Review: Wither ARC by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Hardcover: 368 pages
Reading Level: Young Adult
My Copy: Book it Forward Tours
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 wicked hearts

Blurb from Book it Forward Tours:

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 limited time she has left.

My quick wicked thoughts...A novel that makes you believe that you have the ability to change your situation even in the most dire of circumstances.  It is a great start to the trilogy.

Why I was tempted to read this...Well the cover caught my attention initially and by the time I got it, I don't think i remembered what it was about...and I was pretty far off from what I was thinking in my mind..but that's not a bad thing.

Cover thoughts...It's amazing...makes sense in the story line once you get into the book.

Romance meter...Oh the forbidden love is present but refreshingly not really a love triangle since Rhine never really wanted to be with Linden.  I ended up liking Linden more than I originally thought I would.

Characters and plot...Rhine is a strong character with a love of family that is going along with things she cannot change until she gets a chance to change them.  This is not a light and fun read...it is gritty and heartbreaking.  The characters change and grow in this book and ones you thought you were sure about end up not quite being what you thought...and this keeps you interested and flipping pages.  Rhine is trying to figure a way about before she runs out of time and also figure out what is going on down the basement that Linden's father is always working on. 

The ending...The ending was good...with some closure on certain things but many other things unanswered so I really look forward to the next book in the series.