make a good movie. I think the book Deadly by Julie Chibbaro would be an intersting historical fiction movie about Typhoid Mary. I would go see it.

Wow, I did it!

2011 Debut Author Challenge 4: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

The funny thing about this book is that I had received an ARC several months ago I think, but it got put under some other books, I forgot about it, and actually picked up another ARC at the bookstore the other day and brought it home. It wasn't until I was up in my office/2nd bedroom trying to weed out some books to see if I can get any money for them that I found it. But, anyway, on with the review.

This is another dystopian setting book. Thanks to genetic engineering, every human born after a certain generation now only lives to a certain age, males 25, females 20. In order to keep the population from dying out, girls are kidnapped and sold into polygamous marriages. Our main character is 16 year old Rhine. She ends up with two other sister wives, Jenna who is 19, and Cecily who is 14 I think. Rhine first meets the original wife, Rose, when she gets to the house. She grows close to Rose, and learns that the man she is now married to, Linden, was in love with her. And when she dies, he turns to Rhine as the "first wife." Rhine puts Linden off in consumating the marriage. But Cecily, the youngest wife, gets pregnant right away. She comes from an orphanage, so this beautiful big house with servants to wait on her hand and foot is like a dream for her. Jenna, who must have been a prostitute before she was captured, also gives in. There is a servant named Gabriel that Rhine meets and takes an interest in when she first gets to the house. Rhine is okay with being first wife, it means she gets more priveleges and may be able to figure her way to escape.

As I read the story, you see that Linden isn't actually the bad guy. It is his father, one of the first generation that is older, but able to live a long time thanks to genetic engineering. I almost felt like if I was Rhine, I would have just stayed. Linden did love her. and he was a pretty nice guy, and attractive, and it was a beautiful house. But, all the things going on in the basement or that his father was up to were scary to think about. And I think this is going to be a trilogy. With where the book ends, I'm not sure what will come next. Will we follow Rhine? Or will we stay with another sister wife? Or will we meet another girl in a similar situation. Or, will we follow Rhine's twin brother after Rhine disappears. It'll be interesting to see where it goes next.

This wasn't originally on my list for the Debut Author Challenge http://www.thestorysiren.com/2010/11/2011-debut-author-challenge.html, but it fits in so I'm using it.