Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
Genre:  Dystopia, Romance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 356
Rating:
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Summary:

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

Review: This book grabbed me within an INSTANT and never let go. Rhine’s story is so heartbreaking and beautiful. And she’s so… vibrant! I can’t imagine being in her situation, but she never gives up. I loved watching how her feelings and emotions towards different characters slowly grow and develop over the course of the book.

Even though I didn’t really like who she ended up with. It seemed a little… strange.

This book is CERTAINLY for older ages. As you can tell from the “keep the population from dying out” line in the summary, there is quite a lot of sexual activity in this book and talk of prostitution. These teens are having to go through way more than they should have at their age. They act like adults. One of Rhine’s sister-wives is only 13 years old. Very sad.

All in all, though, a FABULOUS dystopian. I loved it, and I cannot wait for the next in the series.

Ooh, one last thing:

IT DOESN’T END IN A CLIFFHANGER! *Happy Dance*

The ending was very satisfying(except for my previous complaint of where Rhine ended up), but left enough things unresolved that I will pine for the sequel until it’s release.

Fabulous.



*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.