Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; 1 edition (March 22, 2011)
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 limited time she has left
Hmmm...How to start this one? I didn't LOVE this one but I sure liked it a whole lot! I wasn't sure going in if I was going to like this one or not, I have watched sister wives on tv and can't stand the show so going into this book I was a little on the fence. I have to say thought I did like it. I really liked Rhine, I can't imagine at 16 being in her situation and handling it like she did. I also liked the sister wives, the dynamic between the girls really impressed me. I also admire Rhine's almost unwavering devotion to getting back home, now I say almost because there were times where I thought she might just accept where she was. Aside from her sister wives she did manage to make some other "friends" I guess they could be called, Gabriel I think was the only thing that kept her sane through most of this book, having someone to be able to talk to and be herself with kept her going, the looks into the kitchen we got made me smile. Now we come to Linden...I felt for Linden, he didn't seem to know how horrible his father really was and seemed to be as much a prisoner as the girls. I also feel that his affection for them was genuine. Watching Rhine go through this marriage with Linden I can't help but feel that towards the end maybe just maybe she felt something too. I am looking forward to the next book I want to see where this is going to go, and to be totally honest I hope to see Linden again (give me a sign and a shirt cause I'm signing up for team Linden). I also can't help but feel that all of the attention brought to her condition of duel colored eyes is going to play an important role later in this series. I think I'm going to have to give this one 4 stars!
I think you and I are in the minority at the moment--we'd both like to see Linden again. I think there's more there that we're not privy to yet. His father scares the crap out of me though, lol!
ReplyDeleteI also want there to be more about the eye color.
I really enjoyed reading your review. I'll tell you--the first time I heard about Wither, the "sister wives" concept got to me as well!
I gave it four stars, too ... I liked it well enough, but it just felt as though something were missing. I also want to see Linden again; he's really clueless in this first book.
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